Just right.　-Murakami radio-

         I'm quite old now, but I would never call myself an old man No, I am an old man, or an old cocker, or somewhere around there, but I don't call myself that. The reason is that when you say 'I'm an old man now', you become a real old man. The same goes for women. When a woman says "I'm an old lady" (even if it is in the form of a joke or modesty), she becomes a real old lady. Once spoken, words have that much power. It does. I believe that people should live naturally according to their age, and there is no need to force themselves to look younger. But at the same time, there is no need to force yourself to become an old man or an old lady. I think the most important thing about age is to try not to think about it. Usually, it is enough to forget about it. When you need to, you can remember it privately, just a little bit, at the tip of your head.

Every morning I wash my face and brush my teeth in the washroom. Then I inspect my face in the mirror, and every time I do, I think, "Hmmm, I'm in trouble, I'm getting old". But at the same time, I think, "Well, I'm getting older, so that's about right". It's just fine. It doesn't happen that often, but sometimes when I'm walking down the street, I'm approached by a reader (or is it a reader?) who wants to shake my hand and says, "It was a pleasure to meet you". Every time I do, I want to say, " I look at my face in the mirror every morning, and every time I do, I'm sick of it". How can I be happy to witness such things on the street? But, well, I guess it's not like that. I would be more than happy if I could make you happy with something like this, yes.

In any case, for me, 'just right' is one of the keywords in my life. I'm not handsome, I don't have long legs, I'm tone-deaf, I'm not a genius, and if you think about it, there's hardly anything good about me. But in my opinion, if I say that I'm just about right, then I'm just about right.
Because if I were to be very popular with women, my life would be in some kind of confusion, If I had long legs, my seat on the plane would be too cramped, if I sang well, I'd get polyps in my throat from singing too much karaoke if I was a genius, I'd have to worry that my talent would one day run out ......... I think I'm quite content with the way I am now.

There is no particular inconvenience. When you start to think loosely that "this is just fine", it doesn't matter whether you are an old man(or an old lady) or not. It doesn't matter how old you are, you are just a 'just right' person. If you feel this or that about your age, you should try to think of it that way as much as possible. It may not be easy in some cases, but, well, let's both do our best.

Murakami this week.

I have yet to sing karaoke since I was born. It's fine, isn't it?
It's fine, isn't it?