Some days, fatigue feels heavier than usual.
Travel, unfamiliar places, and the passing of time all leave their marks.
Yet even near the end of the game, being allowed to remain on the court is something to be grateful for.
Perhaps that is because I drafted it on the way home the night before
I usually add the opening lines the next morning, while the rest was written the previous evening.
The energy of morning and the melancholy of night—human emotions move in ways that are surprisingly easy to recognize.
Perhaps because of my recent business trips, fatigue has been building up.
Traveling to unfamiliar places takes physical strength, and visiting somewhere new brings its own tension.
That alone can deepen one’s exhaustion.
Meeting people I do not know is tiring in another way.
When you have no idea what kind of person the other side may be, that cannot be helped.
Traveling by Shinkansen can also be draining.
Recently, with many visitors coming to Japan, there are moments when differences in manners or customs inside the train feel noticeable.
At the same time, adapting to systems designed mainly for Japanese travelers must be difficult for them as well.
Academic conferences leave me tired too.
In earlier years, hearing new ideas filled me with joy.
I wanted to absorb what I did not know and make it part of myself.
Now, however, I feel there is not much room left in my mind for new things.
That may be why conferences exhaust me each time I attend one.
Sometimes I wonder whether it is nearly enough.
My body may be trying, little by little, to fade from the front stage of society.
Then again, it is difficult to define what the front stage really means.
It is not simply having a title, nor standing before others in visible roles.
I no longer feel much attachment to surviving in the place where I once stood by relying only on what I built in the past.
Even so, I still have one more effort to make.
If I compare life to the basketball games I once loved, perhaps this is the final two minutes.
And yet, being able to spend this time on the court itself is possible only because I have been fortunate enough to be allowed to play.
If I am grateful for that fortune, then I should keep running until the final whistle.
・・・
Vocabulary for Learners
- fatigue = 疲労
- melancholy = 物悲しさ、憂鬱
- unfamiliar = 見慣れない、不慣れな
- exhaustion = 消耗、極度の疲れ
- attachment = 執着、愛着
- fortunate enough to... = ～できるほど幸運である
- final whistle = 試合終了の笛（人生の比喩としても使える）
