After I read the 4th chapter of the ancient Japanese novel From the Tale of Genji, “Evening Faces,” it reminds me a joke. One day, a guy asks God, "God, what does 100 million years seem like to you?" God answers, “One hundred million years? That's like a moment me." Then the man asks again, "God, what's 100 million dollars seem like to you?" “One hundred million dollars? It seems like a penny to me." So this guy says, "Hey God, could I borrow a penny?" And God answers, "Sure. Just a moment."
So how long does a “moment” last? Well, a moment is actually a medieval unit of time equal to 90 seconds. Of course, in modern days, it means a short period of time. It is not that essential to measure how long a moment is, but far more important is to focus on how we should spend that moment, and how we are going to treasure the moment, as well as every moment in our lifes. The reason is simple: we cannot experience any one moment twice ever again; and what’s left will only exist in our memory.
In the story, Genji is initially going to visit his old nurse, and since the nurse is not at home, he meets the mysterious, shy and attractive woman next door in a conincidence. Then, they start to date day and night. However, just a couple of days later, the girl dies after Genji woke up from a horrified dream at a strange night. It is all supernatural and sudden to Genji about the girl’s death, and he is very depressed by that. The time spend with the mysterious girl seems to last only a moment compared to the entire life experiences of Genji. However, no matter what Genji does after the girl’s death, what’s done cannot be undone: the moment with her was long gone.
A moment can pass us by quickly and without a notice. Sometimes, we never think of treasuring something until it is gone; and sometimes, even though we already have done our best to maintain something, it will still pass us by. That is the moment of life. Therefore, we should take good care of ourselves because the moment in life is very limited, and we should also look after and treat people around us nicely because we do not know when they will forever pass us by.
A beautiful moment of the mysterious girl
I love, love, love the way you explained that. I also agree with you on how we should always treasure each moment that we have in life. We really don’t know how long we will have on earth much less time spent with others. Taking the time to appreciate each moment and really enjoying the time spent with another is the only way to create an everlasting memory that could carry on throughout a life time.
ReplyDeleteAgain, I really love your perspective! Great Job!!!