What You Are Looking for is in the Library

by Michiko Aoyama

Jobs can be a clue to somebody’s character. A short-cut way of describing them. But only in a limited, stereotyped sort of way.

“You managed to find employment, you go to work every day and you can feed yourself. That’s a fine achievement.”

“In a world where you don’t know what will happen next, I just do what I can right now.”

What I do know is that there’s no need to panic, or do more than I can cope with right now. For the time being, I plan to simply get my life in order and learn some new skills, choosing from what’s available. I’ll prepare myself, like Guri and Gura gathering chestnuts in the forest. Because I never know when I might find my own giant egg.

It feels good to be sitting here drinking coffee and watching cats, surrounded by books.

“Everybody is connected. And any one of their connections could be the start of a network that branches in many directions. If you wait for the right time to make connections, it might never happen, but if you show your face around, talk to people and see enough to give you the confidence that things could work out, then ‘one day’ might turn into ‘tomorrow.’”

“I’ve been in limbo ever since I had a baby, frustrated at not being able to do the things I want to, and thinking that this isn’t how it was supposed to be. Of course I love my daughter, truly, but raising a child is far more difficult than I imagined.”

“Singles are envious of those who are married, and married couples envy those with children, but people with children are envious of singles. It’s an endless merry-go-round.

But isn’t that funny? That each person should be chasing the tail of the person in front of them, when no one is coming first or last. In other words, when it comes to happiness nothing is better or worse—there is no definitive state.”

“Life is one revelation after another. Things don’t always go to plan, no matter what your circumstances. But the flip side is all the unexpected, wonderful things that you could never have imagined happening. Ultimately it’s all for the best that many things don’t turn out the way we hoped. Try not to think of upset plans or schedules as personal failure or ...

From big things to little, there are some things we simply cannot force to go to plan, no matter how hard we try.

I was forced to move from Mila to the information resources department. And I have to do housework and childcare. If I put myself at the center of everything, does that mean I always see myself as a victim? And why I always end up wondering why can’t people do things that work for me.

“You may say that it was the book, but it’s how you read a book that is most valuable, rather than any power it might have itself.”

Moment by moment—circumstances always change, quite independently from what we want to do. A family situation, for example, or health issues, or a job might go when a company folds, or one could fall in love out of the blue.”

“This didn’t just come to you. It happened because you did something for yourself. You took action and that caused things to change around you.”

The library is more compact than a normal city one. I reach the stacks and find myself surrounded by rows of bookshelves. Nostalgia washes over me. This place has atmosphere, different from a bookshop with just new books. In here you sense the weight of time, stretching way back to the past.

“There’s no guarantee of certainty in anything. But the flip side to there being no guarantee of security, is that there’s also no certainty that something is a dud.”

It’s a question of passion. The majority may not accept something, but as long as there are some who do, the existence of that thing—whatever it may be—is protected.

now that I no longer work for a company I am no longer acknowledged by society at large.

If you throw yourself into doing the things you like, it’s possible to live a happy, healthy life as he does, even if one is old, retired, divorced and living alone.