Wind telephone in Otsuchi, Japan
We, the rational ones, the ones relatively free of turmoil, of sound minds and souls, and of satisfied mouth and bodies, just would not take things at face value. We want proof. We want a rational and scientific explanation for everything before we commit to anything. But, life is not so simple. There are some things beyond our comprehension. Sometimes it is better to be thick, to be nimble-minded and to be ignorant as ignorance is bliss. The eyes do not seek what the mind does not know.
After Itaru Sasaki lost his cousin in 2010, he decided to build a glass-panelled phone booth in his hilltop garden with a disconnected rotary phone inside for communicating with his lost relative, to help him deal with his grief. The phone line was not connected to anywhere. The view outside was of the widespread of the Pacific Ocean.
A year later when Japanese were grieving the loss of their loved ones in the tsunami and Fukuoka nuclear disaster, people who heard about this 'wind telephone' started flocking to it. Somehow the idea of communicating through a line to nowhere after dialling the last known number of their loved ones and 'telling' them unmentioned last words and narrating to 'them' of their progress helped them to come to terms with their departures. The view out to the ocean, as if gazing into the edge of the world, helps. It gives the caller the illusion of communicating with the ethereal world.
It does not make sense. It does nothing but mean everything to the people who find solace in this ritual. The human psyche is such, unpredictable, irrational and sometimes only blinded by emotions. There is no rational explanation for everything every time. If it works, it works.
http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/wind-telephone
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| Photo credit: atlasobscura.com |
After Itaru Sasaki lost his cousin in 2010, he decided to build a glass-panelled phone booth in his hilltop garden with a disconnected rotary phone inside for communicating with his lost relative, to help him deal with his grief. The phone line was not connected to anywhere. The view outside was of the widespread of the Pacific Ocean.
A year later when Japanese were grieving the loss of their loved ones in the tsunami and Fukuoka nuclear disaster, people who heard about this 'wind telephone' started flocking to it. Somehow the idea of communicating through a line to nowhere after dialling the last known number of their loved ones and 'telling' them unmentioned last words and narrating to 'them' of their progress helped them to come to terms with their departures. The view out to the ocean, as if gazing into the edge of the world, helps. It gives the caller the illusion of communicating with the ethereal world.
It does not make sense. It does nothing but mean everything to the people who find solace in this ritual. The human psyche is such, unpredictable, irrational and sometimes only blinded by emotions. There is no rational explanation for everything every time. If it works, it works.
http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/wind-telephone
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