Some thoughts about
elegance

Do you desire elegance in your home and life? In today's busy, cluttered world, "elegance" is a word not often contemplated.

The dictionary defines elegance as good taste, refined grace and luxury free from coarseness. Synonyms include grace, beauty and restraint.

I'd like to share with you some thoughts on simplicity and elegance from my elderly relative Misa Saijo's writings. Misa was a prolific writer, writing in spare moments to record her experience in arriving as a Japanese picture bride and her "imin" (immigrant) experience in America. In the 1930s, she wrote a regular column for a Japanese newspaper in Los Angeles.

Her writings have posthumously been published in a book, "Basking in the Sun." Unfortunately for me, the book is printed in Japanese, but thankfully, some of the writings have been translated into English.

In reading Saijo's words, perhaps you will nod in agreement as I did, and perhaps you will join me on the path of creating simplicity and elegance of home and life.

"Nature on a grand scale was Ogiwara Issen Suishi's initial impression of America. He said to describe this land, its mountains, its plains in a word would be to say just 'BIG.' Endlessly it spreads out in all directions. Mountains, rivers, rolling hills, he marveled at this natural beauty that defies the mind and imagination to grasp.

"Nevertheless, he said, this panorama of natural beauty is brought together, shaped and delineated in the simplest terms. This grand nature is the expression of utmost simplicity.

"But then, he goes on to say that in America there is an over abundance of things. A sense of 'Too Much.' Walking anywhere in town, the market front fruit bins are piled high as mountains, and grocery shelves are literally bulging with goods. 'Unbearable, Too Much,' he says. I think he has made an interesting observation.

"Issen Suishi was invited to a local Tea party. Here, again, he found it to be 'Too Much.' There was a platter heaped mountain high with yokan (azuki bean jelly). This display thoroughly disgusted him. He said, in Japan, if you were to invite three guests for tea, you set out seven pieces of yokan, two pieces for each guest, leaving one for good measure.

"This above all, he said, is proper etiquette in Tea Ceremony.

"Being thus reminded, I recall years ago attending classes in Tea Ceremony. Always we would be served just one piece of yokan. Of this I'd eat one half and wrap the remainder into my napkin, which I would tuck into my kimono to take home.

"Today, we have become so accustomed to goods in abundance, to wanting and expecting more and more, it has turned us into truly greedy beings. We've forgotten the elegance of just a little or just enough. No longer are we satisfied unless the table is heaped mountain high, as though we were going to feed a horse. This embarrassing mentality has become a custom. I believe we must bring back and reincorporate into our lives this sense of tasteful elegance." (written Aug. 5, 1937).

If you, too, have a strayed from the path of "just enough," I encourage you to restore a sense of tasteful elegance to your life.

See you in two weeks!