What does it mean “to live”?
What is it ‘to live’?
The movie “Peace on Wheels - IKIRU (To Live)” is a reflection on peace and living through the world of Hiroko Kimura, artist, poet and activist.
I love the earth,
I love people,
and I love myself.
And another poem that maybe those in the Reiki world can relate directly to:
When I eased nature all alone
For the first time in my life,
The word “impossible”
Went out of my vocabulary.
From Hiroku’s experience it is possible to see that we must never feel limited by our bodies. By connecting to the world around us we can truly live.
Through the doorway of Hiroko Kimura and her friend’s lives we can catch a glimpse of the vast world of disability. We are made aware of their basic human needs, and what it takes TO LIVE for them. Hiroku was diagnosed with cerebral palsy, leaving her permanently paralysed except for the toes of her left foot.
Hiroko’s struggle for survival, her efforts for independent living and for the rights of the disabled together with her experience of war as the seeds of her desire for peace are the threads of this documentary.
Here is some of Hiroku’s tanka’s (poetry)
It’s only natural that I use my leg
To keep myself alive,
Since my hands do not work.
So why do people call it Strange?
•••
I think this evening
That even I can be loved
When I look at your eyes
That speak better than your mouth.
•••
“This is not an immoral love,”
I whispered in my mirror,
Drawing rouge on my lips
Thicker than I usually do.
•••
“I’m sorry for your misfortune,”
Says this person again
When he puts the change
Into my purse for me.
•••
Though my hands are useless
I will try how far I can go with my toes:
I feel my blood go though the brush
Which I hold between my toes.
Make sure you check out her delicate paintings as well!
At the moment the DVD of ‘Peace on Wheels - IKIRU’ is available in Japanese. The English subtitled version is also available. You can order it at Peace on Wheels where there is some more of Hiroku’s poetry and painting.
