Folded Bag
I got notoriously bad (or very good = depend on how you see it) habit to picking-up something
interesting on the street or from a rubbish-dump. It could be a discarded electric device or a
part of machine of which I’ve been looking for years, or something useful in my future projects.
(Sculpture featured in this blog, [Buddha 2009] was made by the discarded aluminum pipes,
kinetic piece [Cupidon] in my Youtube (kinetorori) is powered by a motor from a cooling-fan
I found road side and the motors rotating [Virtual Woman] came from Micro-wave Cooker, not
to mention a nude figure [Suppon-pon] 😀 😀
Virtually everything, but few exceptions were such as Chinese Toys I bought for £1 :-))
In order to carry it back, I always have some spare bag stashed in my pocket or
in my back-pack. —– may be three bags in the back-pack, one or two in my jacket’s pocket.
It’s the same idea to a motto of the Boy Scout “ Be Prepared” 😀
[]
To stash a plastic bag, they got to be neatly folded like the one in the photo.
In one occasion, when we Japanese friends went to a park and try sitting there, we noticed that
the ground was a bit wet. So I handed my bags to those friends to sit on it.
Among those friends there were young women and one of them screamed
“Oh dear, it’s folded”.
[]
—– Now-a-day, statistics showed that about 20% of male population in Japan chooses not to
marry. —– Everything become very easy to carry-out the daily life without having a wife.
Just heat-up a pack of pre-cooked meal using a microwave-cooker in a Convenient-store.
—– Even a convenient Sex is available everywhere whether it was paid or not.
Those kind of conveniences may be more expensive though, on the end, the total cost would
be less than to have a wife, not mention able to avoid the troubles comes with marriage, hence
in average, the number of kids is less than two = reducing the population further. (Of cause,
the life is not just a matter of cost. —– but this is the situation there. Which caused the
other is a point of argument though, I don’t think Packed food was the cause of single man :-D)
= in obvious consequence, the counter-part, women had to face this situation.
—– So that, there are lots of Magazine articles, Net advices, how to find a man to get marry
and what point to look at. = Good sign and the sign of the man, better avoid.
—– A kind of Psychological profile said, better not to chose a man who fuss about principles,
tidiness, cleanness etc. = “He would make your life in Hell while complaining your laziness”.
—– So that, a young woman cried (implying, I can’t take care of this sort) 😀
(So does, some can fold an umbrella neatly but others not, saying “Anyway it has to be open on
the next rain, why bother” = If this is the rhetoric, we don’t need to bother the life
or happiness because anyhow we will die soon or later. = it’s a choice)
[]
To folding a bag may not takes more than a minute and not much skill is needed
though, it need to have a certain mind-set.
It’s a mind-set aiming it better or ultimately a perfection.
[]
A bag photographed here came from a Chinese Food-shop when I bought a bag of rice, may
be 6 months ago. It’s mean this bag has been used to carry a shopping repeatedly 6 months
(and folded again.) And it is an essential item needed to do a shopping such as in the Lidl who
doesn’t give a free bag. —– Financially, I may not be much rewarded to have own bag
though, the matter is not to save a couple of pounds in total but, I don’t like to carry their bag
which is showing too conspicuous logo 😀 Anyhow, we are getting too many bags on shopping
such as when we buy loose vegetables etc. Too much already, and the situation is bad enough.
[]
To fold a bag is a way of Zen. Whether it has any merit or not, leave a bag in a
messy state is messy. Why not to make it a bit tidy.
Why spend a minutes ? —– if not, could we ever utilize that minute for
anything more productive in the life ? —– I quite doubt it.
A person, even wouldn’t bother to fold a bag couldn’t pay enough attention to the life.
(But, don’t ask me, “By folding the bag, why I didn’t become a millionaire or Prim-minister ?”
= it’s a matter of another mind-set. Aiming to become millionaire need to take care of million
more factors, not just for one bag. Folding a bag is only a start. 😀 )
[]
Zen only deals with its moment. = When see an empty bag => Do something = the best
is to fold and put it in a pocket. — When a moment which need to use a bag comes, just use it.
But not to walk on a street expecting to find something to pick-up. When it comes, it has come.
—– though, no fixed obligation to pick it up.
(But if you interested in, pick up at once = When you go back next day, it’s gone already 🙂 )
= Zen decision has to be made on its each moment. (On its moment, the existence of
spare-bag was known to subconscious, hence to conceive [pick it up] was a viable choice.
And why you were interested in was, because your subconscious knew that you need it.
= no need to dither like “I want to pick it up, but how to carry this back or not to pick up ?”
= ( having a bag increased the flexibility of this decision making 😀 )
[]
After awhile, the accumulated “Folded bags” became bag-full, and got to go for recycle =
recycling people might think “What a waste of the time. Why this guy didn’t just put them
straight to the bag ? Otherwise, he could have used the time more productively” 😀
—– It comes down to a mind-set of the Life. = To live tidy life is a life, still
live in a mess is also a life. = We can chose as we like. The matter is,
to know, which ever we chose, the consequence do comes accordingly.
(The troubled consequence of my habit is, the junk I’ve picked-up became a mountain =
“one day I’ll create something out of this junk” might be a wish-full thinking or
delusion = a curse to live as a kinetic sculptor. Ha ha ha 😀 )
___/\___
[]
Yes, make a sculpture:)
You mean mountain of it ? —– Good idea 🙂
Am I understanding the implication to be that the woman was upset about the bag being folded because she was concerned that unfolding it might ruin it in someway, and that this in turn was a reflection on your own conscientiousness, which was a standard too demanding for her(as you have interpreted her reaction here)? It’s merely a question of standards (or mindset) isn’t it? I don’t know if there is any reason to make it about gender.
If we goes into the gender issue here, it is a tricky mine field. What I described here were just plain facts.
There was a well known story that the most exclusive shop, Harrods applied a work permission for a shop assistant
happen to be a Japanese woman, who could wrap-up the item what so ever awkward the shape it is, in the most
neat style, and it was granted since she was irreplaceable with any English woman.
And the most of the worker who is making a wig with human hair in China are women.
Yet still, inside of their own handbag where other people is not suppose to see, is in mess.
Hence there are lots of those advices for men often pointing out “Check the hand bag of the girl friend
(or going to be) before making any commitment”. —– better not to make it in gender issue.
Or, that young woman didn’t expect that a man paid an attention to such small matter. 😀
🙂 I see.