Birthdays, Beer, and the World of Men

I have five birthdays a year.
It might sound like I'm aging five years a year, but that's not the case.

It means that in addition to my family of four, there is my mother who lives nearby. We celebrate birthdays as a family five times a year.

A birthday is supposed to feel special because it happens about once a year, but when you think about it, I've already had over 40 birthdays myself. On top of that, having five birthdays a year means that the sense of it being special has worn quite thin.

The kids say they wish it were their birthday tomorrow and the day after, but from an adult's perspective, that would be quite a lot of work.

Anyway, the other day was my wife's birthday, and I took on the challenge of making Korean food as she requested. I'm not very efficient, so I spent about half a day in the kitchen, becoming a kitchen drinker while I prepared it, but I found it surprisingly fun.

I don't have many challenges that I clearly intend to take on, but when I think of birthdays as an opportunity to do so, having many of them doesn't seem so bad. Maybe 12 times a year wouldn't be so bad. No, that might be an exaggeration.

That's how I spent my wife's birthday, and the thought occurred to me that everyone inherits something from someone. We simply inherit life from our parents. Common sense and the like are also often inherited from our families. Things inherited in childhood become so natural that, to the person themselves, they tend to become like air or water.

On the other hand, when you inherit something after you've grown up to some extent, the way you are conscious of it changes. Such events, which are often impressive, easily become a story in themselves.

Some might say they don't have such events from their adult years, but that's nothing to be pessimistic about; everyone is definitely inheriting something. It's just a matter of how conscious they are of it. Or perhaps it's not a matter of inheriting, but rather of being influenced unexpectedly.

In any case, they can serve as guidelines for how to live, or they can become a cage. Regarding this book I read a while ago,

I wrote about it in a past article, and it came back to me again. I reread it and thought for a moment, 'Hey, this is actually pretty good,' but then I remembered it was just a summarized excerpt from a passage in the book.

Thinking back to when I found the constraints placed upon me to be annoying for a moment, yet felt unable to do anything when I decided I could do whatever I wanted, I felt a sense of envy for the constraints that are spoken of with such warmth.

And although those things happened, it is not something to be pessimistic about, so I am drinking a beer again tonight after my family has gone to sleep. Yes, no matter what, I am drinking a beer again today.

Beer makes one's thoughts flow more smoothly. I might have been drinking when I wrote that review of Nene of the Watermill, too. After all, in the same article, I went on to write about wanting to call my son 'John,' and that even became the title. The idea that something English-like could be conveyed and expand one's world. It makes no sense.

Another thing I remembered is Ringo. The 'World of Men' as told by Ringo Roadagain from JoJo Part 7, S.B.R. For the details, I would like you to read all of JoJo starting from Part 1, but when I asked for a picture based on the theme of 'Ringo and the World of Men,' this is what I got.

I wanted Copilot to drink a beer and produce an image like the thumbnail. Wait, no, the person who drew this must already be drinking. We were comrades.

The article where I thought I'd try calling my son 'John'