Thank you for reading my messages here. It became a “massive” come back after a few days of “recharging” (vacant). This final post for today is not related to the comment I received. It is about DMs I receive when I share these harassments. 【】is the phrase I receive.
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【Focus on your creation (Sashiko)】【Stop the drama】【Be Positive and Keep (your) Beautiful Work (Soul)】. I understand they mean well with admiring what I do. However, they are also shutting down the voices. I am here as the result of focusing on the creation. Many told me that I should have started speaking up 12 years ago… but I didn’t know how Sashiko became in English back then. They say it is too late to share the Sashiko (without pain), but I don’t have any other choice.
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Please do not define Sashiko & Who we are based on your value. There are reasons why I say Sashiko isn’t Art. Being positive (good vibes) is great, but then what? Do I convince myself that it doesn’t hurt? If you follow this account【just because you (I) want to see a beautiful picture of Sashiko】, then you are in the wrong place. Follow @upcyclestitches where I focus on creation. This is an account where a Native Japanese Sashiko Artisan(s) share the stories of their lives (Sashiko) with what they create as Sashiko in both negative & positive emotion – so called “Ordinary”. I appreciate your admiration of Sashiko as the ◯◯, but shutting me up by saying “Sashiko should be calm, positive, beautiful” is as painful as the other ignorance (therefore, I share many stories and I want you to read them first). I choose to be here, regardless of the pain, with life-staking determination. I want to be positive, but I don’t want to fake to be positive.
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長々と英語の投稿すみませんでした。お休みを頂いた後の久々の投稿にも関わらず、これまで僕が愚痴ってきた「勝手な刺し子への英語圏でのイメージ」を綺麗に網羅するコメントがあり、仕方なく纏めました。来週以降、少し予定に余裕ができると思うので、配信できたら良いなと思っています。
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2021-07-06 14:31:13
Thank you for continuing to be true to yourself. I am so tired of the toxic positivity craze so many people hold to. As you say, it silences your voice, any voice that is speaking their truth. This is a much needed message for most people to read ❤ thank you for writing it.
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I’m always hesitant to write comments because we never know how our privileges may filtrate what we say and affect others. I don’t know why but I’m compelled to tell you that I really appreciate you opening and telling us how you feel and what Sashiko means to your life. It is very educating for me to know all the many emotions behind it and cultural meaning beyond the aesthetics. I guess I’m here to listen to whatever you need to express and learn all I can 🤗 and be very grateful about it.
You are a good soul…❤️
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Where do people find the courage to tell you what to do? [Stop the drama, do this, do that] are you a young child that needs instructions? Of course not. Phrases like that show a lack of engagement, a trying to make you fit to their world when you are trying to make their world a little bigger. So I guess you are making them uncomfortable. And their response is to try to get you to stop. Not a learning mindset. To me, this means you are telling successful stories, Atsushi. People are hearing the need to change and struggling with it. And since some don’t have the tools to deal with change, they fight change, and attack the messenger. Attempt to get you to stop making them uncomfortable. And trying to get you to conform to their world view.
I just read Rising Strong by Brené Brown, in which she says, “Being all light is as dangerous as being all dark, simply because denial of emotion is what feeds the dark.” We cannot find understanding without being truthful.
That design looks like Australian First Nations rock art, the oldest culture on Earth.
Thank you for this series of posts and all you do to share the culture of sashiko. I followed you on recommendation from @woolandtheforest and it has been a truly powerful conversation to be a part of. I am bilingual and I translate literature, and I have found that it can be so hard to express certain ideas or phrases and translate the texture, importance, or subtlety they have in the original language. It’s a lot of work! It is even harder to do that on a social media platform where people don’t hear tone of voice, and where many people don’t read closely to try to figure it out. I just wanted to say that I see all the work involved in all your posts (culturally as well as linguistically) and am very grateful for what you do on this account. Thank you.
Toxic positivity feels really exhausting. ❤️