A Ten-Second Time Lag

Yesterday was the Women’s World Cup match between Japan and Sweden.

Kickoff was at 8:00 a.m., so I got up around 7:00 and started getting ready.

Our bedroom is on the second floor, and we always live with a quiet awareness of my father-in-law, who spends most of his time downstairs.

When I came down, he was already reading the newspaper with the television on, waiting for the match to begin.

I quickly finished getting ready and headed to our room, planning to watch the game on the projector.

Unfortunately, it wouldn’t start.

An error message appeared saying, “Fan Error,” and no matter how many times I tried, the result was the same.

I turned on the air conditioner and let the projector cool down for a while.

In the meantime, I watched the beginning of the match with my father-in-law in the dining room.

After a while, the projector finally started working again, so I returned to our room and continued watching there.

The first half ended 0–0.

It was a quiet game.

At halftime, I went upstairs to wake my wife.

“Are you watching the match?”

“Yeah, in our room.”

Then I casually said,

“My father-in-law is the same as always. No matter what happens, he hardly reacts.”

Even when Japan came close to scoring.

Even during exciting moments.

He simply watched the screen in complete silence.

My wife smiled and said,

“It must be difficult sometimes… living together with your father-in-law.”

I went back to our room and resumed watching the match.

A little later, I heard my wife getting up from the bedroom upstairs.

She came down the stairs and headed into the dining room.

The dining room is right next to the room where we were watching the game on the projector.

Then I suddenly heard her shout,

“Did they score?”

My father-in-law is hard of hearing, so we naturally have to speak quite loudly whenever we talk to him.

But on the internet stream I was watching, nothing had happened yet.

“Huh?”

About ten seconds later, the goal appeared on my screen.

That was the moment I realized something.

There was about a ten-second delay between terrestrial television and the internet stream.

With our rooms right next to each other, the result reached my ears before it reached my screen.

So I gave up and moved back into the dining room, where my wife, my father-in-law, and I watched the rest of the match together on terrestrial television.

The game ended in a 1–1 draw.

To be honest, it didn’t feel like Japan had missed out on a win.

It felt more like they had managed to avoid a defeat.

That was the kind of match it was.

What stayed with me most, though, wasn’t the result.

It was those ten seconds.

We were all watching exactly the same match.

Yet we weren’t experiencing it at exactly the same time.

Just ten seconds.

Enough for cheers to arrive before the goal itself.

Enough to know the outcome before seeing it.

Families may be much the same.

Even when we live under the same roof,

we don’t all feel things the same way.

We don’t react at the same speed.

We don’t speak at the same moment.

Each of us lives with a slightly different rhythm.

Rather than trying to erase those differences, perhaps it’s easier simply to think,

“This person is living in a slightly different time than I am.”

A ten-second time lag.

A slight difference in sensitivity.

Living with my father-in-law has taught me that perhaps life isn’t about eliminating those small differences, but quietly learning to live alongside them.