Although stealing a pen from an individual is an abomination, I do lift a pen from every place I stay. These tend to go into one of my implement boxes (I'm trained in art and writing, I have several such tool boxes) until I happen to 'need' a pen. 1/n
Some of you may recognise the logo - the old Palace Hotel in Marunouchi, Tokyo. I particularly remember this trip. By nought but coincidence, I was staying there on the first Anzac Day I'd not been in Australia for.
On that day, at sunrise, rather than a Dawn Service, I sat out on the tiny balcony with a coffee and watched two swans tending their nest in the moat below as I watched the light reveal details of the Imperial Palace across the road.
Okay, that in itself was mind blowing. As I sat there, I thought of family members who'd served. My own grandfather had been in the ADF in WWII. The Imperial Army (although it was nothing personal) had dropped high explosives on him. Via planes in Darwin and artillery in PNG.
I reflected that only a generation had gone past, but here I was; safe and welcome in the heart of one of the world's great cities. My grandfather's generation had seen an existential threat, my own had seen a totally different life experience.
The old Palace Hotel has been demolished and rebuilt since then, and it is too long since I've travelled. I also read this week that the wooden station at Harajuku is to be demolished post Olympics. Thing is, the world changes. Foes become allies, experience becomes memory.
Destruction is part of creation. History is huge and we live, generally, with the assumption that as individuals we have little true effect on its progress. We do though. Through billions of tiny acts, we create history simply through definition.
The future will decide if it remembers you personally. It's how we think and act in the present which determines if there will be anything to remember.
That's it. I just grabbed a pen to jot something down and that was the thought process that came with it. Welcome to my brain, you should see it from in here. 🙏 .../.
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