Monday morning. I trodded down the stairs at 5:05 for my
morning routine. My younger daughter,
who is an early riser but never usually this early, came down behind me. I got her a glass of juice and told her to head
back up. “It’s too early baby. Go climb in bed with mama.” I wanted to get started with the meditation
bit but she didn’t want to go back to bed.
I told her she could stay up but ‘no screens.” Walking off, my better nature caught up with
me and I went back and invited her to join me.
I’d assumed she’d
never want to, but she took to the invitation.
“OK then, just concentrate on breathing in your nose and out your
nose. If you’re mind starts wandering,
just think about the breathing. “ I had low expectations. It’s hard enough for adults to sit still for
an hour. Selfishly I wanted quiet. But she did great. I was impressed. She asked “how much longer” at roughly 15
minute intervals, which isn’t so bad. It's a private matter up at such an un-godly hour that I never thought to
invite anyone along. But she’s welcome
any time, from now on.
I’ve just plowed
into this by myself, really. A good
friend took a course on the Theravada Buddhist tradition of Vipassana. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vipassan%C4%81 He studied with one S. N. Goenka and raved
about it. I’m sure there is much that
would helpful to pursue this in a more structured way. But for now, what I’ve time for is me, vs.
me. My friend sent me a video of the
gentleman that was helpful. At the end
he talked about the impact of meditation on kids at school, helping them to
concentrate, improve memory etc. I thought of
that this morning with our inter generational session: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbfHERChbmw. Proud of that little girl.
A reading list from my grad school, the
Fletcher School had a provocative title and that caught my attention: “Sometime the Hating has to Stop.” This is a quote from a new film “The Railway
Man” which explores the difficult story of a British PoW Eric Lomax who as
tortured by his Japanese captor Nagase Takashi.
I haven’t seen the film but apparently the two meet up and Lomax accepts
the apology of Mr. Takashi.
Through this
reconciliation he said he ‘found some kind of peace and resolution‘. When
Eric’s wife accompanied him back to the graves of British PoWs who died in the
war, she asked if reconciliation with
Nagase might be some kind of betrayal. He did not see it that way, replying to
her “Patti, some time the hating has to stop”. Finally Patti had those words
written on her husband’s grave.
That article had a link to an account
that was written by Mr. Lomax himself which is even more stirring, as he goes
from his life of wanting to choke Mr. Nagase to the moment they meet, when his
former captor breaks down in tears, and they become friends. Remarkable.
In the first article a letter to the Telegraph
by the Chinese ambassador to the U.K. Ambassador Liu is quoted. It is noted that he nor, it would seem, most Chinese in general are
prepared to consider Mr. Lomax suggestion. By raising the film, Ambassador Liu, does
little to buttress Sino-Anglo affinities through shared opposition to Imperial
Japan, but rather to illustrate that England has made progress toward
reconciliation that China has still yet to. The Japanese Ambassador's legalistic reply also illustrates that Japan should do more to broaden this spirit of
reconciliation rather than turn from it with visits to the Yasukuni shrine.
I should like to
see this film. How brave both those
veterans were to meet that way. I wonder
if there might not be some similar tale of reconciliation between Imperial
Japan and China and/or Korea. Perhaps there are some well documented accounts. The days
are fading when living men and women can personally model, what the former
enemies need to eventually do for the sake of their people. I often think of forgiveness as fundamental to the western tradition because of its centrality to Christianity, and that, it is a foreign concept in North Asia. Fortunately this isn't true. All three nations can draw from their
Confucian antecedents, if they’re ready: 不念旧恶[1]
There are a half a
dozen other news items and media encounters I thought to refer to today, but
it’s Monday morning and there’s quite a few other matters to get started
on. I’m just glad my daughter helped me
start things off with a surprise this week. Stay
nimble, stay patient. I showed her my routine this morning, how I usually get her breakfast and wake her and her mother up and put on some blues for her to chomp Cheerios with. This morning we threw on the "Texas
One article that's really just a first line, that I’ll leave you
with briefly from this report on Chinese foreign direct
investment (FDI): “Chinese investment in
the United States doubled in 2013”
Um, wow. It wasn’t so long ago that we traced foreign
FDI into China. That’s a remarkable
statistic that will begin to thoroughly change the nature of the U.S. China
relationship. Get ready.
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