2024/03/21 English

BGM: Blur - Lonesome Street

It was a day off. This morning, I enjoyed the morning Zoom meeting in English as usual. But, when we introduced ourselves to each other, I told my autism. Then, the other members started talking about it even though the topic would be George Michael (I had heard he had been used as an icon of a coin in the UK.) Therefore, I tried to tell them about autism as "it is one of the characters in our brains, etc..."

TBH, on talking about autism in this kind of self-introduction, I ALWAYS hesitate/struggle about it. Should I confess/declare I am autistic? For me, this fact is not so serious/sensitive one that must be worth telling about. In other words, I don't need to talk about it. It is like our blood types or any taste of entertainment. As "Let me introduce myself. I am Tatsuro. I am working at a department store. A Japanese autistic guy who respects Haruki Murakami. I love Blur's music..." etc.

This morning's conversation among us went on with referring to what autism can be. A participant said to me "But you must have a great skill of communication, and also you are very socialized, so you're great." I was glad to hear this and thought "Yes, this must be one possible beginning of understanding each other." I won't say any irony about this. As an autistic person, I need to walk closer to the other ones to open my condition to face the real world.

After that, I went to the library to borrow Gregory Khezrnejat's book "Kamogawa Runner [グレゴリー・ケズナジャット『鴨川ランナー』]." Reading it, I've found that it must be so amazing debut novel. This novel tells us about the struggles of the main character (who has come to Japan to study Japanese culture.) But, the narrator has so keen self-reflection that enables him to think about how his inner thoughts have been changing. Therefore this novel must not be any banal "orientalism" stuff. This one seems like an evergreen youthful one.

This evening, I enjoyed the weekly Zoom meeting with my friends. The topic was the Himeji marathon event - I still have been wondering "Why do they try to run such a hard marathon?" Even though I have read Haruki Murakami's essays about marathons, it still has remained within me as a seed of curiosity.