JAWing On – Life on Okinawa

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.

On Saturday I was doing research for something and ran across a November 1997 article involving Taki. The article includes an interview he did with a Washington Times reporter. Taki didn’t even know the article was ever printed. When I tried to gain access to the full article, I found that the newpaper requires a payment for access to archived news articles. First, I do not feel comfortable enough with internet security to provide private financial information, such as a credit card number. Second, I was surprised that a major newpaper, such as the Times, charges for persons seeking archived information. I noticed that there is online advertising by sponsors. Doesn’t that and regular subsciptions provide enough of a profit for your investors? I am glad not to be a student seeking archived information in these days and times if I would have to pay for every article I wished to access. If you are interested in reading the full article, a brief lead into the story is available here.

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.

I never thought of myself as a political person. In fact I would rather stay away from the twisting and turning of the manipulative games. I have always felt more comfortable with the good-old fashioned straight forwardness of my upbringing. True at times I can be a little too straight forward, but only because I feel that it is a waste of precious time, energy, and effectiveness to play games with people. I see this as a system where like-minded people come and stick to mutually beneficial agreements. Yet, here I am on Okinawa where the social structure and politics run hand in hand. This is a culture that originated, after much internal feuding, as an autocratic Kingdom. This led to a tradition of secrecy and plotting in order to win favor with the ruling powers. What evolved was a system of hiding one’s true thoughts and feelings and channeling that energy into one’s goal, or being gamman. Although this system lends itself to a great deal of flexibility, the problem I see with it is that one never really knows what the other person’s goal is. This leads to a lack of trust and hidden shifting of commitments from one person to another when the second person’s goals are more closely associated to what is desired. This is more commonly expressed in Western terms as “yes” doesn’t mean yes and “no” doesn’t mean no.

When you have been around the music industry as long as I have, one can always tell a group is on their way up when the flies begin buzzing around. You know the type of people who profess their undying admiration for the group in the beginning of the relationship, a kind of making a deposit in the human bank. Of course, these are the same people that disappear while the actual struggle of getting just the right combination of music style and talent development is happening. They’re too busy depositing the same undying admiration for every other performer available in the respective banks, a kind of playing the odds theory. After all, there are so many groups in contention at least one of them has to make a hit! As a wife, all one can do is point out who has and hasn’t been around through the tough times. Then hope that her husband also has been paying attention to the intricacies of the industry, and knows how to filter out those trying to ride the tails of a group on the rise.

People who finish half an alcoholic beverage and then request another “splash” of mixer, usually cola, because the drink is too strong. These are the same type of people who try to eat half of a dinner and then complain that the food isn’t edible! If the drink was that strong to begin with, it doesn’t take half the drink to realize it. Think of it this way, at least you know you’re getting your money’s worth. And most beverage servers are fully aware of whether or not the drinks they prepare are strong. Those servers who do prepare stiff beverages usually don’t mind providing a little extra mixer if a person after one or two sips, not gulps, requests so.

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.