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In the holiday shuffle, it’s easy to lose a sense of balance and perspective. Kanji to the rescue!
Evening Balance
Photo credit: Hickoree
With all that I’ve said about 意 in past blogs, I’ve neglected to mention that it’s nearly symmetrical. If this kanji resembles an animal with a long tail, just snip off that tail (ouch!), and you have yourself a symmetrical (but aching!) animal!
When 意 combines with other symmetrical kanji, they result in compounds that are particularly calming to see. Click the link to find some of those.
The Meaning of Life
The commercialism of December can fill us with a sense of meaninglessness, prompting us to wonder what we value and how we should allocate our time and energy. The questions can even make us consider the purpose of our existence. In a muddle, we might not know how to articulate these psychic and existential matters. But once again, kanji can help; in particular, several compounds will surely prove useful:
目的意識 (mokuteki-ishiki: sense of purpose)
purpose (1st 2 chars.) + consciousness (last 2 chars.)使命意識 (shimei-ishiki: sense of mission; awareness of duty or calling) mission (1st 2 chars.) + awareness (last 2 chars.)
In this four-kanji compound, 使命 means “mission.” That mission may be anything from photographing documents to destroying a bridge.
A Note on the Breakdown of 使命 …
存在意義 (sonzai-igi: meaning of life, meaning of one’s existence) existence (1st 2 chars.) + meaning (last 2 chars.)
The first two kanji break down as to exist + to exist. The last two break down as meaning + meaning. (It’s like a Doublemint gum commercial, with copious sets of twins.)
意味付ける (imizukeru: to give meaning to)
meaning (1st 2 chars.) + verbal suffix meaning “to impart”
In the unlikely event that kanji isn’t enough to help pull you out of an existential funk, I’d like to recommend a book that just might: The Meaning of Life by Bradley Trevor Greive. (And no, I didn’t misspell his last name. It just looks as if I did!) His book makes a great gift—not that I’m endorsing commercialism, mind you!
A Sense of Belonging
When humans aren’t looking for things to do with their time and energy, they search for wherever they belong in the world. This can be a heartwrenching exploration. I know someone who never felt that he fit into his native Australia. For him, Japan immediately felt like home. And I’ve heard equally impassioned descriptions of what it’s like for Japanese people who never felt that they belonged in Japan.
We might just as easily be born into the wrong era, the wrong body, or the wrong family. A stranger once approached me and said that when I was born, the stork had dropped me in entirely the wrong place! At the time, I thought the woman was addled, but later I came around to her point of view!
Fortunately, when we correct such errors, we can find abundant joy. At those times we feel this:
帰属意識 (kizoku ishiki: sense of belonging, identification)
belonging to (1st 2 chars.) + consciousness (last 2 chars.)The first two kanji break down as homecoming + to belong.
Many of us recognize the first kanji as the common kae(ru), meaning two things: “to return to one’s original position” and “to come home.” Those senses sometimes overlap. But at other times, coming “home” to the place one truly belongs means wandering quite far from one’s original position.
However far and wide you’ve wandered, you’ve somehow found your way to today’s Verbal Logic Quizzes. Enjoy!
