Cleaning Up

When you say the name Murakami in English, the author Haruki Murakami comes to mind.

When you say it in Japanese, Ryo Murakami may come to mind, or many other people named Murakami. To me, a guy I hated at my last job with the name of Murakami comes to mind.

Let’s call him Haruki to avoid any ambiguity.

My wife hates Haruki. I used to love Haruki with great passion.

I don’t hate him now. I enjoy his type of writing, and I have mimicked it in short stories I have written in the past. However, any perceived depth I used to see in it I no longer see. I see a man throwing paint at the wall and having a pretty end result.

A few years ago people went to town on him for sexism in his books. The female protagonist in 1Q84 seemed hyper-aware of her supple breasts, and I think the male protagonist is forced against his will to have sex with a 16 year old woman. (It’s okay if you’re forced.)

I’m not sure what the general opinion is of him now, or if people just stopped thinking about him, but anyways, I just on impulse bought his latest book in English.

I bought the book because I know I find him easy to read, and not in a Dan Brown way. I may think there’s a lack of depth, but there’s still more beauty in that thrown paint than there is in mindful shit other authors squeeze out.

I want an easy to read book because I want to get back into reading.

I want to get back into reading because it’s a better lifestyle.

But core to a better lifestyle isn’t reading, it’s just that buying books is an easy way to think I am doing something.

I need to get back into a running routine. That is the beginning and end of all in life.

I need to run in the morning because I am a morning person. I go to bed with my son at 8pm, and I get up at 4am.

When I get up, the urge is to drink tea and play video games. I’m not sure I actually want to do either, I think it is just a habit.

My friend Derek talked about laying out clothes the night before, and I think that is the first step.

However, where are my running shorts? In the mess of unorganized clothes in my closet probably.

I need to organize my clothes.

My wife and I are holding on with our son, now 3 1/2 months old. He’s fed, he’s dressed, he gets his vaccines and does the Japanese ceremonies, he sleeps enough and gets to see family. We could do more tummy time for sure, but hey, he rolled over the other day, so something is going okay.

What we are not doing is properly organizing our house, throwing things we don’t need away, and getting into a proper meal routine. With everything else, we are always too tired to take that on.

It is not the act of running or reading that is hard, it is the mental framework needed beforehand that we have a mental obstacle with.

We need to clean up.