About the legend of Oddballs Revisited
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About the legend of Oddballs Revisited
In every ripened city, there is sure to be an oddball known to everyone. In Kyoto, there are the "Three Eccentrics of Renge Valley," the "Three Eccentrics of Yoshida," the eccentric of Shimogamo, and the three eccentrics of Komon-mae, and there are so many legends of oddballs that even counting them on both hands is not enough. The condition of an oddball is to take actions that are unrelated to "reason" such as utility or significance. They do things they know will lead to a loss, invest all their savings in something meaningless, ruin their lives with something that doesn't bring any benefit... They are people who live a life that is completely out of the norm, but at the same time, they live a life that is certainly straight and honest.
They stick to their principles, even if they know they will suffer a loss, and they sacrifice themselves for justice. They fall in love with someone, are attracted to beautiful things, and sometimes even wander around or become a gangster. They stick to their principles all the way, even if it destroys their lives completely. People are convinced that they are eccentrics beyond strange people, because they are drawn to the straight path that these people follow. They show us in a visible form what will happen if we follow this path all the way.
In other words, it is a view from the outside toward an ordinary life. By completely destroying their own lives, they ask the people in the town if the life they are cherishing for future generations is really worth risking to be destroyed. Unlike strange people, eccentrics are people who have gone over there.
The city where eccentrics live is livable. The limit of life, that if you go any further it's really the end, is clearly visible. It is a city where the milestones of life are clearly engraved. In other words, there is no guarantee that something won't happen within that limit, but there is some assurance that something will work out. In this sense, the city where eccentrics live is free.
That is also a sign of maturity. It is because of the depth of the heart that allows the existence while keeping foreign objects away. Rather than doubting it, it is because there is room to continue to have an unreliable feeling that even if someday the city becomes stuck and unable to move forward, its existence may become the trigger for a reform.
Such maturity was visible from the outside, so for about twenty or thirty years from now, strange people from all over the country without a destination flowed into this city. Dropout eccentric young people gathered one after another. Avant-garde artists performed incomprehensible performances, and former architects launched quirky architecture, pushing aside the old-fashioned appearance. And there were still many crazy people who found it interesting.
Pretending not to see it. This is the spirit of tolerance that a mature city has nurtured by allowing its existence while keeping it away. It is in such a modern city that the legend of strange people can survive. Perhaps the unconscious calculation that noise is the source of vitality is a condition for modern city dwellers.