Practicing Love...

While I was thinking of what to write about for the last blog, this one came to mind, but I was not sure it really fits in with the prompt. Since it keeps coming up, and I wanted to get it out.

This past week, I have been hearing a lot about a special event called 311 Love Beyond Borders that took place in Hong Kong for the Japanese people. It was interesting to watch clips of the events, and the responses of the actors and actresses had as they were planning the event. One reason why this kept coming to mind is the theme music that was chosen. The music and video has been playing in my mind for a few days now. Over the break, I remember hearing one of the artists being interviewed about the song. The song itself was already written, and was selected to be translated into Japanese for the event, and checked to be sure that it makes sense. Because the people singing the song do not speak Japanese, they found teachers to ensure that the pronunciation is correct. They chose to have images of folded paper cranes in the event because of the Japanese belief of folding a thousand cranes would help a person’s wish come true. It is interesting to see how many details are in the plans for the event.

Multiple voices and people taking part in the event, reinforces the clo

sing comment on the video, that they are not alone. Having different people singing different parts of the song before coming together as a larger group for the chorus adds to the appeal. It brings to mind a song that I used to listen to as a child. The words can be roughly translated to ‘one stick of bamboo can be bent easily, but it is hard to bend several bamboo sticks at once. Having so many people working together behind and in front of the scene shows how important this is to the people in the production. Being able to recognize most of the people in the video shows me how many of these actors, actresses, and singers care for the people this quake effected. A lot of the people shown are people who are well known and famous, yet they get together to do what they can for the people in Japan. Knowing that they probably took time out from their schedule to work on the song and video makes me want to go out and do what I can to help.

I do not know if it is the video, music, or a combination of both that really catches my attention. Seeing so many people working together to do what they can to remind the people in Japan that they are not alone, leaves a really big impact on my mind. While I do not know exactly what the song is about (until I looked up the English lyrics), it still gave me a feeling that I am not alone in the world. This video reminds me not to make judgments about a person because of what they do, and to pay attention to the events that are happening around me now. Focusing more on the present than the past or future, because you never know what can happen in a split second. Not only that, but to concentrate on using what I have and what is available to accomplish tasks, instead of what wishing for something that I do not have. I really like how the event shows everyone that love truly has no boarders. While writing this, the quote about if you truly love someone/something let them/it go, and if it was meant t

o be, they will come back to you. Sometimes, we have to step away from what we have before we realize how lucky we are to have what is around us. From this, I am going to try to take notice of the people around me, and help who I can with what I have. I will give the concept of working with various people in a group setting another chance while keeping an open-mind, because a group of people working on one thing is better than one (depending on what it is….).

When it comes to love, I feel that it is different for me at different points in life. Drawing from some lyrics (with a rough translation) “What is love? You want to know, and I want to know the answer, and in the end we will go crazy thinking about the answer.” combining that idea with something I read recently, where someone states 'Romance is not an idea, but a state of mind,’ seems to describe the way I think about love.