It isn't fair

It’s a great time to be alive. Of course, I guess anyone can say that about any period in our history. I remember when I was growing up hearing about all the times when my parents and teachers were present at a pivotal moment in history. I can remember my dad telling me about where he was in class when he heard that Kennedy was shot. I remember them telling about what they thought when man walked on the moon. They were great times I am sure.
I think now about all that I have seen in my life that I will tell my kids. I can remember the wall in Berlin coming down, even if I don’t remember the events clearly. I do remember getting out of the shower and mom telling me that the nation was now at war in the Middle East. I have very, very dim memories of being really young and hearing others recall the Challenger. I remember waking up in the PHA house to Graham yelling about some planes hitting a building a New York, and then being glued to the TV for the next two days. I remember ‘Shock and Awe’ and the disaster that has ensued. I remember being at school in Toei as I watched Obama give his victory speech.
Then I think about Joe, my 92-year-old neighbor and friend, and how much he has seen. I have to remind myself that he was born during WWI, and the Titanic sank just four years before he was born. He has seen it all; from the Great Depression to whatever we are in now. What a life to live.
I’m sure the current economic troubles will pass. Maybe things won’t return to the status quo, and maybe that’s not a bad thing. If we are forced to use mass transportation and revert to being a more local oriented people, then I say that these hard times weren’t all in vain.
I have been reading and thinking a lot these days. I admit that living alone in a town where there are no other native speakers makes it easy to find solitude and peace. Add to it that my apartment is at the base of several large, looming misty mountains—and it is not hard to find alone time to contemplate. Often times my thinking isn’t consumed with the most meaningful and useful issues…
I do think a lot about Jesus and his teachings. This week I have been thinking about what it truly means to follow him, to be completely selfless, and to give everything away for him. I come from a background that doesn’t make it easy to understand or find examples of altruistic people. My inclination is to be selfish: I deserve this, I deserve that, I earned this, and I earned that.
I don't want to turn this into a political debate, but I think a lot of what drives us as American Christians not the entitlement that we think we have, but rather the idea of what is fair and earned.
Many of us balk at the idea of higher taxes and government intervention because we don’t want someone taking our money. The money that we earned is ours and no one else has the right to tell us what to do with it. We become outraged when this money, our money, could in fact be given to those who are unworthy. I didn't work all those hard hours to see my money given away. These kind of thoughts come into our heads like bullets. They don’t deserve to get any money! They haven’t worked for it! The idea of the “non-deserving” getting something that they don’t deserve infuriates us. When we see a mom who has eight children at the same time due to scientific help, and we learn that she doesn't have a job and can’t take care of them, we resent her. That’s why I only had two kids and have a steady job, because I don’t want to ask others for help!
What is this in us that drives us to separate the deserving from the unworthy? We feel that everything in this world that we have worked for and earned is ours, no one but us has can decide what to do with it.

I wonder if this is why Jesus told the Parable about the workers in the vineyard. He knew how people were, and how they still would be today. When the workers who had been working all day saw that those who had only worked a little received the same compensation, they were furious. "WHAT? How can this be? We were out here working all day and they just got here!"

IT ISN’T FAIR.

Consider the coin flipped....

What do all those who called (call) a muslim have to say about the GOP's next knight in shining armor?


http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/02/23/jindal.gop/index.html

Nice

I was eating dinner last night when it just hit me. I really enjoy my life and I have been so blessed. There are times when things don't go like I want them to, and its true that I am far from many of my friends and family. But life is good. I appreciate all that I have when I walk through the woods to school every morning. I like to look at the fog in the mountains and just sit and think. The world is an amazing place--I am not in a hurry to leave it.

Come Spring!

Well, February is in full swing and the time is flying here. The Japanese school year is almost over and I felt like I just got here. I am planning on staying another year here, it's crazy to think that my six month contract as about come and gone! I really am going to focus on learning more Japanese in this next year and I have some lofty goals set! Let's hope I can meet them.
I just finished reading the Ragamuffin Gospel and I started The Case for Christ this week. Mom got me a copy and Michi a copy in Japanese to read so it should be a lot of fun to talk about it together. She really likes the idea of hearing a skeptics point of view about the whole Jesus thing.
I have also become a podcast fanatic. I listen to about 10 sermons a week--Rob Bell, Mark Driscoll (ironic those two are side by side!), Bow, Dean and a few others. It's a great way to "redeem my commute." (as Mark Driscoll calls it) I look forward to listening to sermons on the train as I make my way to Toyohashi. They also make time fly when I ride my bike around in the mountains!

It's getting warmer here, we still haven't had any snow to speak of. Not much of a winter compared to you all at home! Michi and I did go snowboarding last weekend, which was a blast! She's still a lot better than me, but I am getting better quickly. I need to find a way to get my board over here asap!

This weekend we are heading to Ise to visit the most famous shrine in Japan (again!) and to find a local microbrewery there. We are going to take the ferry from Irago to Toba, so I hope the weather's great and we have a nice ride!

Hope all of you are well at home, leave me a note!

Feb. update!

I’m done with elementary school for the week, and sometimes that is a good thing. It’s not the easiest thing in the world to teach English to kids who just want to play all day and haven’t mastered their own language yet. Today most of the last class was spent asking me if I like some sexual Japanese word that I can’t remember. Even the teacher thought it was quite funny!
My Japanese is nowhere near as good as I hoped it would be, but I am improving. I returned to Japan with a newfound motivation for studying! I have done better and hope that I can keep learning. I am at the stage where I can communicate, and it helps to see tangible results from studying. It helps living in Toei, where I have to speak to talk to just about anyone! I did have a good conversation with the man who owns the small gas station that I like to go to. He pumps my gas for me in my scooter and we talked about how Americans use cash instead of credit cards (he had heard that on TV and promptly warned me about the dangers of credit cards and debt) and how most all gas stations in America were self-service. It was only until after I left that I realized that we had this entire conversation in Japanese and I understood most of it. I try to listen as much as I can and remember what the kids teach me. Sometimes it is stuff that I can never use, or Japanese that just isn’t useful.
I had a meeting last weekend in Nagoya and our regional boss talked about how the worldwide recession was even going to affect English teachers here in Japan, and Michi’s teachers have told her the same thing. Of course we still have jobs, but raises aren’t being handed out like they used to be. It’s amazing how small the world is today. A Wall Street crash can affect life here in Toei, Japan. Everything is connected.
This weekend Michi is going to Kyoto with the teachers from her school and I have plans to hang out with Nate in Tahara. I hope we get to relax, I have been traveling the last few weekends, and will keep traveling in the next few! We are going snowboarding the 14th, maybe to Ise on the 21st, and to Takayama on the 28th. After that March is here and hopefully a friend or two coming to visit!
I think now I am finally settled into my apartment and I am getting it set up the way I like it. It actually is a pretty comfy place in the mountains; the only thing that I need is some friends around to enjoy it with! Hopefully the warmer weather will mean more people can come and visit me!
I heard all about the bad weather at home and hope all of you get power back soon! Of course, I guess if you are reading this, then you must have power☺ It’s crazy the amount of damage that the snow and ice can do when the conditions are right…
On a different note, when I moved into my apartment, there were three plants already there. One is a cactus, and now it is blooming, and has been getting ready to bloom since November. It is quite possibly the most beautiful flower that I have ever seen. I’ll try to put a picture on here soon….
Hope all of you are doing well….