Tokyo

Here, work is seen as the highest purpose in life. Family life is in the second place. This is detrimental, as work is not balanced with family time. In Europe, the work is (or it was) nicely balanced with family life: we were designed to enjoy family life and enjoy work. Two of the main purposes in life are family and work.

They don’t have the knowledge that we have in Europe (that comes from knowing about God, the source of the teachings that made human relationships flourish) so they guide themselves with what knowledge they had access to.

Living a life without purpose is detrimental to mental health. Confusion, frustration, and unhappiness take over.  An interesting note is that Science does not provide purpose – it just observes and explains in a limited way some characteristics of the surrounding reality.

An interesting fact about Japan is that religion and science go side by side without excluding each other. People believe in supernatural and enjoy a high degree of technology at the same time.

A minus in their religion is that they don’t have the concept of goodness that is gracious, that offers forgiveness; help in overcoming evil; second chances in life; new beginnings. Europe is realy blessed to have the concept of Grace (gracious goodness) so deeply embedded in thinking. People started to take this concept for granted as if we are born with it (some visits to Japan would be useful).

The main problem is that we think we are good; and that we are able to do good without a source of goodness. God commanded us to love: love God, love people, love your enemies. A Love that is aiming at three major directions. Without loving God (the creator of Love; the source of Love) we are not able to love people (imperfect people are to be loved). Love your enemies is like responding to evil with kindness. This is supernatural.

Our society started to reject the idea that we should aim to be good. I appreciate Japan: they try real hard (lots of effort involved) to be good by keeping the standards they have (although they don’t have the  source of  a goodness that is gracious).

People are very polite. Polite doesn’t necessarily mean ‘kind’. They love to share the sidewalk with others, they don’t mind living in flats (that is why the big cities are not overcrowded with tiny individual houses), they share food with strangers (including me). Education is good but is not enough.

You can be evil and polite at the same time. If politeness is not based on love and kindness I see it as useless or even a little bit dangerous: you may be fooled by appearances. A person needs a source of goodness in order to be good (there is a saying: you are what you eat; if you feed on goodness, results will follow).