28. Happy-to-be-alive Exhibition

Posted by T. T. and P. R. in June 2019

More than 50 years have passed since implantable cardiac pacemakers were introduced to treat heart arrhythmias. Since then, many patients having serious arrhythmias became alive again and recovered their normal life, sustained by an implanted cardiac pacemaker. An Association, whose members were patients having had an implanted cardiac pacemaker, was established in Japan in 1970.

At some time, the President of the Association, Professor Toshio Mitsui, suffered a serious haemorrhage from the intestine. After enduring a critical state for several weeks, he finally recovered, returned to his home, requested raw tuna and beer, enjoyed them both, and felt so happy to be alive.

©Toshio Mitsui (2017)

After this experience, he had the idea to establish a “Happy-to-be-alive Exhibition”. He asked some Association members to give a short talk in the annual general meeting about their own happy-to-be-alive experience. In the event, members presented their own experiences on different occasions, and the audience congratulated  them and shared their experiences. Now, the Happy-to-be-alive Exhibition has become a regular part of the annual meeting, and reports are published regularly in the members’ magazine.

After the current major environmental crisis, which has been of our own making, people living in the future may well feel the reality of being “happy-to-be-alive”, as they remember repeatedly being told of the human history in which their distant ancestors destroyed nature down to the level where the very existence of the human race had been endangered. The following generations had to endure many painful hardships, for several millenniums or even millions of years, merely to ensure the  survival of humankind. Then, once destroyed, nature gradually recovered  and, finally, the richness of the biosphere returned up to the level it was before the Industrial Revolution.

People living in the remote future will surely recognize the virtues and benefits of being alive, surrounded by the profound cultural achievements sustained by advanced science and technology. They will also recognize the importance of providing contributions to the people in the further remote future. Actually, experiencing the happy-to-be-alive feeling is not merely a personal episode for each individual, as it will become a compassion among all generations including the past, present and future through the whole lifetime of humankind.