The Blackberry Walk

Culture is trapped in the dialectic between the past and the future. Our traditions form out ground atop which we can firmly stand and our aspirations about the future are the clouds in the sky to which we reach. Without the ground we cannot reach for the clouds and with out the clouds we are rooted to the ground and immobile. At the moment I am rewatching Dagashi Kashi. A classic romcom SOL which has both an osana najimi and a 'new girl': an explosion of colour and passion into the protagonist's life. The stale everyday occurances, which the osana najimi is apart of, is broken up and livened up by the appearance of a new girl who possesses energy and enthusiasm. The dynamic is akin to the choice we see as a society. Should we cling to what is comfortable, known and reliable or attempt to understand and embrace the unpredictable, new and exciting? Our rejection of traditions and comfortable progressions without invigoration is the protagonist who rejects the osana najimi. Yet wouldn't a story where the new girl appears like a whirlwind in their life and protag-kun picks his osana najimi make the story a bit of a damp squib? Thankfully in society we don't have the need to choose. Real life is a buffet of ideas, not a set menu of ideology. Hence a balance must be struck between equal and opposite forces for our society to function. Wait my analogy has broken down...