Season's Greetings

It is past the winter solstice and Christmas now. It is the time for me to recall what has happened to me throughout this passing year and to give the season's greetings to all of you kindly visiting this blog. 

Honestly, I was reluctant to do this routine this year. The main reason was because I have had more sad and painful experiences than pleasant ones this year. I was inclined to postpone or to discontinue this habit this year. However, friends of mine and my family members have supported me to live in this way and have been blessed living in this countryside surrounded with so rich and plentiful nature. I still would like to express my gratitude toward you by this greeting post. 

It is inevitable for me at the age of 69 years to receive sad news on quite a few friends or acquaintances passing away. One of them was Prof. Isoyama, a renowned music researcher spcializing Bach and his works. I have not known him in person at all but have been an eager reader of his books on Bach. I have written that event in an article of this blog in February.  It was an unexpected event due to an accident. It was immediately after he had finished a life work on Johannes Passion. It might be a mandate from Heaven for him. And even for those ordinary people like myself, there must be the same destiny previously unknown to us. I have learned from his passing that we should be ready for that anytime. Now, whenever I receive such a sad news, I would utter in my mind you have lived your life wholeheartedly and are now in the peaceful rest. I should live my life so as to convince myself that way at the moment.

During all the year in 2018, the politics has been convered by fake data or by fake annouoncements. The ministry of Finance, the most important administrative office, has committed making forgery of the public documents, which resulted in suicide of an officier being ordered to do it at the field. It was to hide the facts our PM and his wife had been involved in a school foundation by a ultra right business man. Our PM has given 8 million USD of the national property to him. It was privatizetion of the national property as well as a corrupted cronysim. There has been another case of such curruption our PM has been involved in. After all, no one has taken the responsibility of the forgery and destruction of administrative system in our country. The government has published a false data of economic indicators in order to show raising growth of the economy. So called Abenomics, essentially a monetization of the debt with massive easing, has resulted in failure as a policy. It has left economic disparity among the people and accumulated further national debt. Even the balance sheet of BOJ and the pension fund of GPIF will have been damaged in the very near future.

In addition to this astronomically large amouont of national debt, we have the other problems like the used nuclear fuel or global warming. They could not be handled by the present framework of democracy. Those problems force the next generation to be burdened unless they are not solved by us. Presently, populism, the worst style of democracy, is prevailing throughout the world. It may lead us to fascism, I am afraid. It is definitely not possible for such a system to handle and solve those problems being carried over to the next generation. It is an issue which human kind has never experienced in the past. Unfortunately, there seems to be no solution to this issue at present. In the coming year, I think we should go forward to the solution step by step.

I am still struggling with cello. It is obvious that I could not make any progress with it at my age any longer. It is still a fun and an adventure worth trying. I have joined a few groups of ensemble mainly in Tokyo. I feel like a schoolboy going for an fun excursion whenever travelling to Tokyo for that. I find myself smiling spontaneously in the morning of departure. I thought it was comparable to my old father who used to attend a Bible class in Tokyo at my age or even older once a month. He seemed vivid and well tempered expecting learning Bible together with his company, which he called as Ecclesia. It is an ecclesia for me to have company of ensemble in Tokyo. So far as my health permits it, I would go on there.

My wife is still working in full time and is often tlking about possible retirement for now. She is not, however, born to be a house wife. So far, I would be being a house husband while she works for those with psychiatric porblems. Yet, it won't be too long before she closes her office. Hopefully, some doctor may take it over.

Both of us have enjoyed gardening and farming in our lot. Sometimes complaining that the land is a bit too big for us, I find it is a blessing to work for them. Some fruits or veggies have enrich our table from time to time. In winter, I would prepare the soil in the garden for plants/veggetables in the coming season.

My mind is full of gratitude to friends and family members and also the environment which allows me to spend the last chapter of my life. I would like to live after ths spirit of the poem "Grow old" of Browning.

Again, thanks for your visiting this blog. Wishing you all the best for the New year.

Shin Onisawa