The (Little) Middle Way

"...These two extremes ought not to be practiced by one who has gone forth from the household life. There is addiction to indulgence of sense-pleasures, which is low, coarse, the way of ordinary people, unworthy, and unprofitable; and there is addiction to self-mortification, which is painful, unworthy, and unprofitable.

"Avoiding both these extremes, the Tathagata (the Perfect One) has realized the Middle Path; it gives vision, gives knowledge, and leads to calm, to insight, to enlightenment and to Nibbana. And what is that Middle Path realized by the Tathagata...? It is the Noble Eightfold path, and nothing else, namely: right understanding, right thought, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness and right concentration."

Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta (The Discourses of Buddha)

Ah, the inaugural post. Without presuming to sound too pompous or self-aware, it's probably best to jump right into things and avoid the usual blather about why one is starting a blog and what one went through to do it, or what one hopes to accomplish with it. In some sense, this is inevitably belly-gazing, but perhaps it can transcend that state and become something more.

What point is there is starting a blog with a quote from Buddha? I'm not a Buddhist - I'm not even well-versed in Buddhism, aside from various concepts picked up here and there from University courses in eastern religion and reading about bushido. The quote above reflects a few things about the name of this blog "Between Heaven and Hell" and its Japanese-inspired internet address: kozure-tengoku-to-jigoku.blogspot.com

Tengoku is the Japanese word for "heaven". Jingoku is the Japanese word for Hell. As far as I can make out, my chosen internet alias of Kozure translates roughly as "with child" or "accompanying a child". It's a fragment of the name "Kozure Okami", itself a pseudonym of Itto Ogami, a character in a Japanese graphic novel series (more on that later). Kozure Okami is known more commonly in the west as "Lone Wolf and Cub" and is one of my favourite works of graphic literature.

As it happens, Tengoku to Jigoku is also the title of a Kurosawa film whose title is usually translated as "High and Low" in English, though I had no awareness of the film until I started trying to think of names relating to Heaven and Hell.

This blog is about the trials and rewards of bringing up children. In my case, specifically a young boy of (currently) 21 months, who will go by the alias "Daigoro", and another child who is due to be born (God-willing) in early April. When thinking about this concept, I considered how many people throughout the history of the world have encountered this utterly mundane and unremarkable, yet sometimes also transcendent and unique experience. How many billions have had exactly this experience? What right do I have to write about it?

Well, the simple answer is that I have as much right as any other. The trick is lending a unique, or if not unique, at least interesting perspective. This blog will be about the highs and lows of parenthood - the Heaven and Hell aforementioned, while acknowledging the commonality of the experience - what is between Heaven and Hell? Everything that we can experience and value as human beings.

The title also reflects a little bit of exaggeration on my part. Certainly I haven't experienced anything so trying as to term it "hellish" thus far in 21 months of raising my son. Fortunately, I have been lucky enough to have moments of pure delight - as close to heaven as one can reasonably expect. So, the name of the blog reflects a bit of my sense of humour about the whole affair - translating something ordinary and low-key into something exceptional and epic.

Mostly this blog comes about as a result of me noticing how quickly tiny landmarks of child development pass - winking in and out in the space of a few days - and aside from pure memory and the occasional photograph, no record of these precious moments exists.

This blog, written somewhere between Heaven and Hell, records these sometimes challenging, frequently wonderful, but always fleeting moments. I thank you for joining me on this journey.