Hi John,
This last week, I had the honor of sponsoring Osechi Ryori, Japantown's annual new year celebration. As part of the event, I got to take part in Mochitsuki - a new year's mochi making tradition to create Japanese rice desserts.
The process of making mochi was a delight, but also made me realize a couple of inspiring lessons we could all put into practice as we strive to make San Francisco better.
It Takes A Village - making mochi is a community activity. In a group, everyone mashes the ingredients together, making an otherwise laborious and long process faster through teamwork and collaboration. Everyone contributes what they can for the benefit of the group. You're able to create new things faster, together.
Relying on Trust - as you are mashing the rice into mochi, one must put a lot of faith into their colleagues. You're often moving your mallets very fast, and must coordinate well! This requires a high degree of trust in your colleague's skills and camaraderie. By trusting one another, we can accomplish wonders.
Something Sweet from Something Hard
Making mochi is a lot of work. Through community, and trust, you apply pressure to create something amazing. From something common, you create something special and sweet. It's an inspiring journey, and one where we can all take away lessons to our every day life. Even to tackling the overwhelming problems San Franciscans are facing.
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