A Replacement to Writing? 2005/2006

newspaper article; job; madonna; lucky

Japanese princess quits monarchy, marries commoner

"Japanese Princess Sayako, the emperor's only daughter, quit the world's oldest monarchy and married a commoner, setting out for a new life at age 36 as a middle-class housewife.
Sayako, who had insisted for years she would wait to marry, walked several steps behind the groom to a specially built Shinto altar in a prestigious Tokyo hotel in a reverse fairy-tale that has been closely followed across Japan.
Wearing a simple Western-style white dress and a single-strand pearl necklace, Sayako exchanged vows and shared a ceremonial glass of sake wine with Yoshiki Kuroda, a 40-year-old urban planner.
Sayako quit her job as a part-time bird researcher and, under a now controversial tradition, loses her imperial status by marrying a commoner. . ."

on yahoo! news(click for full article)

Such news! And I wonder why straits times didn't report it. Heard it on radio today and went to search the papers. Am studying Japanese Studies, that's why I was interested in this piece of news. So brave of her!

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Consider the following social situation:

FriendA (not my FRIEND) introduces a close friend(friendB) to another of his close friend(friendC).

A: friendC, meet friendB. (Let's assume friendC and friendB are the people's names ok)
C: Hi, friendB. *shakes hands with B* You are a ....?

What would you put in the blank? People will most probably say, "I'm a student" or "I'm a salesperson" or "I'm the CEO of a huge company and you must be the waiter here". Alright alright, I was just kidding on the last one.

So, does a job define a person? Are you your job? Are WE our jobs?
I was studying for psychology and this chapter, Social Psychology: Group Influences on Individual Behaviour: Our Social Selves: "Who are We?" like completely answers my question. So here's an excerpt:

"Your personal identity ("Who am I?") is the part of your psychological make-up that distinguishes you as a unique individual. You might think of yourself as a caring, creative person who likes pepperoni pizza, jazz, and sci-fi movies. Your social identity ("Who are we?") refers to your sense of yourself as a member of the various family, kinship, religious, national, and social groups to which you belong. You might refer to this part of your identity by saying, "I am a Catholic... I am a software developer... I am a Mexican American... I am Jonathan's dad." Our social identity converts the "I" to the "we". Social psychologists believe that people have a fundamental need to be members of groups - to belong."

Oops, it actually answers the question of why we say we are our jobs and not if we really are our jobs. There have always been people thinking if we associate our lives too much with our jobs so that we become our jobs and our jobs are us. Without them, we are nothing. I guess social conformity also applies here - if we don't have a job, then we are good-for-nothings, which leads to the have-to-have-a-job-if-not-I'm-done-for mentality which somehow leads to the we-are-our-jobs mentality. Hmm, complex.

I wish I could one day reply to the question of "You are a...?" with "I am a musican." Ahh... the immense gratification of doing that! And my vocabulary is getting better! =D
Anyway, I hope people see that we are not our jobs. People are individuals who hold a job only for survival purposes.

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What's Madonna's latest song? Is the song even Madonna's? Er, something about time passes by so slowly... Gosh, I absolutely detest that song! The repetition drives me crazy.

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When I was working for BOSE at the PC show this year, there was this guy working for apple stationed with us. He's from NUS too, I think final year already, and he was either from Science or Engineering. I can't remember. But he's very nice and he mistook my cousin for a malay! =D He minors in business and you know what, I can't remember his name either. He said we should have lunch together in school one day but we never exchanged numbers. So sad. I wonder if he mentioned lunch only out of courtesy's sake. I hope not, that would be so fake!

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I was reminded of Jeremy. Why? Because of SH. Both are freakingly similar - both are virgos (SH: because I saw it in your profile) and both are nice people. Felt so touched when Siu Hang sent me "Overture for Percussion Ensemble" recording because my Xinfony II cd had spoilt and the static noise is louder than the music (thanks again!) and was reminded when I once mentioned to Jeremy about Flight of the Bumblebee piano score and some time later he handed me the score in lecture. I was so surprised then! Haha... And so touched also. Btw for those who don't know, Jeremy is ATTACHED ok! He's a good friend, so don't bother trying to tease me about him! Haha... How come I get to know such nice people huh? I am lucky.

Then LY is offering to go to school earlier tomorrow with me to collect my lit. essay before going to watch that JS film. SEE? I am lucky, I know it and I should learn to appreciate it.

posted by tstar @ 6:10 PM