In his “Outline of the Theory of Peasant Art,” Kenji Miyazawa wrote, “Until the whole world becomes happy, there can be no individual happiness.” As an ideal, I have no objection to this thought. But is it perhaps an abstract image of an ideal?
After all, what people feel to be happiness differs from one individual to another. How, then, should we understand the sense of happiness of the world as a whole?
In my own case, to give a familiar example, there was a plant called “Sanji-so” in a flowerpot. It had grown so densely that even when I watered it, the water would not soak into the soil. Only four or five flowers would bloom. This year, I replanted it in a slightly larger pot, and as many as twenty flowers bloomed beautifully. I could tell that the plant was happy. Seeing that made me feel happy.
Also, when people who have come from unfamiliar countries visit the “Phone of the Wind” and say things such as, “What a beautiful place this is,” or “This is a necessary place for people whose hearts have nowhere to go. Please continue to preserve it for many years to come,” I am filled with deep happiness, along with a sense of profound emotion.
Perhaps it is because of my age, but I can no longer find many things that I truly want. The happiness I feel when I see the relieved expressions of people who visit the “Phone of the Wind,” whose hearts have been “healed” or “saved,” is something that cannot be replaced by anything else.
When people speak about their own happiness, I believe it reveals what they have thought about, what they have done, and how they have lived.
A human life lasts around eighty years, which is a long span of time, while the life of flowers and plants is short, lasting only about a year. For that very reason, the results of the actions and care of the person who raises them appear immediately in the plants. In the case of human beings, however, the results of a person’s actions do not appear right away. They gradually emerge as consequences. Even if a person becomes angry and asks, “Why must I go through something like this?” they must recognize that everything is the result of their own actions.
Therefore, it is only natural that what kind of state can be called happiness differs from person to person. I believe it is impossible to gather the happiness of the entire world into one single understanding.
What do you feel happiness to be?