October 10, 2010

Connections

(Sorry, no Japanese today)

Today's photo has nothing to do with the content. It's just beautiful.

Let's talk about connections. Everyone has myriads of events and things in his life that are all tangled up like a beginner knitting project. But many strands of yarn are weaved together to create a picture, and when you look closely, you start seeing patterns and connections. You see the exact stitch with which things went all wrong. Or, quite the opposite.

I spent an enormous time studying English grammer, pronunciation and conversation before I even knew how to write "airplane" in chinese character. My mom bought me a radio and a textbook of an English program because, at that time, I was very ill and was in a hospital and at home in bed a few months at a time. It was a time when they didn't teach English in elementary schools, so it gave me a huge advantage afterwards. Actually, I spent a lot of time studying and reading.

Being a billingual opened a lot of opportunities to me. When I first got a real job, the company just let me get on the plane and fly all over the world to meet prestegeous architects. And on that plane I met a person who still remains as a good friend. I spent this afternoon chatting with him for hours and it was very truly refreshing.

But I guess I thought about "connections" because I saw this on a platform this morning.

It looked oddly familiar to me, for it resembles something - yes, a landscape plan drawing.

Back in school, my dream was to become a landscape architect who specializes in ecological design and regional planning (meaning planning for a big region, such as a whole Tokyo Met region). Plan drawings are done with a very specific style of a handdrawn font: a slightly-slanted block type. The dotted lines and the letters on the platform brought me back to where I was, 10 years ago.

And this dream, which only led me to my first job, is still floating somewhere up in the open air. I believe I am still holding the other end of the rope, so that one day, if I want, I can pull back the string and will find the connection.


I guess, I am thankful today that I came this far and my life is still great.  I must have done something right to deserve this.
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3 comments:

Shelly said...

Just beautiful! Both the pics and the writing. I know you will make that connection...it's stirring inside of you just waiting for the right time to come out.

Retta said...

Such a lovely post! I have been thinking a lot about connections lately as well and how the choices I made or the things that I experienced in the past affect everything today. I have been thinking about it as my story line or when that happened it changed my view in ways that I didn't even know until I examine them now. The knitting analogy is perfect. I love that you rediscovered that connection from the lines and letters on the platform.

Meri said...

Hi Shelly, Thank you. I hope so. We all have something stirring inside, and SAW gave me new perspective about it.

Retta, thank you! One day, please write about it for us.

I am also reading Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell, and the book is giving me another perspective.