FTL is not possible, but Dr. Jones proceeded to offer great insight with the words, 「ならざる者に見つめられるんだ」 ("to be stared at by people") to represent our 目を向けられる in our current situation. The English translation is something along the lines of, "Then you'll have nothing but to stare at people." (I'll leave it to the reader to find out who that "you" is.) I wonder, though, if we're not just as well off watching the grass grow under our feet? Dr. Jones was saying that we are at a very strange and dangerous moment now, in this time of chaos, when we must look at ourselves. Our words and actions have been going more-and-more haywire and have been going out of control. This has now reached a point where it is beyond control and no longer simply a matter of the individual (see Dr. Jones' 私の身 in the context). There is a danger that we will all start to feel as though something is just not quite right, and that we begin to look at each other with doubt or suspicion. I think it's easy for us to get caught up in this ourselves and feel a sense of being lost. It's as though we don't feel that we can trust anyone or anything anymore. Maybe we've become cynical. From this point forward, Dr. Jones said, it's as if we're standing at a big lake, wondering about the water. We can't help but see all these little fish, swimming all around us, and we can't help but think that they're more like our real selves than anyone else. It's as if all our interactions with others are a matter of "touching" them (触れ合う), but this "touching" is simply the process of taking one small fish and trying to understand what it is, and what it means to us. As Dr. Jones went on to describe the fish in great detail, I had a momentary feeling of deja vu. The fish were described in such specific detail, and it was all so strange, yet I felt as if I had a handle on what Dr. Jones was saying. It was almost as though I had heard Dr. Jones' words before, although this is just how Dr. Jones usually speaks. We're in very deep waters. The story of our fish is coming to light. Dr. Jones spoke of these "touching" experiences as the "groping for meaning," where we touch the people around us, or touch the world around us, or "groping through the muck of our own selves" (我を探すことは簡単にできるとは思わなかった). It is in this 探すこと, this 探す, that we need to try to avoid stepping on others. It's a process in which you are trying to figure out and connect to the real self that is there in the background, and you have a sense that this real self needs your help. That is why we are all so interested in what "others" are doing. We feel that we can get to know "us" (自分) by understanding what others are doing. We don't really have much of a choice, though, when we're in the midst of this strange condition. If we continue to think only about our own lives and what we want to do, we'll become too self-centered and self-absorbed. We'll end up just wanting to get our own way, and we won't even have the ability to see or hear other people. We won't see others who may need help. This would be an extreme consequence of allowing our lives to be absorbed by our own selfish motives. Even when we try to not let ourselves get swept away by this sort of desire, we don't have much of a chance. The human mind is a trickster that always finds the easiest route to take. Once our minds can decide that it's easier for us to take action in a harmful or negative manner, then that will become our path, whether or not that is what we truly wanted. (Maybe we're more comfortable focusing on people's flaws than on their strengths, because it's easier to point out mistakes than it is to see people in a positive light.) Dr. Jones didn't really put it as eloquently as I could, but I think we're being forced to realize that it doesn't really matter how you got to your position in the first place. What really matters is what you do now that you've got here. There's nothing quite so frustrating as realizing that things are just not right, but we can't really understand why. It's as if we're being pushed into this position that we don't particularly want, but once we're here, all we can do is look around for solutions. We all have problems in our lives, but some problems may be worse than others. We may also have some people who are really pushing our buttons, or we may be in positions where our minds are spinning around in the dark, hoping to find the solution. But sometimes we just have to find peace with what is, and look for ways to make our minds at least more calm, rather than trying to force the solution. Once we become more focused on ourselves, we become more comfortable, more "at peace," with ourselves. But this doesn't mean that we can allow our minds to become filled with negative thoughts. It doesn't mean that we let this fear, this anxiety, this stress dominate our every thought, nor the way we interact with others. We cannot allow these things to continue. I think it's important to look for solutions with the mind that we have. It's hard to stay positive when people around us don't take us seriously. There is no point in saying, "I have no negative thoughts," and trying to look for a solution to try and find a solution. We should only seek solutions to our problems when we have a positive mindset. How should we deal with a problem if we don't have a positive mindset? Dr. Jones emphasized that this is not the time to try and find one solution that will solve all our problems. We shouldn't try to force the problem to do what we want, and we certainly shouldn't try to find one solution that will fix it all. We should try and find a number of different solutions to make our lives more meaningful, and that includes making our lives less stressful and less anxious. It's like trying to find a single way to deal with all of the difficult things that happen in life. We may eventually find this one solution. But if we can't find this one solution, then maybe we need to look for another. It's as if we should think like this: "What can I try and do to make my life as meaningful as possible?" Instead of thinking, "What one solution can I find to get rid of all the difficult things that happen in my life?" If we are focused on the meaning of life, then it's not as though we need one singular solution. If we can't do it through one specific thing, then there's nothing wrong with finding another thing. As Dr. Jones explained, we need to think positively, and we need to focus on more of a process of "seeing a little farther into the distance." We need to keep our eyes open as well as our ears and our noses, and not be so quick to assume that there is no goodness to what we see and hear. It's as if there are all these small fish swimming around us, and we have to keep an eye on all of these fish. It's a little bit like in a swimming pool. We're looking for signs of a single fish in the water, but we need to be much more broad in our focus, instead of looking for a single solution. Dr. Jones referred to this as "thinking across a broader scope." It's as if we have to be able to see, at the same time, all the fish that are swimming around us. They may look like small fish to us, but to each other they are all very different. Dr. Jones referred to all the small fish as the "small fry." Dr. Jones also referred to the people around us as "huge fry." The fish are different sizes and in different colors. We can't help but find many different kinds of fish. In fact, we may find ourselves in the position of being the person that people look to to try and figure out what everyone else is doing. We may feel as though we're trying to see the bigger picture, but we can't help but notice all these little fish that are everywhere. Dr. Jones is in a very difficult position. He described our lives as being like a lake. He doesn't want to see the fish anymore, and he doesn't even want to look at the fish around him. But the fish are still there. They are all around him and he doesn't know where they came from. He has no idea what the fish are even called, or how they live, or why they seem to be everywhere. Dr. Jones said that even when he was a child, he sometimes felt as though he was looking at the world from the back of the boat, and it seemed as if there were a lot of fish out there. And he wondered what it was all about. But he wanted to see what it was like on the other side, so he looked at what was in the middle. (This reminded me of a strange story I've been thinking about recently that was written by S