Prunus Mume Buds - Not Rivalry But Democracy 白梅 - 「競争心」じゃなく「民主主義」だから発言するんです！

Japanese follows English. 英語の後に日本語が続きます。

I found two white prunus mume (or Japanese apricot) trees planted side-by-side in my neighborhood, surprising me because the buds of WHITE prunus mume are not white but PINK. 

WHITE prunus mume's buds 白梅の蕾

No flowers but buds 蕾ばっかり

White Japanese apricot flowers 白梅

White flower, pink buds 白い花とピンクの蕾

The right tree has only buds ほとんど蕾

The left one was almost in full bloom ほぼ満開

The tree on the right has mostly only buds while the other in almost full bloom. Why have these two trees planted side-by-side which therefore must've grown in almost the same environment ended up being so different? Is every tree different as every person is, or have they chosen to be different?😁  

Otohiko Kaga, a Japanese author and psychology professor, wrote in a book that schizophrenic patients in Japan generally worry that they are different from others and therefore are disliked and left out while French patients worry that their faces and minds are the same or they are thought to be the same as others or have lost their uniqueness. When I was a teenager, I believed that everyone thought each person was unique and different (self-contradictory!), so I was surprised later on to learn that most Japanese think they are the same and therefore can understand each other if only they talk... 

In 1932, the then Japanese prime minister Tsuyoshi Inukai said famously to those coming to kill him, "You would understand if I could speak" but was shot to death. It's naive for Inukai to say that (though I believe he said that to talk the killers out of killing him), and for many Japanese to still believe so and therefore not to speak about things that matter, as indicated in Tokyo Olympics head Yoshiro Mori's jaw-dropping comment, “Women have a strong sense of rivalry. If one (female) member raises her hand to speak, all the others feel the need to speak too. Everyone ends up saying something.” Women (and men, too) who understand how democracy works speak not because of rivalry but because they know the importance of communication, i.e., integral part of democratic processes.    

Democracy is messy, which takes a time, and after the talk, everyone may understand what was discussed, but not necessarily agree with each other. It's time for Japanese people to understand such an aspect of democracy to be inclusive and diverse in a real sense.  

(If you wish to post your comment but don't have a Google account, select "anonymous" from the drop down menu titled "comment as"!)

白梅の蕾はピンクなんですね。初めて知りました。でも木が2本並んで植えられていて、一本はほぼ蕾なのにもう一本はほぼ満開なのはなぜかしら？木にも個性がある？違う人生を選んだのかしら😁？

昔、加賀乙彦氏の本で、日本の統合失調症患者は「私はみんなと違ってしまった。だから嫌われ、仲間外れになる」と悩んでいるのに対し、フランスの患者は「他人と顔や心が同じになってしまった、みんなと同じだと思われている、自分の独自性がなくなってしまう」と悩んでいるというのを読んだことがあります。

私は昔「『人はそれぞれ違う』とみんな思っている（自己矛盾！）」と思ってました。だから「みんな結局同じでしょ」とか「日本人だったらわかるでしょ」とか言われるとえ～！犬養毅にもえ～😲（まあ彼の場合は説得するために言ったのだと思ってますが）。

民主主義って面倒です。時間かかるし、話し合いしたからって必ずしも合意に至るとは限らない。でも「インクルーシブ」とか「ダイバーシティ」とか言うんだったら、民主主義のそういう（面倒な）面もそろそろ理解すべきなのではないでしょうか。

(Google アカウントを持ってない方は、コメント記入後に「Google アカウント」をクリックし、「匿名」か「名前/URL」を選択してからご記入ください！)