Is Life Worth Living? Part 1

If someone came up to you today and told you that you would be born as someone new tomorrow but it would be completely random; where you were born, what gender, family income level, intelligence, or nationality, would you do it? I was listening to a podcast a few months ago and the guest summarized living like this: being alive is like being at a play that isn’t interesting. You will stay since you are already at the theater but you wouldn’t have come if you had this new information. I’m also a lover of questions and I am genuinely interested in hearing a variety of answers.

Nobody decided to be born on this planet. That decision was out of our hands. The decision to have you could have been made deliberately after years of saving, planning and marriage. The decision also could have been done with no saving, no planning and with the help of $2 Tequila Tuesday. Whatever the case, here we are. On this incredible planet with volcanic lightning, Mount Everest, Northern Lights and a pink lake in Australia! However, our planet also has rising sea levels, animal extinction rate scientists believe is hundreds of times above the natural baseline rate and about 17% of the Amazon being destroyed; all largely due to……us. The world is a great place made slightly less great due to humans. Would you decide to live here?

Luck has more of an affect on our lives than we give it credit for. The colour of your skin, your gender in many countries, the language you grow up with, how stunning or handsome you are, the country displayed on the front of your passport all afford you different opportunities. Your work ethic, values and general outlook will also be important but there’s a reason people call it privilege. More specifically, white privilege. Privilege to get more jobs opportunities, bank loans, better education and a positive relationship with law enforcement. Some people are just dealt a better hand than others. That does not mean that someone from a less fortunate country can’t be happier, influential or more successful than someone born in say Sweden but they are starting a few steps behind. This is also a good time to say that I am not saying life is only worth living if you are white. I am white and this is the only perspective that I have. I know being a white man in 2020 isn’t in vogue so I will try and keep my voice down.

Let’s assume that what I believe is true; that life isn’t fair and some people have been given a better lot in life. If given the chance to decide if you want to participate in the tomfoolery of planet earth, would you accept or decline this offer?

I am writing this because I am not sure what my answer is. I have many tabs open with articles that I have not yet read that I am assuming will try to convince me that life is worth living. I also assume that many people who consider suicide probably Google what I just Googled: Is life worth living? For the record, I am not considering killing myself and don’t think you should either. But given the choice that was initially denied to all of us, would you jump into the world not knowing if you will be a young girl born in Afghanistan to a family of 5 with very little income or a boy born to a king in Brunei. Is life worth living?

Is waking up for the majority of your life to work at a job you most likely feel lukewarm about worth it? Is it worth getting married and ultimately waiting for one of you to die to leave the other broken-hearted? Is it worth struggling to save money, make smart financial choices and still worry about living through your retirement? Is it worth having kids and worrying if they will make it home safe from school each day? Is it worth trying to do good in a place that is very much filled with evil? Is it worth living a life that at any point could be taken away for the most random of reasons?

Life is certainly more comfortable if you are wealthy and have more options. Having access to so many possibilities, network of contacts, the upside of life with many safety nets makes life a solid investment.

Life is more challenging in the middle-class but you aren’t struggling for water, work, shelter, money or freedom but still have many struggles. Many people live in this happy medium where their lives could be better but they could also be much, much worse.

Life is certainly the harshest and most challenging if you live in severe poverty, fear of the government, your safety or inability to be your true self. I don’t know what it’s like to not have the ability to get care if I am sick or need to leave my home because of war, religion or from a changing climate. I would assume people who are less fortunate would say life is worth living and their daily lives certainly have meaning. I bet some not insignificant percentage of people living in Burundi are happier than some citizens of Germany on a daily basis. 

But would you want to roll the dice and possibly end up living as a miner in Madagascar making $470 a month in questionable health and safety conditions? Or the possibility of being one of the estimated 24.9 million people worldwide who are human trafficked for labour or sexual exploitation? Or would not being born at all be better? Would not having to deal with sexism, racism, greed, nuclear weapons, overpopulation, energy and water depletion, pollution, injustice and corrupt governments?  Is life worth living? What would you choose if you were given the choice?

 

“If the real world were a book, it would never find a publisher. Overlong, detailed to the point of distraction-and ultimately, without a major resolution.” 

Jasper Fford 

Sources:

https://naturalhistory.si.edu/education/teaching-resources/paleontology/extinction-over-time

http://earthporm.com/7-amazing-things-wont-believe-actually-exist-nature/

https://www.humanrightsfirst.org/resource/human-trafficking-numbers

I Don’t Love Japan

I wish this wasn’t the case. I’m not a big dreamer but living in Japan for multiple years and becoming ‘Japanese’ has been high on my list for quite some time. I have been learning Japanese since the summer and have made slow but steady progress. However, upon visiting my version of Neverland, I can’t help but feel that I am the one to blame. It’s not Japan’s fault I’m not in love; it’s my own.

Places aren’t inherently good or bad. Places are just places. Some places are more beautiful. Some places are more affordable or exotic or spicy or populated. Almost every place there are people going to work Monday morning, getting food at the grocery store, people obsessively checking their phones and wondering how to work less and play more.

There are 7-11’s everywhere. Most places have cinemas, McDonald’s, WiFi, public transportation, vending machines selling Coca-Cola and Snickers, hospitals, hair salons and shops selling apartments and houses. While places can vary quiet dramatically from continent to continent, I personally find more similarities than differences. Japan is just another place where people are living their lives, trying to raise a family, save some cash and eat the occasional blowfish.

Why is this such a surprise to me? Why did I think Japan would be that much different than every other country I have been to? If you’ve been with me from the beginning, you might be able to guess the crucial mistake I have made.

My expectations were too high.

My expectation:

This super strange place where people don’t speak English, almost everything is in Japanese and super strange things are happening all over. People will stare at me because I am such an anomaly and ladies will flock to me like Canadians at a maple syrup conference.  Going out will be some wild party because, well, it’s JAPAN! Every meal with be out of this world, every walk down every street will be an adventure. The snowboarding will be cray cray and the smells and dazzling lights will keep me out all night.

The reality is more like:

English signs and English language on all buses, trains and metros. Nobody thinks it’s unique that I’m from Canada. Japanese women feel the same way as any other race towards me: indifference.

Snowboarding was fine but has been the worst winter for snow in 40 years. Thanks Obama.

Lights, sounds and sights are just like Hong Kong or New York.

Is Japan beautiful? Yes

Is Japanese food good? Yeah most of it is solid but it’s not lose our minds out of this world great.

Are Japanese people friendly? Very friendly if it’s their business. Keep to themselves otherwise.

Is Japan filled with Japanese people? It’s the most homogeneous country in the world. I appreciate their loyalty to their own kind. I really do. But the fact that over 97% of Japan is Japanese makes me feel like as much as anyone tries, you won’t every be like them. Which actually, might not be a terrible thing. Since they work themselves to death (karoshi), have high suicide rates (75 people a day in 2015), high cost of living and hikikomori, a condition where people stay inside and shut themselves out from the rest of society, maybe being Japanese isn’t something to be jealous of or to covet.

Let me take some of the blame as well. It’s likely that I am the one who is not fun. It could be that I am getting older, more cynical and less impressed with which humankind has been able to produce. Things might have been entirely different if I had gone with a bunch of friends, had more money, could speak fluent Japanese and had Japanese people show me around. It would also be different if I moved to Japan instead of Thailand. Alas, all I could do was do my best to see this country I have fantasized about since 2009. Last year, I was one question away from getting a job teaching university students in Japan. Devastated is a strong word so I will use the word disheartened. However, with more time and perspective, I feel like Korea was the right choice. This is far too early to say and I don’t want to make any dramatic statements but I think overall as a country, I prefer Korea. #hottake.

Is Japan my new nemesis? Taking over from the most overrated country in the world, New Zealand? Of course not. Nothing could be that bad. I am going back in April for a final visit with my favourite mom to explore Kyoto, Tokyo and some surrounding areas. Seeing cherry blossoms with her might improve my overall impression of this extremely well marketed country. Which brings me to my final observation. Japan has done a terrific job in its reputation and exporting its culture worldwide. Japan has done a tremendous job of having teenagers all over the globe obsessively read its manga comics.

 Japan is world famous for its sushi and ramen. Can you think of a place that has a better reputation for working harder, being efficient or more respectful? Japan is blessed with some of the best powder for snowboarding, has Mt. Fuji, Kyoto temples and bamboo forests as well as one of the most famous cities in the world, Tokyo. It’s reputation for such efficient high-speed trains, karaoke and vending machines has lured people in from all over the world. If you have an interest in this distinctive place, you should definitely spend some time exploring and find out for yourself.

I am super lucky to have been able to explore Japan and have these types of opportunities.  Most people don’t get to go to Japan 4 times in 8 months so I understand that I should appreciate the chance to travel and see the world. I only have myself to blame for having high hopes about a country that was never going to solve all of my problems or eventually make me ‘happy’. Wherever you go, there you are. What Japan has taught me is that wherever I live next, I want to live in that place for an extended period of time, and what is more important to me at 33 is finding my own community and being around people similar to me rather than trying to break into a culture that might not even want me there in the first place. The countdown to a new home for 2021 has begun.

Good or bad, hard to say.