Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Secret base

There are certain things in life that come and go as fads, and yet stand out in one's memory as vivid and significant for years to come.

The secret base play was one of them. When I was about 5, there was a vacant space near my house. Grasses grew there, and logs and metals were stored (or rather abandoned) all over the place.

It was a perfect setting for the "secret base" play.

We brought a few cardboard boxes, and started building the secret base. We imagined that we were preparing to fight an invisible and unidentified enemy. It was fun to prepare the flags and hats of the defense team.

The context was not necessarily one of confrontation, however. There was something fundamentally cozy and intimate about hiding ourselves together in the cardboard box next to each other. The skin touch. The breath. The inexplicable comradeship of us brats.

It may be because these moments of physical and spiritual proximity are rare to come nowadays that I miss the times of secret base so much.



The secret base. Happy childhood times.

7 comments:

moomin0sun said...

Good morning! Dr.Mogi.What happens?! I was very surprised at your comment in Japanese.
It's raining hard now. But today is lucky day because "zorome" .
Good luck! If there is a person who's birthday is today,he will be very lucky man,won't he?

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masami said...

I like your picture.
This reminds me of two boys.
They also built the secret base in a vacant place near my house.
Even grasses grew very high around, I could see them from the window of my house on the third floor.
I felt as if I was with them.

(ma)gog said...

Well, I remember making a kind of den out of cardboard boxes with my friends. As we were girls, it was not for fighting but for having something like a second house, we used to bring some cushions and tried to decorate the secret place as cozy as possible.

Thank you for reminding me of this (so far completely forgotten) exciting childhood incident.

(ma)gog said...

Dear Mogi sensei,

I know that you are incredibly busy, but if you happen to have some time this saturday afternoon, please visit the symposium held at St.Paul's university.(Ikebukuro campus)

www.rikkyo.ac.jp/events/2009/11/5505/

Please forgive me for being absurd to ask you such a thing, but I think there will be certainly some valuable hints for the "brain and mind" problem.

砂山鉄夫(Tetsu Sunayama) said...

I felt, oh, this is just my childhood. The "secret base" is the treasured memory of my childhood too.

But, nowadays, secret base is not be found anywhere. I wonder it went.

Thank you for your memorable essay.

yuzu said...

Dear,Mr.Mogi
I still would love to have a space of secret base like thisstory. I can image and feel easily. It is so warm.
This is also a kind of essential happiness.