Do you know what this means? It usually explains a situation in which people lose the sense of direction and wander around the same place over and over like drawing a circle. Haven’t you seen a situation in which someone gets lost on a mountain track because of a sudden heavy fog and he wanders around and gets back to the same place again?
Well, there is a Japanese wording for a pair of wheels which is used to express that two things as a pair become able to do things together. In the family, a husband and wife can be a pair of wheels. As you can see in the picture below, we can express various situations with this pair of wheels. For example, men and women, positive and negative, rural and urban, cause and consequence, house and work, yourself and others, a part and whole etc…………The shaft in between represents of a relation (linkage and bond).
Please think of the middle part as something that we don’t see. As for the car, we usually can see the wheels but can’t see the shaft, can we? When it comes to the male and female relationship, the shaft could be same as a linked destiny. When it comes to our body, L-spine and cervical spine can be those wheels and the backbone can be the shaft.
Let’s get back to the story about “輪形彷徨 -rinkei houkou- (Ring wandering)”. I think that the situation where the present society seems to be like a pair of wheels that lost one wheel. As you can see in the picture above, it wanders around the same place (a circle). It’s a same thing in the case of the companies and people. They can wander around the same spot over and over and can’t get out of it. Especially in the time of a recession, they have the thoughts that they don’t care about the others, only themselves (or their own company)….This is a world of ego, in which you care only your own things.
After wandering around till having enough without getting out of the situation, it’s the end (death or bankruptcy). Or move to somewhere else and start wandering again…for example if Japan wasn’t good for your business, then you try to go to overseas….. However, the companies and people seem to start realizing something in recent days. As they started focusing on the CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) and ethical approach and so on, they are trying to deal more with the environmental matters. But it’s just started, so then the balance of both wheels isn’t even yet. When the balance becomes even, people and companies will be able to get along well with the society and can develop further…….
As for “輪形彷徨 -rinkei houkou- (Ring wandering)”, there is another word for it (4 Chinese characters). I’ll talk about it some other time……
