#9 New Series: The Art of Putting Thoughts into Words Starting at 50 - Chapter 9 | Those Outside the Spotlight: Why I Respect Those Who Walk Beside Us

When I watch soccer at a stadium, I might be looking at a slightly unusual place.

It may seem like I am following the ball, but in reality, I am not. Before I know it, my eyes are drawn to the bench.

The players who are not yet on the pitch. The people quietly preparing their bodies while waiting for a substitution. The people in that place, slightly removed from the center of the cheers.

I cannot take my eyes off their expressions and postures.

I cannot explain well why that is. It has just been that way for a long time.

Even when watching music shows, my eyes go to the people dancing on the edges rather than the center. Even when looking at corporate growth, I find myself more interested in the front lines supporting the foundation than in the conspicuous expansion.

When did I become like this?

I used to think it was because I was a companion.

But now, I feel it is a little different.

I have no memory of trying to become a companion. I just realized I was always by someone's side.

Perhaps that is all there is to it.

The emotion there is not sympathy.

It is something quieter.

Respect.

That is closer to the truth.

It is closer to a way of seeing things than an emotion.

If everyone were honest, they would want to be the ace. They would want to stand in the center, produce results, and be showered with applause.

I think that is a very natural thing.

However, reality is not that simple.

Not everyone stands in the center. Many people are on the outside.

As a backup.
As a supporter.
As a companion.

There, one encounters a quiet fact.

“Perhaps I am not the center.”

My mentor once called that feeling “resignation.”

It is not giving up.

It is seeing reality as it is,
and accepting the place where you stand.
It is quietly re-accepting your role.

Come to think of it, I might have felt the same thing when I watched a certain animated film.

Invited by my son to see it, I watched that movie with a slightly cynical attitude at the time.
I think I was still keeping some distance from it somewhere inside.

However, as the story progressed, my feelings changed.

What I saw there was a character who did not let go of his role until the very end.

He did not win.
In fact, looking only at the results, one might say he was not rewarded.

Even so, he continued to stand in his place.

Seeing that figure, my heart was quietly moved.

Perhaps I was not moved by his strength.

I think I was paying respect to the very act of living out one's role.

That was when I realized.

I was not looking at the protagonist.
I was looking at the side that makes the protagonist possible.

Not the light at the center, but the space outside it.
Not the result, but the preparation and silence that come before and after.
Not what is easily seen, but what is hard to see that supports it.

That is where my eyes inevitably turn.

I don't think that is any special philosophy.

It is likely a perspective that has naturally taken shape over the time I have lived.

Time spent beside someone.
Time spent in a supporting role.
Time when things did not go well.

Such things have accumulated to form my current way of seeing things.

Life needs a protagonist.

However, without a companion, the story cannot continue.

When I was young, I only thought about stepping forward.
I thought that standing in the center was, in some way, the correct answer.

Now, it is a little different.

I have come to quietly turn my eyes toward those who are outside the light.

That may be due to my age,
or perhaps it is because I have finally become able to accept my own place.

This place is not bad, either.
In fact, there are things I can see precisely because I am in this place.

I did not choose to be a companion.
Looking back, that was the place where I felt most like myself.

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