Wednesday, June 30, 2010

"America's Heart and Soul"




This is one of the movies that I want to show to my kids!

It is very inspiring. It shows many individuals all over America who have been pursuing their dreams and most of them make a living out of what they want to do in their lives. Although they say they are not making a lot of money, they all are so proud of how they live and know what is valuable other than money.

It made me realize again that a life is not just for making money to feed the family. Of course, we have to meet the basic needs of our family. We can not let our family starve to death by being selfishly pursuing our dreams. However, there is nothing more important than being proud of the way we live regardless how much money we make. In the movie, a rag weaver woman in Kentucky said, "I've been broke many times, but I've never been poor". I think what she meant was she was feeling blessed as long as she and her husband had something that they could turn their passion into.

It is always inspiring to hear something from people who have been doing one thing for many many years. It's so hard to keep doing one thing and it's so easy to quit, especially for someone like me- who has so many interests and curiosity in almost everything on the earth.

This movie reminded me of my father. He has published a book with the pictures of only scarecrows taken all over Japan for 7 years. Apparently, he had no intention to make money out of it when he started taking pictures of scarecrows. But he somehow just fell in love and found a beauty in them. The 7 years of pictures have come out to be a book, and fortunately some TV, newspaper and magazines have featured with his work.

I think when someone continues doing one thing with passion for a longer period than others, there will definitely be someone who would react to it. Even if you think it's not worth keep doing (like taking picture of scarecrows), if you put your love and passion into it until people will find, you are going to get a credit or honor or something. Most importantly, you are living your life. You are satisfying your soul by doing what you truly want to do.

I am proud of my father and he gets my greatest respect. I'm glad that he is not one of the corporation's working dogs. He is doing what his heart and soul tell him to do, not what the society tells him to do. My mom has always told me that "If there is no existing profession that you want to go for, then be the first to create one for yourself."

I think I'm very influenced by how they think about professions. My interests are still everywhere so i'll keep exploring the world until I find a right answer that will satisfy my heart and soul. If not, I guess I have to create one. :P


This is my father's book.



I tried to put the link to Amazon.com (the Japanese one) but it didn't work.. but anyways he has published some picture books of cherry blossoms too. Please check them out!

Monday, June 7, 2010

"Into the wild"






All photos by me






"Into the Wild"

The first time I watched this movie in a theatre, I did not have a word in my mind. The impression that the movie had given me was not describable with my vocabulary. It was astonishing.

The movie is based on a real story. "After graduating from Emory University, top student and athlete Christopher McCandless abandons his possessions, gives his entire $24,000 savings account to charity and hitchhikes to Alaska to live in the wilderness. Along the way, Christopher encounters a series of characters that shape his life." -from The Internet Movie database

Obviously, he had the potential to success and get whatever he wanted. His grades were good enough for going to Harvard Law school, which many people are dying to get inHowever, what he wanted to attain in his life was not the social status, fame, or money but the truth.

"I'm going to paraphrase Thoreau here... rather than love, than money, than faith, than fame, than fairness... give me truth. "

He was tired of living in the world where common values were all around. He wanted to find the truth by himself. Common values.... are the values which majority of the population have consensus for. In capitalism, everything is based on money. In religion, love and faith are always emphasized. Fairness is what is all about in democracy. We usually take these values for granted. However, Chris McCandless did not. He did not want to take these values without questioning and experimenting by him self. For him to find what is the truth of life, he had to abandon all the labels and materials which the society had given him and be free from the "readymade" values. And he started feeling the world purely by him self.

(The pictures on this post were taken in Salvation Mt in Niland, CA, which was one of the places where Chris had visited on his way to find the truth. )


It was a thought provoking movie for me and for a lot of my friends too. It's a movie that I know I'm going to watch and discuss about again with my friends when we grow up and have families.