Turning a Pinch into a Chance

The coronavirus is raging violently across the world, and states of emergency are being declared in country after country. In Japan too, living through these times when the government strongly urges the people to avoid the “three C’s”—closed spaces, crowds, and close contact—I find many realizations and lessons I’d never have considered in ordinary times.

An environment in which one must live keeping a two-meter “social distance” from others is an extraordinary, lonely standing-place where you can’t shake hands, have physical contact, or whisper together; and I feel anew grateful for the presence of the friends, acquaintances, and colleagues I usually interact with so closely. That is, in the obvious realization that a person cannot live alone, I feel gratitude for the existence of my companions.

A prolonged environment oppressed by “refraining from nonessential, nonurgent outings,” staying home and teleworking as much as possible, is suffocating for me. When I go out for a walk to loosen a body gone stiff, the city air feels exceedingly good, I have a sense of absorbing the sun’s energy with my whole body and growing well, and the green of the park fluttering in the wind feels extraordinarily refreshing. That is, in the obvious realization that a person is a part of nature and is kept alive by nature, I feel gratitude toward all living things.

If this abnormal situation becomes the trigger for a turning point of the age, I myself think that people might grow kinder to one another and humbler toward nature.