The Good Life - 05/12/2023 - American or Japanese?

Kurt Bell
May 12, 2023
3 min read

It’s a milestone day for my daughter. She’s going to the Japanese consulate today to pick up her new passport. There’s a chance they’ll tell her no, and that it’s time for her to select if she will spend the rest of her life as an American or as a Japanese citizen. Yes, it may be time for Emily to give up one nationality or the other. This is because Japan does not currently allow adults to maintain duel citizenship (though this rule may change) and age twenty-two is the cutoff point to select to remain Japanese. Emily is twenty-two years old now, and the officials at the Japanese consulate here are aware that she is currently a citizen of both Japan and the United States, as they did ask her this question point-blank when we went to the consulate last month to apply for her new Japanese passport. Emily answered yes without hesitation, and then showed them her valid United States passport which they needed to see. There’s nothing more then to hide. All her cards are on the table. And the ball is now in the Japanese government’s court, and today is the day we find out: will it be America or Japan—or possibly both?

Emily has already made her choice. She’d decided her nationality before we’d even discussed it with her. And Yumiko and I agree with her choice, as her reasons are wise and sound and very well considered. However, I’ll leave that decision for Emily to share if she ever wants to. It’s her life story, after all. But, I do hope she won’t have to choose, and that she slips into the consulate today, gives them their $111.00 cash and then walk out of the building carrying a new passport and remains both Japanese and American for another decade. I hope that happens. But, if it doesn’t, then that’s alright too, as being “hafu” (“half”—as they say in Japan) is less about carrying two passports through an airport and being welcomed “home” in more than one country. Being “double” (as I prefer to say) is the experience, culture, language, family and life experience of growing up and being comfortable and familiar in two worlds, which is something no consulate or embassy can ever take away. For Emily in particular, it’s her possession of what I refer to as her “Japanese heart and American spirit” which she carries now with her always, and no matter what happens today.

#GoingAlone #TrueLimitsAndOpportunity

The Good Life Meditation is my daily recitation and reminder of personal objectives and principles used in pursuit of a purposeful life in spite of a universe of seeming indifference. Learn more about The Good Life at my website GoingAlone.org or by reading my book Going Alone. And visit our Discord at: https://lnkd.in/gFgfGmY6

OBJECTIVES: 1. Be Always Ready to Die 2. Make Good Use of Time and Resources 3. Develop Good and Sound Life Principles 4. Cultivate Good Emotional Reactions 5. Perform Good Actions 6. Recognize True Limits and Opportunity 7. One Thing Slowly

PRINCIPLES: 1. Principle of War 2. Principle of Reason 3. Homunculus 4. Anchorhold 5. Home of Good and Evil 6. Principle of Purpose 7. Atomic Principle 8. Principle of Nature 9. The Pirate Ride 10. Principle of Maturity 11. Social Principle

12. Principle of Family 13. Public Speaking 14. Temperance 15. Life Will Not Go Well 16. The Horror Show 17. That Which Must Be Borne 18. The Feast of Offal 19. Distraction 20. Agency and The Great Indifference 21. The Best Seat in the House 22. The Restless Man 23. The Path of Wildness 24. The Great Life Adventure 25. The Risk of Avoiding Risk 26. Sin and Damnation 27. Complete Oblivion 28. The Season of Philosophy