Demons Out, Good Fortune In
Or what to do when the headlines from your country of birth read like the back-cover blurb of a deeply unsettling dystopian novel.
Listening to: Springtime Again by Sun Ra
According to the traditional Japanese calendar, there are 72 microseasons, each lasting just five or so days long. For example, I’ll publish this newsletter during 黄鶯見睆, kōō kenkan su, (February 9th - 13th), the time when bush warblers are seen, but perhaps you’re reading it during 虹始見, niji hajimete arawaru, (April 15th-19th), the time when rainbows begin to appear.1
The only thing in the United States that I can think of that comes even remotely close to this concept are those funny memes that circulate whenever the weather is particularly gnarly in a super-specific region of the country, but really there is no equivalent.
According to the traditional calendar, February 3rd was the first day of spring in Japan. Therefore Setsubun, which is always observed the day before spring, was celebrated on February 2nd. Setsubun heralds the arrival of spring and is a symbolic way to invite good fortune in and drive evil out. In the weeks leading up to Setsubun, pre-packaged roasted soybeans and pre-order forms for giant sushi rolls called ehomaki appear in supermarkets. Grocery stores and some elementary schools decorate with images of demons (usually super cute ones) called oni depicted with blue, green or red skin, often with unruly hair and horns, and sometimes wielding a club and wearing tiger-skin loincloth. 👹
The celebration, mostly observed at home (though temples and shrines sometimes participate too) involves a number of traditions but is at its most gleeful when small children throw roasted soybeans at a family member disguised as oni, all while yelling, “Oni wa soto! Fuku wa uchi!” (Demons out! Fortune in! ) at the top of their lungs and then slamming the door behind them. Throwing beans at oni (or up into the air) symbolizes driving out evil. After which, you’re supposed to eat a soybean for each year of your life plus one more for good luck.
According to the Gregorian calendar, contemporarily used the world over, it is most decidedly still winter in the United States. In addition to being the third day of Black History Month, February 3rd marked 14 days since a new administration took office and commenced, as promised, sweeping endeavors to remake U.S. government and society. In those two weeks alone, dozens of executive orders and presidential actions on issues ranging from immigration and gender identity, to healthcare, education and the environment were enacted including withdrawing the U.S. from the World Health Organization, the Paris Agreement, and the UN Human Rights Council, ending birthright citizenship, ending all "diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility" programs, and pardoning citizens convicted of attacking the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.
For some, the push to a nativist, nationalistic and regressionist leadership and society are the welcome bellwether of a new day. For the rest of us, it’s made for a wearying start to the new year.
If you’re “the rest of us,” here are a few things you can do.
Stay Informed
Be unafraid. The way to do this is to stay informed. Know and learn your history. Choose carefully, and vary, your media intake and consumption. (And utilize resources such as snopes to fact-check online content.) If you can, and if it is your habit, instead of reaching for your phone and doom scrolling, consider beginning your day reading a physical book (or listen to an audiobook).
I’m in no way suggesting we ignore what is happening in the world, but I am proposing we limit how much time we spend tuned into a 24-hour news cycle. Writer Brittney Cooper puts it succinctly: “Having more information is not the same thing as having more knowledge.”
Get Involved in Your Community
Now is the time to nurture your relationships with loved ones and strengthen healthy community ties. In both the United States and Japan there is a surging Loneliness Epidemic. Identify those things you love to do, and then make the time to do them, and you’ll find others who love to do them too. Maybe it’s walking (in the city, or in nature), learning to use ham radio or knitting. Knots for Love provides hand-knit and crocheted beanies to chemo patients and blankets to babies in NICU for free. Enroll in an online class at Hillmantok. Join, or start, a silent book club for introverts or a banned books club. If you can, greet your neighbors. Support local small businesses. Become a regular at your neighborhood bookshop or library. Stock your local community fridge. (Here are two based in NYC: Chinatown Community Fridge and One Love Community Fridge.) Commit a random act of kindness.
If You Can Help, Help
When we are at our most despairing, often the best way to combat that despair is to help. And there are many ways to help, be it financial or otherwise. Look for causes you care about, the ones close to your heart, the ones that affect your community. If you have the right to vote, exercise that right to vote - and not just in the big elections - but the small, local ones - the ones in your community - matter a lot more than you might think. Ultimately, the most valuable thing you can give someone, anyone, including yourself, is your time and attention.
Take care of yourself. Take care of each other. ❤️
After winter, must come spring.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:
Newsletter No. 27 was about finding commonality in the humble knish (a NY street food) and oyaki (a regional specialty in Nagano, Japan).
A FEW THINGS:
“Paint Me a Road Out of Here” is a new documentary about art and activism inspired by a painting titled “For the Women’s House” that Faith Ringgold made for the women of the Women’s House of Detention on Rikers Island in NYC.
Just five short episodes long, I really got into limited series, “Get Millie Black.” Conceived and written by award-winning Jamaican author Marlon James, GMB is set in the United Kingdom and Jamaica and follows detective Millie-Jean Black’s return to Kingston after leaving Scotland Yard. There she is pulled into a missing persons case that forces her to confront traumas of her childhood and reconcile her relationship with her sister and younger self.
I’m not the target audience - though I know tweenage-me would have loved “Weirdo” - but I am a mom of four teens, a blerd, a lifelong fan of books, reading, comic books, anime, etc and I read Tony Weaver Jr.’s middle-grade graphic memoir in about an hour and adult-me absolutely loved it. Illustrated by Jes & Cin Wibowo, “Weirdo” follows Tony’s story as a tween who is othered for the things he finds joy in - things like playing trading card games like Magic the Gathering, anime, and manga. The bullying eventually drives him to attempt to end his life. “Weirdo” neither glosses over nor dwells overly long on this fact. It is not explicit in any way. (Pssst: The book has a happy ending and very positive messaging around self-love and acceptance!) With the support of family, friends, other trusted adults and a mental health care practitioner, Tony finds his way. IRL Weaver is a writer, educator, and advocate and I look forward to more of his work.
That’s all for now, see you in two weeks. ❤️
Find Occasionally Impervious on Instagram here.
(Perhaps the prevalence of rainbows in 虹始見 explains why Pride Month in Japan used to be celebrated in April instead of June. 🌈🤔🏳️🌈 ❤️)
I needed this. Having more information is not the same as having more knowledge. Profound. I shall tuck away that sentence to break out when in need. Also you gave me ideas on how I can help - it isn't just politically, it is socially and emotionally. I can do that.
A very timely read. Traditions that deal with our experiences with negativity and negative forces; and our efforts at countering with insightful and strategic pushback, as well as wise seeding of positive energy for the road ahead are woven in cultures over time. They become traditions after very long periods of experiencing, observing and sharing reflections on living life. They provide tools used for recognizing the variables on the road ahead. Ways of seeing and experiencing the world and ways for preparing to survive and to thrive. They generally recognize and apply on multi dimensional planes. From the quick light hearted act, to the serious intervention. Thank you for touching on this so beautifully and calling our attention to some of those tools in the very present days of serious times we are in.