Changing 'Someone' into 'That Person'

'The death of someone, and the death of that person. They are completely different.'

These are the words of a junior high school Japanese teacher I heard over 20 years ago. The teacher's voice is still fresh in my ears.

What on earth is needed for an event to change from something that happened to 'someone' into something that happened to 'that person'?

In 2015, 'someone with a disability' suddenly became 'my child with a disability'.

Having had surprisingly easy births with both my first and second children, I thought giving birth was no big deal.

I was terribly mistaken. Facing my third child, who was born pale and blue, I realized for the first time that it is almost a miracle for both mother and child to survive childbirth. She was born blind, and even now at seven years old, she cannot hold up her head, has physical disabilities, and does not speak. The words 'Disability Grade 1' printed on her disability certificate, along with 'No re-certification required' written next to it, tell the story of her future in a cruel way.

Although she requires assistance in every aspect of life, her presence and will to live have the power to shake my values from every angle. Until then, although I had thought that people with disabilities must have a hard time, I had never thought about trying to create change myself. However, now that my resolution has inevitably increased, I am determined to realize a society where my daughter with a disability can live a rich life in her own way.

In 2018, my family moved to India due to my husband's job change. In India, every time the car stopped at an intersection, homeless people would knock on the windows. The dangerous mountains of trash towering in the suburbs and the air pollution in Delhi were also tremendous. However, without a doubt, India is also on Earth. Just like in Japan, many people from children to adults live their lives there. Even now that I have returned to Japan, the people of India have definitely ceased to be 'someone somewhere' to me.

Every time I experience a new encounter, 'someone' within me changes into 'that person' one by one.

I hear voices saying they don't know how to think about the 'SDGs,' but in the end, doesn't it all come down to converting 'someone' into 'that person' one by one? What is needed to 'realize a sustainable and prosperous society, leaving no one on Earth behind' is an expansion of perspective.

There are still many 'someones' in the world that I don't know, including animals and plants. By meeting many people and nature, and knowing the world in a real way, I change 'someone' into 'that person'.

What we can do for the future now might be what the teacher was teaching us in the classroom 20 years ago.