 |
|
|
|
Vol.87
Free Range |
|
Jul.05,2025 |
|
|
When we hear "free range," the first thing that comes to our mind must be livestock, such as cows, horses, and chickens. In a documentary program aired more than 10 years ago by NHK about a group living home in Mitaka, Tokyo, an old lady living there said with a laugh, "We can live free here without complex rules. We are 'free-range' humans."
This gave me a vivid impression at that time because it was the first time I heard that the word "free range" was associated with human society.
When I look back now, I may have been a "free-range" child in my elementary school days. On returning from school, I used to play in the nature that changes in each season. I always came home exhausted in the evening and crashed immediately after eating dinner and taking a bath.
A rural town in Chiba Prefecture to which my family was evacuated after the war was located near the Tone River and surrounded by mountains and rice fields, providing me tons of fun activities.
Since both of my parents were busy working—my father as an assistant village master and my mother as a tatami-mat factory owner, they never told me to study. I am not sure if their way of raising children was correct or not, but even at the age of over 80, I still retain the fun of the country life I had until I was in the fifth grade.
|
|
|
|
|
