Who's hero's journey am I a part of?
Watching this show “Old Enough” in which Japanese children, aged 2-4, traverse their cities to do their first solo errand.
Running errands has become something I dread — I’ve sold a bodysuit to a woman on Depop, but haven’t shipped it out for three weeks now (the two block walk to the post office is nigh insurmountable). Don’t @ me. There’s something about the executive function needed to perform the act that absolutely stalls me these days. In some ways, it’s hard to care about these smaller acts (which do build up and completely ruin my day like taxes) when the big picture feels so unclear.
This show about kids running errands is so lifting and beautiful — these children are doing something for the first time in their lives, something that humanity has done since the beginning of time, but the accomplishment of doing it is no less great and no less meaningful. Each episode shares a hero’s journey.
The children are called to an adventure with a choreographed errand; some of our heroes accept their quest without hesitation or fear, others are reluctant, but helped along by their parents. Ryuta and Soichiro of Tokyo, two playful boys tasked with acquiring fish from a grandmother who lives across a bridge, set off in matching yellow rain jackets without much cajoling at all. Ao, however, the two-year old son of a sushi chef from Hakusan, exits the house with his father’s dry-cleaning in hand and promptly tries to return, scared of the prospect of facing this daily walk without his mother. Every child who begins fearful is eventually calmed and given strength by their parents with some fortifying words or a sweet treat: “I am capable! I am brave!” shouts Ririka, daughter of a third-generation persimmon orchidist from the Enzan district of Koshu.
The quests are simple but momentous, and we bear witness to both the ordeal of the errand and sweet success born from perseverance and trust. Two-year-old Hana is given the quest of traversing from the second-floor restaurant to the first-floor olive flounder hatchery for a fish; the steps are almost half her height, and the hatchery is dark and foreign — she makes it down the steps, but wails at the entrance, scared to step into the darkness. With the encouragement of her uncle inside the hatchery, she steels her nerves and enters, carrying her mission out. Sota, a boy from Hakodate, learned how to pick up slimy fish from the gravelly floor after the string holding his fish box broke twice; on the way back home up a hill, he ran down twice again, both times chasing after apples that had rolled away from him. He finally made it back home, sweaty and victorious, having experienced a bit of the Sisyphean struggle of life.
In these little hero’s journeys, we see the generosity of the community and the beautiful exchange of gift-giving. The children ask the bus driver if the bus goes to the right destination, random passersby for directions, and shop owners for a specific amount of a certain food (the kids often get the amount wrong). Each is helpful as they can be, and they send the kids along with well wishes and often, a little tokens of love like an extra dango (a sweet treat). Sometimes, the child is instructed to give a neighbor a gift; Kippei of Enshu-Mori, an inland farming town, runs three errands, delivering a gift of fish to three families of the community, each of whom send him home with something of their own — persimmons, sweet potatoes and konjak, and boar sausage.
Through these children’s eyes, I experienced the simple bliss of doing something for the first time. Each of them ended the day stronger and wiser than when they started it, and they were transformed by this new ability and self-knowledge. Their parents, too, were transformed with surety of their child’s growth — a constant in all these episodes was the nervous but determined parent, hoping their child would finish the goal and knowing it had to be done alone.
All that is to say, I found my life sweetened by the recognition of these kids’ hero’s journeys and that we are all going through our own journey.
Anyways. Shannonigans is back. Just going to be some messy thoughts, nothing too formal, no structure yet in mind.
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