I spoke with an old
friend the other day who’s my age and who mentioned that he’d stopped running
because of arthritis in his hip. He’s in
better shape then me, so I wondered just who I was kidding. I had a congenital hip issue when I was born
and had bone grafted from my knee to grow a missing hip socket. Radical surgery forty-six years ago, I’d have
been left with a limp otherwise. Now
that I’m beginning to develop one anyway I wonder if it isn’t simply my due. My
knees and my ankles are sore. And every
once and a while I feel a pull in that right hip. I suppose I must move on to biking or
swimming or something less impactful. Plan
ahead for the inevitable change in season.
So it begins.
The New York Times posted a “Scientific 7-Minute Work Out”
last spring that I picked up on and have tacked on to the end of my run and
push up, sit up routine.
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/05/09/the-scientific-7-minute-workout/ It has me doing things I hadn’t done before
and creates the illusion of breadth to my modest tone-up. Most importantly its rather difficult to say you haven't got time for it.
Finishing up with some silly lunges across the floor and
that beautiful Zombies song “Beechwood Park” filled the air in and around my ears. The reverbed guitar and the spacious mix,
slows you down and lures you back in to a melancholy English world, your “summer
world.” You’re asked if you remember and
of course you do. Stopping in
acknowledgement major turns to minor and you descend into the irresistible mystery
of a summer’s evening.
And we would count the evening
stars
As the day grew dark in Beechwood
Park
My mother and her mother and then myself for a few years all
lived on a street called Beechwood Avenue, back there in Poughkeepsie, New York. She is there today and I take my children
there every summer. That is their
“summer world.” I want my children growing up in the megalopolis of Beijing to
know of summer in the country, with fireflies and starlight and a lawn to play
on. And when they read something by
Thomas Hardy or they consider their youth or when someone asks them, as someone
invariably will:
Do you remember summer days
Just after summer rain?
When all the air was damp and warm
In the green of country lanes?
They can say “yes.”
The Zombies Bassist Chris White who wrote the song, told The
Guardian on February 22, 2008: “Beechwood Park is a real place. My father owned
a general store in Hertfordshire and he used to deliver to a private girls'
school called Beechwood Park. I remember driving round there and seeing steam
rising off the road in the summer after rain.”
An aging rock star that never got to be, considers his youth,
clarifies his composition. An American I
can only but fill in the spaces with images of some Dickensian boy in a cap on
a cart, working with his father considering something elite and restricted and
alluring like a private girl’s school. An empire, passing.
The album “Odessy and Oracle” (sic) was released in 1968 but by the time it came out irreconcilable
arguments had split the band up, and they were “not there” to reap the glory
due. The album later went on to be a
cult classic, widely regarded as a psychedelic masterpiece. Something about their combined youthful
dreams polished to glistening refinement, the glory due, un-harvested, fallow, makes
it all that much more melancholy and compelling. And his summons to youthful summer’s that
much more pure and enchanting.
It’s the late Autumn now with its’ 秋风送黄[1] I won’t be able to run outside for much
longer. Reluctantly we move from wet
summer innocence to shame, because I said we would yesterday. It is central to my project with the "Seven
Deadly Starbucks" (7DS). Proud nations
that have no tradition of confession and forgiveness, China, Japan, The Koreas,
all understand, shame and face.
Proud nations tell the story of their greatness to their
people. Sometimes this orchestration is
more or less graceful. Have a look at
this wonderful examination of state sponsored posters in Beijing by Ian Johnson
in the NYRB: http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2013/oct/15/china-dream-posters/
Great civilizations assume dignity; they do not need to
demand it, let alone beg for it. They
model mutual respect, particularly with their neighbors, even if their neighbors are confused. Because they are confident in their own and
therefore their neighbors’ majesty.
I made the case that racist hatred between nations in North
Asia is mutable and that reconciliation is imperative given the transformations
underway. I say that South Korea, for
example, clearly the most dynamic, innovative and potent soft power in the
neighborhood, should cease to demand Japanese shame as a supplicant. Rather, model the majesty of dignity
assumed. Live, and love as though you
were equals, to anyone.
Could the South Korean state ever say, officially: “we are
through demanding things from Japan. This merely reinforces a perception of
inferiority. South Korea’s official
position on the occupation and its aftermath are clear. If Japanese citizens, politicians,
educators, etc., choose to be inflammatory, or contrarian, that is their
business. It is pity that they are
ignorant and we are available to help should they want to discuss. But frankly we have other, more important
things to do, rather than be shrill with Japan, to engage in this sort of
patent nonsense. From hence forth, we
are unilaterally moving on.”
Fortunately the state, in South Korea at least, is not
capable of stating what the citizenry should feel with any expectation that
they will follow. Most people will
continue on with their frustrated feelings about the Japanese. But at state-to-state level, the ruling party
should be able to sharpen its voice. It
is beneath the Korean people to shake their finger at the Japanese in anger,
any longer. Enough. The proper tone facing Japan is one of pity
and tired bewilderment, when historically inaccurate, when inflammatory racist
rhetoric comes out of that country. Assume the role of wise older sibling, who sees imminent danger ahead and has no time for
squabbling. How can we help Japan? Rather than how can we berate. “It appears, Japan, that you are stuck or
perhaps a bit backward on this matter.
We have so much we need to do together to assure a descent, peaceful
future. Shall we get on with it then . .
.?“
If you were an MLK or a Gandhi, you would presumably draw
upon the indomitable power of love, the love of your enemies, who are only,
simply souls just like yourself. The power of love, would give you strength to
stare down water canons or worse. Some
politician, like Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto says something inflammatory about,
say, comfort women. Wouldn’t it be
remarkable if a South Korean politician, in response, said it was difficult to
understand Japanese confusion on the matter?
Citizens could demand apologies but the state’s message is, “we are no
longer demanding things. We know who we
are. We are proud and equal and this is
not necessary.”
MLK and Gandhi were private citizens with tremendous public
power. Perhaps then, it is implausible
to consider a party or public official in a representative democracy would
forcefully argue something on the surface, so strongly at odds with popular
sentiment. Perhaps then leadership comes
from somewhere non-governmental. Korea
is arguably more Confucian, more Christian and
more Buddhist than either China or Japan. But though mysteries like faith
and love are involved, organized religion may not be necessary.
An individual, brave and determined, might coalesce
increasing public sentiment around “dignity assumed.” Dignity manifest. No more supplicant behavior. No more shrill demands. Acknowledge the basic equality and humanity
of Korean people as we do Japan
because it in our collective interest to move on. Shame on you Japan if you can’t meet us
there. Let us know when you’re ready.
And if South Korea could model this, model equality,
maturity, reconciliation, love of Japan, it would, I believe, shame the mother
culture in China to reconsider their own tone as well. China, the country that is the inheritor of a
great civilization should lead on this matter.
But it cannot, yet. Japan, who
has shown the world so much of its might and capacity, and enjoys the fruits
therein, should model proper reconciliation, but will not, yet. South Korea should not wait for either
country any longer. Live the post
rapprochement world and love thy neighbor. The region is rightly attracted to
Korea. Mighty soft power indeed would be
this dignity assumed.
A challenge put forth.
Who’ll be the first to show some love in the neighborhood and model
reconciliation? I wonder if South Korea
might not show the way. Someone needs to
though. Lest we forget, our innocent
summer time at Beechwood Park, this bucolic period of relative peace, must turn
to autumn eventually. No season
holds. If the band can’t get along, it
will destroy itself and miss the harvest.
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