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To the Moon


Doing something extraordinary is an incredibly challenging task. For example, soaring freely through the sky, reaching the summit of Mount Everest or the deepest depths of the ocean, and even landing on the moon are all incredibly difficult feats.

However, we have achieved many of these accomplishments that were once thought impossible. As the famous saying goes, “Anything one man can imagine, other men can make real.”We can combine our past experiences and knowledge to understand the unseen and predict the distant future. Perhaps one day, this power may even reach realms beyond our current dimensions. The 1969 Apollo 11 voyage of Neil Armstrong, in which he walked on the moon, is a prime example proving that human dreams can take us places never thought possible.

Our possibilities and perceptions continue to expand not only in material terms but also in fields like art and philosophy that explore the intangible inner self and sensibilities. Even what is generally rejected or difficult to understand—or what might be subject to blame or disapproval today—can reveal completely new meanings and interpretations when we shift our perspective and see things from different angles. In contemporary art, even simple fruit, everyday objects, or graffiti can fetch outrageous prices or provoke heated debate in the news. While such standards may be somewhat biased, artists of every era challenge—and sometimes overturn—the values and systems we take for granted, such as social mechanisms, infrastructure, and ideas of justice, reminding us that they are not necessarily absolute truths.

Of course, in our society, it is very important to follow the rules and stay in step, and community ties and cooperation help us achieve results that would be impossible individually. While it is undeniable that intolerance toward unorthodox ideas and many outdated stereotypes still exist today, it is my quiet hope that such friction and discord will eventually diminish and become nourishment for future generations.

Lately, when I look at the moon floating in the night sky, I often think, “There must be footprints up there left by someone who truly strayed off course.” There is endless conflict everywhere on Earth these days, but if we could place our various relationships at a distance as vast as the moon, perhaps we could put an end to the pointless fighting and waste. Sometimes it’s important to stay uninvolved or to stray from the usual path, because stepping away from what’s considered the ordinary course can lead us to discover a destination we couldn’t see before.

Of course, finding a new way forward will not be easy. But just as we once took a leap great enough to reach the moon, surely we can overcome any obstacle or paradigm and take new steps toward progress.


Mitsumasa KADOTA (October 2025)

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