[Oe List ...] Prayers for Japan

Sun Mar 13 00:57:48 CST 2011

Isobel,

I just kidded my Canuck neighbor here in the campus of Shenyang Aerospace University (Mukden, Manchuria to old timers) that if the five reactors do a meltdown, I am headed for Australia.  Then I remembered that in planet Eaarth, we all live downwind!

I muse in our local paper, at least, once a week, usually on Mondays.  I added this one for Tuesday

ZEN CALMNESS

Channel NewsAsia out of Singapore, along with CCTV 9 of Beijing, is following the unfolding crisis in Japan after the 8.9 Richter scale tremor, the strongest quake ever to shake the nation, and the subsequent tsunami that sent ten-meter high waves ten kilometers inland in Honshu, leaving the tarmac of the Sendai International Airport under water, a local hospital still standing as the only refuge for some 300 persons in an area of total collapsed structures, and ten thousand people from one village still remaining unaccounted for.  The predictable aftershocks add damage and discomfort, but it is the threat of the nuclear meltdown of five reactors that is sending chills down everyone’s spine.

Not unlike humankind’s previous relationship to “flat earth,” which we now know to be spherical, and calling the experience of sundown as “sunset” when the earth actually turns, we never really consider land mass as floating tectonic plates on magma, but to appreciate how strong the earthquake was in Japan, the whole archipelago moved by a couple of meters and the axis of the planet itself shifted by a few centimeters!

Zen Japan is showing a remarkable face of solid calmness.  News reports portray a nation intentionally going through the motions of a rehearsed drill in the midst of the surprising destruction that trails the wake of this disaster.  The vaunted train system, one of the most sophisticated rails in the world that connects Kagoshima in south Kyushu to Wakkanai of north Hokkaido, shut down momentarily, along with its metro systems, at least, in the urban centers of Honshu.  People undaunted, bought bicycles and pedaled home, while some just trudged and walked in the cold.

We had a major life turn to make in 2002, and we took a week retreat late January before the cherry blossoms, took the train from Narita to Sapporo in Hokkaido on the eastern corridor through Sendai, and returning on the western route through Akita and Niigata to West Tokyo.  The cultivated and manicured countryside was a scene to behold, the tidiness of the trains and orderliness of its people, a welcomed respite from the hustle of crowd and mass humanity. 

Though signs of juvenile vandalism through graffiti were evident in metro structures, and the surprising sight of homeless tents on blighted display outside the Shinjuku municipal center, the orderly Japan of our previous acquaintance, of nature both physical and societal disciplined into the level of art on terrain and population, was still very much and unmistakably alive!  Majestic Mt. Fuji reigned as Hokusai’s rowers navigate the towering waves off Kanagawa in my sea of tranquility!

It is with deep appreciation that I recall that solitary week almost a decade ago, but as I watch today the deluge of painful unraveling that characterizes the land of the rising sun, only the sound of silence is appropriate to express our profound sorrow of the innocent suffering unleashed.

A people’s tragedy, however, has awakened humanity’s empathy.  Though its economy is one where its GNP far exceeds its GDP, showing barely any economic growth though ascending into international eminence, it has shown an economic arrangement where the concern for humanness matters.  Wrangling in the Diet notwithstanding, Japan projected a country with a human face.

Its virtues of simple elegance on cuisine and decor, lifestyle and landscape, custom and technology, its thrust towards moderation on all things in its post-WWII demeanor, has endeared it in many parts of the world; though it was saddled with the cruel memories of Nanjing, the stigma of a Pearl Harbor, it also lived the mushroom cloud brunt of the Little Boy and Fat Man over the skies of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  In both cities, the suicide cliffs of Saipan and Tinian are not unknown.  

Japan’s Emperor heeded the winds of change violently exploded on the southern skies, and terminated hostilities; the nation took this nuclear kamikaze and domesticated it for peaceful use.  Now, the ice and the fire, the heat and the water, Mother Nature’s yin-yang elemental force comes calling again on Nippon’s door again.

Presbyter and poet Ellie Stock wrote the following not too long ago:
What do I call what calls from the deeps,
that pulses through stars and quickens heart’s beat,
that surges through waves and cleanses with fire,
emerges from dust and breathes soul’s desire?
What do I name what mocks human pride,
that bends the tree of life, sustaining being’s tide?

It is with Zen calmness that we join Japan and the rest of the world in daring to give a name to that which emerges from the deeps, whether from the bowels of the earth, or from the deep abyss of the battered human soul.

The world joins that call of the deeps as its K9s head for Tokyo to locate survivors.  There is solidarity afoot in a world already grieved by the Gaddafis and the Tehrar Squares.  But the ebb and flow of global reconciliation fills the air, and I, in my archaic season of Lent, smell the scent of transformation, in faith, hope and love.  With T.S. Elliot and Zen calmness, I sing: 
Quick now, here, now, always--
A condition of complete simplicity
(Costing not less than everything)
And all shall be well and
All manner of thing shall be well...

j'aime la vie

-----Original Message-----
From: Isobel and Jim Bishop <isobeljimbish at optusnet.com.au>
To: Order Ecumenical Community <oe at wedgeblade.net>
Sent: Sun, Mar 13, 2011 12:25 pm
Subject: Re: [Oe List ...] Prayers for Japan

Thank you Jeanette for posting this. 
This morning, our Church community offered us the opportunity to light a candle for the peoples of Japan- and I made a prayer for Wayne, Shizuyo and their family.
We appreciate  very much being kept in touch so promptly, Jeanette, and Joan and Tracey.  
Thank you all  so much.

In peace and love,
Isobel Bishop.

On 13/03/2011, at 12:26 PM, Jeanette Stanfield wrote:

I heard from Shizuyo today.  She and three ICA  staff were in the office when earthquake hit.  They ran out into the street and are fine. 
Office had some decor and other things came off the walls but they cleaned it up very quickly.  

Jeanette

On 2011-03-12, at 7:24 PM, Janet Sanders wrote:

I'm at a loss for word in expressing my grief over what is happening in Japan.  Wayne, Shizuyo, family and colleagues--know the planet is with you in our prayers and blessings.  Jan

----- Original Message ----- 
From: jfknutson at aol.com 
To: oe at wedgeblade.net 
Sent: Friday, March 11, 2011 10:37 AM
Subject: Re: [Oe List ...] Prayers for Japan

Wayne Ellsworth and his wife Shizuyo Sato have an office in Tokyo along with Japanese staff, along with many commited colleagues from our work there.  After living there for over 15 years I cannot imagine what they are experiencing.  Pray without ceasing.  Joan Knutson

-----Original Message-----
From: Tracy Longacre <tel at telphoto.com>
To: 'Order Ecumenical Community' <oe at wedgeblade.net>
Sent: Fri, Mar 11, 2011 5:20 am
Subject: [Oe List ...] Prayers for Japan

Fervent prayers for those in Japan after the massive (8.9!) earthquake and tsunami.

Do we have news of colleagues there? Has the tsunami affected other places (Taiwan? Australia?)

   Tracy E. Longacre
   from Ottawa
   +1 (415) 944-0158
   SKYPE: tlongacre

   Blog: http://tlongacre.wordpress.com
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   Want to receive monthly updates on me and my work? send an e-mail to: telupdates-subscribe at topica.com

"You don't have to take God to anyone.  God is already with everyone.  So, rather than taking the approach that you need to take the truth out to people who need it, adopt the approach that you need to go find the truth that others have and you are missing.  Go be evangelized."   owlrainfeathers.blogspot.com

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