A Nerve-Racking Life

Unlike the old days, I feel it’s become a fussy, tricky age in which you have to live minding what you may say and do to others.

That an encouraging word of exhortation—”Do your best!”—becomes pressure and gets called power harassment, or that patting someone on the shoulder with “Well done—good work” gets called sexual harassment, is case by case, but hard for me to understand.

Of course I can understand that people differ in how they take things, and that senses of justice diverge in value.

But at this rate, the spirited, brusque-tongued Edokko (Tokyoite) and the witty, banter-loving Naniwakko (Osakan), fond of playing the fool and the straight man, can’t survive.

Since we’re born as human beings and can by no means live alone, I believe that through affectionate encouragement, jokes, physical touch, and other words and deeds, cooperativeness sprouts, leading to a happiness that brings purpose and reward—and so my own words and deeds are still full of “hara-hara” (nervous edge).

Harassment, jealousy, bullying, and other unreasonable acts are out of the question, of course; but in daily life, to fret excessively over trivial acts as “that’s such-and-such harassment” seems to me like “weakness-harassment”—arbitrarily convincing yourself you’re a victim and failing to grasp another’s sincere affection.