I love watching Japanese people bow. Seems to me they have different bows for different circumstances. They are all beautiful.
We have seen various movies of long ago Europe, knights bowing to kings, etc. It strikes a deep chord.
But Americans suck at bowing. We actually do not know how to do it.
I had a circumstance where a bow was called for, I tried, it felt so very strange. This motion is not in my muscles. I felt a fool. I am sure I looked a garbled fool. Afterwards I reflected and realized that Americans do not know how to bow. This is a simple expression of what makes us so very wonderful. An experiment was started 250 years ago: the individual person is primary, all titles and ranks are secondary. How could any individual bow to another? Based upon rank? Based upon ceremony? Screw that.
After recovering from my silly embarrassment, I felt a wave a gratitude. I was born into a culture which has inculcated a very powerful cosmology, a powerful political statement, and something that I realized is actually deeply connected to the teachings of Christianity - the individual is at a higher level than the state, than the group.
The individual has purpose and possibilities that are not available to the collective. God created the individual. Cities and towns and politics came after. I do not know how to bow to any manifestation of the collective. So be it, and thank God.
Thank you for this. As a Catholic (though not raised one -- converted 1995), I understand what you’re saying here (at least I’m 99.9% certain). I’ve heard other people (none as brilliant as you, though) say almost this same thing -- that Americans don’t know how to bow. Except these people meant it in a derisive, degrading way. These others who have said this are (supposedly) thinkers from « great » universities. They made zero effort to actually identify WHY Americans don’t know how to bow. Now I realize it’s likely because they had no reference point to draw from.
Anyway, as always, your posts give me hope. I try to find and watch EVERY single YouTube video you do, but haven’t seen any for awhile.