A little bit of everything

Holiday season that it is, I've been thinking a lot about who would be sitting around my dining room table on any given major winter holiday.  My family is made up of, simply put, incredibly diverse perspectives.  If everyone on both sides of my family were to sit around the table (and let's not focus here on the fact this will never happen) the list would include the following:  Buddhists, agnostics, Muslims, evangelical Christians, atheists, pagans, seriously literal "What Would Jesus Do" Christians, die-hard "I-need-to-stock-pile-guns-to-protect-myself-from-the-government" militia-style Republicans, completely polar opposite "ohmygod, I can't believe I'm related to you" Democrats, gay and straight, with money and not so much, African-Americans, Chinese, Egyptian, Ivorian, Creole, Lakota, mixed race children, Ph.Ds and my grandmother who didn't finish high school, farmers and those with a load of frequent-flier miles, artists and stick-figure drawers, musicians and tone deaf.  The list of comparisons goes on.

We don't all get along.  Some of us rarely speak.  Others simply won't and don't.  We are related by blood and marriage.  We don't choose each other.  Therein lies a significant point.  Except for our spouses, we don't choose each other.

Filling my life with those whose opinions are similar to mine--this is fun.  We banter, push each other, laugh, and finish each other's sentences.  Those with divergent opinions I see less of, and the more adamant we are in our differences the less we see of each other.  I like having choices.  I like choosing people I like and who like me back and spending time with them.  I like having them in my life.  I tell myself this is normal.  It is, right?  Why wouldn't I want to have like-minded people whom I like all around me? (Keyword for this paragraph:  like.)

Because--and this is where Japan comes in--that's how I define my heaven.  More specifically, and let me go on record first and say I don't technically believe in heaven the way it's referenced in the Bible, my heaven is the Yamanote-line.

This is the Yamanote-line.

It's a major train line running around Tokyo, never-ending, and possibly never beginning.  Fine.  It must start somewhere every morning and end somewhere every night but that's really not the point I'm trying to make.

My heaven is me on the Yamanote-line.  Forever.  All my favorite people hop on and off, we eat food, we never get fat, we talk, laugh, dance, sing, tell really stupid jokes (I'm finally able to remember the punchlines of every single joke in my version of heaven), and this goes on forever.  Those whom I choose for friends, family, companions, ride with me on the train.  Some get off every now and then and let others on.  Simply put, I'm surrounded by people I love and chose forever.  I'm totally serious about this.

I could argue I can save making sure I'm surrounded by like-minded people until I ride the Yamanote-line forever.  I want different ways of thinking in my life, now, right?  So then, just as easily I could argue I should make sure I'm challenged by those I'm really not sure I like and do that now so I'll appreciate the presence of my favorite people later on.  Not being much of a fan of delayed gratification, this is hard for me.  Admitting I don't often sit around the dining room table with my relatives whom I'm just really not all that fond of evidently means I don't want different ways of thinking that much.  Hmmm.

Back to why this matters now.  As I hunt for apartments in Tokyo, I find myself deliberately avoiding the Yamanote-line.  This is ridiculous, I know.  I'm almost telling myself if I ride the Yamanote-line too often now I won't appreciate as much later.  This is total crap, obviously, but I still find myself looking at the lines that branch out and away from the green circle and avoiding the areas on the line itself.  It's like heaven is right there but I'm not supposed to touch it for awhile.

A little bit of everything tonight.  Life and death, likes and dislikes, friend and foe, and some how knowing it relates back to Japan.  Random musings for the day.