“Reality Hits You Hard.”

Here’s an inspiring story where individuals with autism find careers that are suited to their personalities.

The company “nurtures these skills while forgiving the quirks that can make adults with autism unemployable: social awkwardness, poor eye contact, being easily overwhelmed.”

“Traits that make great software testers — intense focus, comfort with repetition, memory for detail — also happen to be characteristics of autism. People with Asperger's syndrome, a mild form of autism, have normal to high intelligence and often are highly skilled with computers.”

Sadly, I’ve got all of the unemployable quirks while none of the useful traits.

I mean seriously, why aren’t there more jobs that compliment rather than condemn individual quirks? We’re human beings, we’re not robots, and I bet a lot more of us are awkward than are, as every single job opening demands, someone “outgoing” and “energetic”. You know, the second I see adjectives like that I write a job off, it doesn’t matter how otherwise well-suited I might be for the job or it for me. Why aren’t there jobs where one gets commended rather than criticized for being soft-spoken and reserved? They’re not like severe character flaws, and there are much much worse traits an employee could demonstrate while still fulfilling the enthusiastic criteria.

 

Chris Colfer is adorable, and his instance that he doesn’t deserve to be put on a pedestal just makes me want to put him on ALL the pedestals. On the other hand, I’m trying not to let my niggle of jealousy that he has been able to buy a house at 21 when I probably won’t be able to afford one for decades yet turn into full-blown loathing. I mean, I want a house of my own more than anything – I would give up my legs for a house though it would have to be one with a wheelchair ramp in that case.

 

And in the category of “It’s About Darn Time!” Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell has been repealed. Well, I’m not a fan of any kind of military, and kind of find that my admiration for people who want to be truthful about who they are is countered by my lack of respect for their willingness to kill other people, but hey, I guess it’s a step in the right direction.

 

In a step in the wrong direction, we have the world of publishing, where controversy has arisen over authors of Young Adult books and stories being advised to edit out gay storylines because apparently they don’t sell. I’m boggled by this considering I know plenty of people who buy books based entirely on their containing a gay character, and have been known to do so myself. Because, honestly, I got sick of reading the same boy-girl story over and over. If you want to support the cause, here’s a list of books that have managed to get published intact, and I’m a little embarrassed how few I’ve read – I’ll have to work my way through it when I have some free reading time.

 

On the other hand, in news about causes that I could actually be a participant rather than just a witness of, New York Times had this interesting story: In a Married World, Singles Struggle for Attention

I’m all for challenging the assumption “that if you don’t get married there is something wrong with you.”

“These were very successful women in their careers and their lives, yet almost all of them felt bad about not being married, like they were letting someone down.”

“If a person is happy being single, then we should support that as well.”

“We do have the tendency to think that there is something special about married people, and that they are the ones who keep community and family going. I thought it was important to point out that single people keep our community going, too.”

Word.

And related to that, I was also thinking about 1 Corinthians 7 lately:

^“8To the unmarried and the widows I say that it is good for them to remain single as I am. ⁹But if they cannot exercise self-control, they should marry. For it is better to marry than to burn with passion…”

^“17Only let each person lead the life that the Lord has assigned to him, and to which God has called him. This is my rule in all the churches…”

^“29This is what I mean, brothers: the appointed time has grown very short. From now on, let those who have wives live as though they had none, ³⁰and those who mourn as though they were not mourning, and those who rejoice as though they were not rejoicing, and those who buy as though they had no goods, ³¹and those who deal with the world as though they had no dealings with it. For the present form of this world is passing away.”

Oh, Paul, you do know the quickest way to my heart is to talk about the world-as-we-know-it ending, don’t you.

^“32I want you to be free from anxieties.”

That might be the nicest thing a guy’s ever said to me.

 

And now, as an anecdote antidote for today’s ranty McRanty Pants, the brilliant folks over at AutoTune the News bring you:

Second Day in Nara

In which the deer are cute but evil, Mama is covetous of brooms, I am covetous of rooftiles, and Buddah is bigger than the both of us.

“I find it kind of funny, I find it kind of sad, that dreams in which I’m dying are the best I’ve ever had.”

In Japanese class the other day I had an example essay to read and answer questions about with the topic of “what is your purpose in life.” This is either very timely – as it’s something I’ve been thinking a lot about lately – or not timely at all – as it’s something I’ve been thinking a lot about for most of my life. And when I think about something a lot I mean it in the “sometimes I forget to sleep and eat” sense of the phrase.

Okay, let’s start with basics. Everyone has a life (and not in the slang sense of the word) – I assume that you do if you’re reading this. And there are, of course, billions of other people who also have lives, and who have had lives in the past, and will have lives in the future. That is a given.

But whether these lives have purpose is an entirely different question. Do you think your life should have a specific, definable purpose? Or is it enough for you that you are alive, and there doesn’t need to be any reason to it than that? Being an expat, now, I think of it in those terms: Do I live in America simply because I was born there? Or do I go searching for a country that suits me better? Or, now that I have my first full-time job, do I settle for it? Or do I keep applying to ones that seem like they might be more “fulfilling”?

Are we alive simply because we don’t consider there to be a viable alternative? Or do we actually want to be alive?

Now, I imagine there are people who would say, “I am alive, and that is enough. I don’t need there to be any greater reason than that.” And I’m happy for them, that they are content with that, and perhaps I even feel a little envy – but perhaps I feel some disdain as well.

Because for me, it’s not enough. Now, I could have lived in America the rest of my life - I didn’t mind it much as a country. It’s not cruel to me, I’ve never faced prejudice or deprivation. But if it had been unpleasant, if every day had been a form of torture – wouldn’t it have been purely idiotic to stay there? To have loyalty to a place for no other reason than having been born there, which is little more than coincidence.

I am in Japan because it’s my chosen country – I have a dozen carefully thought out reasons to be here, and I have hundreds more that I can’t explain verbally but that I feel very strongly. It has meaning because it has weight – and that’s what I feel about life itself, that it has value not in merely existing, but when we have thought carefully about why it exists. I’m not satisfied with life for the sake of life. (I also get pretty bored with art for art’s sake – sorry, Oscar - but that’s a different post.)

So next, let’s branch out from this premise, that it is more desirable to have a purpose for life than not. Now it remains to decide what that purpose will be. It would seem that the usual answers would be a religion, an ambition, a career, a pleasure, an art, a person. But it’s hard for me to imagine something important that it solely is a reason enough for living. That if you lost everything else, that one thing would keep you going.

I’ve tried focusing on various things at various times, underlining it in my head with “this is it, this is your purpose, keep this and that’s all that matters.” And while I’m good at “talking myself into” things, when it comes to something this vast it either doesn’t stick, or I’m forced to give it up for other reasons.

What I’m operating on at the moment – and for the past few years – is the Hole Principle. Say you’ve dug a hole in the middle of a pathway in a forest. Why you did it isn’t the question – this is. Sooner or later someone is going to walk along the path and fall into your hole (assume it’s dark or something). Now – do you leave it like that? Or do you fill it in? If we’re on remotely the same moral wavelength, your answer is “duh, fill it in. That’s just in the nature of holes – you can’t leave them empty. Someone could break a leg in there.” So here I am with this hole, see, and every day maybe I drop a few shovels of dirt in it. That’s my purpose right now – trying to make up for everything I’ve done wrong.

The problem is – every day I also dig a few more shovels of dirt out of it. I don’t want to, I just can’t stop myself. Maybe one day it’s one in, two out, maybe another it’s equal, maybe tomorrow I’ll actually dig fill in more than I dig out. But the longer I live the more I keep digging, and no matter how long I live I will never be able to fill in this hole, no more than I can drink in the whole ocean or breathe in the whole sky. And at what point will the Hole Principle and reciting it carefully to myself when I need to believe I have a purpose – at what point will it not be a sufficient motivator? At what point will I have to give up and walk away, just leaving that hole there and hoping no one falls in?

I know it’s a strange thing to be thinking about and strange to be thinking so much about and strange to be thinking about thinking about – but it’s something high up on my curiosity list. I honestly want to ask people the second I meet them, “What do you consider your purpose in life? How do you make that enough for you? Or do you not have a specific purpose, and are just living? How do you make that enough for you?” And I want to ask them every time I meet them again, “Right now, can you stand being alive? Are you enjoying it enough that you want it to continue? How do you do that?”

It’s like watching a magician do sleight of hand tricks. I don’t understand how it works, and maybe I’m skeptical that it’s even real, but it’s fascinating to watch.

“In order to be beautiful” – Domoto Tsuyoshi

Someone tears this body to pieces again.
Located in the dead center of a dark forest,
I am heading for the lake.
I should still be on time. My heartbeat confirms it.

How long? It's as though I lost consciousness.
Beside the stillness, I am aware of sorrow flowing.
I look for the source.
Honestly, I'm weak. I'm still a tender color.

I won't let you say I'm to blame.
I can't say that you are hateful.
People are selfish,
Always are selfish,
In order to be beautiful, they are selfish.

Not everything is cold.
Not everything is warm.

That time I fell down, at once I tried pushing myself up.
I noticed a strange pain in my wrist,
An unknown internal damage.
Honestly, I'm weak. I'm still a tender color.

If I give up, I'll have to go away,
To meet the me who is once again strong.
This body trembles,
Its heart laid bare.
I'm all right, I'm still a tender color

After this, will I walk the same way?
That's right, I will walk the same way.
The flower of greed won't bloom.
The flower of greed is withering.
I'll face something wonderful and consume it.

We are connected by the power of belief.
We are connected by a noble resistance.

(It will surely come true.
I am fine. It will come true.)

Not that I'm biased or anything, but I believe if this song does not move you, you may want to get your doctor to check whether or not you have a heart.

“Making a Connection” – Domoto Tsuyoshi

The lovely thing about having a favorite artist with a birthday less than two weeks before your own, is that when he releases a new single on his special day it’s like it’s really a present especially for you.

Lovely images from his hometown, Nara, as expected of the honorary cultural ambassador.

Also, check out the hypnotic revamp of his website, and click on profile for another view of this strange little world.

This flower blossoms red,
In Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter,
Lighting up love with a brief flash.

Like a spider's thread,
Frail and strong,
Anyone and everyone,
From the first cry to now.

We are coloring in this country.
Making a connection, we are living.

Of twelve colors, I am one.
Blossoming in every season,
Making a connection.
Follow this path, the white sky.

The essentials - the eye, the skin, the heart -
Each is prepared.
Drawn towards
The sun and the moon,
Past, present, and future seem wonderful.

In this ancient country - the wind, the poem, the rain -
We come to hear them, making a connection.

Only once, I am one color,
Blossoming in every season,
Making a connection,
Follow this path, grateful.

A drop of water
Travels to the sea,
Builds to a crescendo in the heavens,
Falls to the earth,
As a sphere, as a spiral,
Returns to the body in a dance,
The expression of love.

The town flooded with tears
Won't be washed away now.
I want to live with my gaze fixed on love.

I want to give -
I want to grant -

Remembering
The country of beautiful seasons.

lyrics english translation kinki kids eni wo yuite 縁を結いて 堂本剛 英語 翻訳 歌詞

“Man-made Devastation”

“It is recognized that you have a funny sense of fun.”

The problem with doing these massive trips where I see an average of three temples a day is I invariably lose track of which was where. I know the area this bell was, but I don’t know the name of the temple:

Sanjuusangendou, on the other hand, I know very well. It’s one of the main Kyoto locations that all my kids write essays about:

Archery contests are held the length of this veranda, so that one of the beams at the end (since taken down, replaced, and put on display) resembles a cactus from the broken shafts.

What drew my attention to Sanjuusangendou is that there are a thousand statues of the Thousand Armed Kannon. There’s actually only forty arms on each figure, but each one represents 25 worlds and holds a different tiny tool to save the people therein. The Kannon can also apparently take 33 forms, and at that point I lose track of the math.

But while those figures are impressive, what really caught my attention upon actually visiting was not the Kannons which stand in ten rows of fifty but are, on the whole, all pretty much the same. What I loved was the twenty-eight guardian statues standing in front of them, each unique and with its own mythological lineage. It was like being back in my Greek phase and talking a stroll down the pantheon.

This, for example, is Karura, from the Hindu Garuda via Buddhism to Japan. Body of a human but wings and head of an eagle, and you’d think the beak would get in the way of the flute-playing. He taught mankind how to treat snake venom and accidentally created emeralds. But what really makes my heart go “kyuu” with the resonance of the whole package, is that his foot is tapping to keep time. I mean, just. How briilliant is that?

 

The Arashiyama area in daylight: