by axxxm
We Learn Emotions
10/December/2023 in Tokyo
A few years ago,
some woman said to me;
"A woman knows how to love from her birth. So, she can love her child naturally"
"On the other hand, a man 'learns' how to love, by using his memory/experience of being loved by his parents"
Probably her view would contain some amount of bias
At the same time, this part must be true;
"We learn emotions"
"The way of feeling is a learned ability"
Usually we think;
"How we think" is something we can learn
Hence, we can change the way of thinking
On the other hand, "How we feel" is something innate
It is something we get before we're born
Hence. we can't change the way of feeling
Or, nearly impossible to change it
But the truth of the matter is,
we learn emotions
It means,
"How we feel" is largely influenced by one's environment & experiences
They say Japanese people appreciate Sakura's falling rather than Sakura's blooming on the tree
Perhaps, this Japanese sense would look unique to a foreign person
But it doesn't mean Japanese people are naturally/inherently so special or so unique
It just means environments in Japan are different from this foreign person's one
"Appreciation for ephemerality"
is one of the most typical, most wide-spread, most over-used, hence most mundane senses that you can find everywhere in Japanese arts, or even in their daily life
And in my writings, I often express my liking & appreciation towards ephemerality
But I sometimes wonder
if it really makes sense to a non-Japanese person
I am guessing,
probably they can "understand" it in a rational, logical way
But can they really "sense" it, "feel" it, "experience" it, as much as I do, or as much as people who share the same things with me, called Japanese people ........?
And I sometimes wonder
if it has any meaning to write about things I feel in someone's language, which is "English"
If emotions are a learnt ability, not an inborn ability,
then it's likely that there are many emotions & senses that we can't share with others with different backgrounds.........different environmental, historical, cultural backgrounds
