Watching ‘Only Yesterday’ (again)

Watching the animated movie Only Yesterday in which Taeko takes a vacation to go pick safflowers in the countryside of Japan.

I wish I could do something like that. I would love to do it.

I once called a farm that grows a certain variety of grape that I love. It’s the only farm I know that grows this particular variety. I was excited about the idea of going to stay out there for a few weeks to get a way from the city, to be in the country and spend time in the vineyards.

When I called I told the person on the other end that I am interested in helping out on their farm. I asked if it would be possible to pick grapes and work on the farm temporarily. Why wouldn’t a farm want people to help?

But I was told flat out that I cannot. Because they already have their workers – they contract out for their labor through an agency which supplies them with illegal labor, and they don’t want US citizens working on their farm.

Recently I was thinking about the Gini Coefficient. I remember when people still cared about things like equality and the ill effects that inequality has on societies. It was a big thing a couple of decades ago. How to maintain a society with a high level of equality and all its benefits, with a low Gini Coefficient – such as Japan has.

But all that has gone out the window it seems. The idea of that kind of society existing in the United States has vanished, even while there is more clamoring than ever about ‘rights’ and ‘equality’. Isn’t it strange how just as those things are destroyed, they are hyped up so much?