"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!