337/365
Today was quite ordinary. I started keeping this blog to mentally distinguish between days like these. Not slow, not fast. Normal, seasonal temperature, cloudy but not rainy. Did a normal amount of work, drank a small amount of coffee. Truly nothing to write home about.
I thought about quitting my job. Fantasized about living off my savings and unemployment for a few months while I sowed my wild, creative oats conducting all the natural dye experiments I've been dreaming about. Days like today are like smooth stones that have lost their luster. Familiarity turned abrasive after too many passes. I wanna take a cloth and rub rub rub until I can see my reflection again. Yet, I remain under the fluorescent lights while the shrine for our local deity conducts a ritual. I can just make out the distant drumming.
The priests worship like this frequently. It's clear that whoever is enshrined here is very well cared for. I wonder if the other kami get jealous, or if they're competitive over the volume of praises and offerings. Admittedly, I know very little about Shintoism and its cosmology of deities and celestial beings. It's the aspect of Japanese culture that I'm most curious about. I love that a kami can preside over anything you can think of. It reminds me of the Igbo concept of Chi.
I should research this more deeply, if not to get a better understanding of the culture in which I live. In Japan, modernity sprouted around the shrines and temples, instead of paving over them. Maybe that's why this country enthralls people from the West. There are so few places in my home country, the United States, where the people's old traditions are respected and integrated. Instead, we have appliquéd random names on the tarp that covers the carnage. "Mississippi", "Dakota", "Miami".
I seem to have wandered off; forgive me.
It all boils down to this: today was mid. Perhaps, that's all it needs to be. A dull day to highlight how wonderful the others have been. Sometimes, it’s nice to have room to think.