Choosing Your Preference of People by Your Own & Cutting Ties: Reading series, The Conclusion of Life -4

Hi everyone! It’s Pentleman (@pentleman_blog) here!

Everyone has people who one doesn’t like.
However, you can choose people who you get along with, since your private time is precious and limited.

No one can rob your choices from your priceless life.

I hope this helps people who are struggling in relationships.
Let’s see the tips of today!

~Tip#9~ Choosing Your Preference of People by Your Own

I try to believe only what I see rather than the rumor about other people.
I appreciate the people who covers me when there are certain accusations about me that’s going around. And saying, ”You aren’t like that, actually.”

However, there are a certain number of people who tells you,
“It’s not a deal, if the rumors are true.”
I would like to take good care of such latter people in my life.

I don’t want to be the kind of person who is swayed easily by rumors because I have my own firm principles.

Cited and Translated from: The Conclusion of Life, by Kazuo Koike

(人生の結論, 小池一夫 )

A guy like a Christmas tree

When I was in high school, there was a student who selected friends based on superficial reasons, such as advantages and disadvantages.

The handsome guy secretly told me,

He selected “friends” based on two criteria : appearances and cliques.
He must have been on the higher hierarchy in school.
If he got friends from lower hierarchy, his value would depreciate.

For him, he was a Christmas tree and his friends were just shiny ornaments.
In that context, he used his friends as decorations.

Friendship isn’t about who you’ve known the longest

Now, I won’t deny that his principle in selecting friends somehow make sense.

Because in the world he lived in, being popular for girls was the most important factor that can produce his additional value to be more popular.
When he moves to a new place, friends can be easily replaced.

By the way, I experienced a really hard time in my life.
I was so stressed out and lost my voice for real (I never heard such story except in anime).
I felt like there was a big wall against me.

One of my friends never left my side until I got myself sorted out.
On this occasion, I always remember this quote…

Friendship isn’t about who you’ve known the longest.
It’s about who came, stayed by your side, and never left you when you needed someone the most.

友情は年月の長さじゃない。
友情とは君が本当に誰かを必要としたときに、来てくれて、側にいてくれて、そして君の元を去らなかった人のことなんだ。

PEANUTS

I wonder there are varieties of friendship style.
I’m happy that I’ve stick to my decision to look beyond superficial reasons when choosing friends.

~Tip#10~ Cutting Ties

You have to get prepared to “cut ties”. That is very important.
If the relationship is a true thing, you’ll have that connection again.

What I would like to tell young people is that it’s better to cut some ties to make you happy and not sacrifice own happiness to make someone happy.
The total pleasure which you can produce based on your happiness is bigger than your sadness.

Cited and Translated from: The Conclusion of Life, by Kazuo Koike

(人生の結論, 小池一夫 )

A card “Renounce” from MTG

The trading card game, Magic the Gathering* series has this card below.
*MTG: two players battle with the card with 20 life. Creatures and sorcery cards are put on the battle filed to defeat the opponent.

“Renounce”
Sacrifice any number of permanents.
You gain 2 life for each one sacrificed this way.

Magic the Gathering

The permanents simply mean stuff in the field of the card game.
If I transfer this card to the real world, it’s like the three examples below.

Sacrifice any number of relationships

The author’s focus was “sacrifice any number of relationships”.
If you do it, based on his opinion, you gain new relationships.

Cutting ties are more difficult than making ties.

Actually, while the relationship with the parents or partners is “strong” because of blood or contraction of marriage, if it sometimes becomes troublesome, we might consider cutting a part of the current ties that makes us uncomfortable.

Pentleman’s Photo Travel

@ Oshino Hakkai,Oshino, Yamanashi in May