JAWing On – Life on Okinawa

Sometimes things can eat at you until the right connection and words come to mind. As I watch and learn more about people’s actions in general, I have to wonder if fame and/or fortune have become the “drugs” of this society. I saw what addictions can do to people in the ’80s. Some of the behaviors of people in search of more and more money seem to be very similar. “Addicts” are willing to do just about anything to get that next fix – lie, beg, and steal among a few. They don’t care who the victim is as long as the end justifies the means. Do the pressures of trying to be “better” than everyone else, and thereby achieving fame and recognition, lead some people to these behaviors? Or are the behaviors a manifestation of these people’s own characters, or possibly brains? I do know that the pleasure mechanisms of the brain are still not completely understood by experts. I can’t help wonder if these people get some perverse pleasure in enacting the behaviors? Are the messages to be “someone” in this world you have to be esthetically and materially “ahead of the Jones” creating a society of a new type of addict?

Pets, sometimes they are just so amazing! A long time ago we realized that our pets understand certain words. They would be in a complete different room when we would hear their response to statement we were making. A few months ago, I was watching a TV show that claimed dogs can “understand” up to two hundred words. We weren’t surprised. So like a parent who wants what is being said to be kept secret from prying ears, we started spelling the words. Well today, one of our dogs has figured-out what the spelled word is and responded to it. Now we are reduced to lipping and softly whispering certain phrases. What next?

Anyone who has lived on Okinawa for a while knows there is an incessant amount of crawly critters that call the island home. The most irritating of these is the gokiburi, more commonly known as a cockroach. It is as if the ever-present crawlers are everywhere all the time. This year we have had an unusually large amount of big tropical cyclone systems. I don’t know if anyone else over here has noticed, but cockroaches don’t seem to do very well in water. With all of the rain that the typhoons have brought, there appears to be a lack of cockroaches crawling around. As they say, the good comes with the bad.

As Mike points out in his comment to the Really!!!© Pet Peeve of the Week #14, “Funny how things never change in Okinawa….” I don’t know exactly when he was on Okinawa, but he’s absolutely correct. The only things that change much are the roads and the width of the island, due to constant construction. Over the past thirty years, there has been a large amount of construction. Much of the it involves man-made beaches up North and new residential areas in the center of the island. As for the rest of life on Okinawa, it is similar to being in a bubble at times. It is a good place to come if you are interested in history and/or water activities. I don’t know what Mike’s hobbies are, but the main form of socializing is still eating and drinking which is mainly done at some sort of izakaya.

Well, here we go again. The very relaxing week vacation is over. Just as we were finally able to get our entire yard trimmed and all the debris cleaned-up, another typhoon is on its way. The poor event organizers are really having a rough time of it this year. It seems as if every tropical cyclone system is bound and determined to visit on Sundays and/or Mondays. The only time it’s fun to have typhoons this frequent is when you are a student and able to get out of the daily rigmarole of classes. Otherwise, all typhoons do for one is push the workload into a compressed time period. Then you are stuck playing catch-up and clean-up. On the bright side, we are being provided another opportunity for getting our weekly work-out in nature’s sauna box!

It always amazes me how some people get so caught up in hype. You know, the people who are so easily swayed by image, who buy into the fame game, fanatics or more commonly called “fans”. It’s not that I don’t think that persons of accomplishment are due their just respect. Oh contraire, if it weren’t for the people who strive to make advances in our world we would be stuck back in the caves. However, I feel that it all should be kept in perspective. If I were in need of advice on acting, for example, then I would go to the Actor’s Studio and judiciously focus on every spoken word of the experts in the field. However, I don’t feel that the expertise in one field extends to all aspects of life. In other words, I wouldn’t go to the same facility to gain information on the best way to dispose of a community’s public waste. For that I would go to the experts in the field, the seasoned “trash man”. And it is true that there are some people in our world that are blessed with the potential to excel at any endeavor they choose to focus on. But these people are few and far between, and no one person can be an expert on everything. The way I see it is unless I am seeking advice or further knowledge on a particular subject, that “expert” and everyone else are the same. We are all just people and each one of us has their own potential.

I’ve been keeping my eye on CNN satellite news for a few days because Ivan was heading towards some of my loved ones. Later this afternoon, Taki was watching Japanese afternoon news and I became so frustrated with the whole thing. Isn’t there anything to report on other than depressing news? Is it any wonder there is so much despair in people with this constant barrage of the negativity of the human character? Surely, there must be something to report on other than hatred. Then it came to me. I grew up in the sixties when TV journalism was just taking hold of our daily lives. Back then journalists were always looking for the “hard core” stories in order to be taken seriously. With the world the way it is, couldn’t someone use the same theory and apply it to finding the true good Samaritans of this span in time. Why couldn’t Oprah, or someone in the journalism field, take the “Angel Network” idea and expand on it. Have journalism interns use the same investigative techniques used in “serious” reporting and provide a nightly dose of “Angel Network News” showing the positive aspect of the human character. Or is it just too hard to find selfless, caring people in the modern world anymore?

For the last few weeks life a has been quite hectic over here. Finally, this past week we were provided a break in the weather, and various other things. Taki said JET’s Osaka performance went well. All the members were pleased. Although slightly humid, the weather allowed us to finish cleaning-up the remaining debris left by the last typhoon. And we were finally able to have our first family barbeque with Jaco, our 15 week-old pup. It’s always amusing to see a new puppy’s first reactions to B-B-Qs. They’re never quite sure what to make of the dancing flames of the charcoal. As pleasant as this week has been, it’s still typhoon season so we know there will probably be more storms to deal with, especially with this year’s weather! So for now, we just enjoy the eye of the storm.

For a long time now I’ve had a saying, “‘God’ is a she, Mother Nature that is!” These past few weeks she has shown her power over the daily lives that we try so hard to place some type of control over. Japanese and Floridians have experienced the greatest amount of disruptions in the well-organized plans that millions labored to adhere to oh so religiously. When you view the televised version of “Mom” at work, one can actually visualize the earth with the massive turbulent atmosphere dancing over its surface. And in the midst of this incredible display, stand reminders of mankind’s feeble attempts to force its desires on earth’s canvas.