FTY, Part VI: Some Random Thoughts Between Aftershocks

Dad had just turned 19 when he arrived in Belgium a few weeks before the Battle of the Bulge erupted.  On Father's Day 1999, two months after Dad passed away, we found a box of letters he had written to his parents during the war.  Grandpa had saved those letters in a bank safety deposit box; Grandpa kept documents other people would consider valuable in a shirt box in his closet.

Reading those letters on a sunny Michigan day, surrounded by the laughter of nieces and nephews and their toddlers splashing in the backyard pool, I was struck by my father's lighthearted tone.  I checked and re-checked the dates of the letters to find the ones he wrote immediately after the battle.  Amazingly, incredibly lighthearted.

I mention this for a couple of reasons.  First, I am feeling particularly nostalgic tonight.  By the time I post this, it will be St. Patrick's Day in Japan.  My brother's birthday.  He is closest in age to me of all my siblings, born twenty months after me.  By now we have celebrated more of his birthdays apart than together, which is true for all my siblings but I feel it more acutely in his case, probably because of that St. Patrick's Day link which hints of green beer and a family gathering where stories are exchanged and childhood battles rehashed.  He is our family's primary storyteller, the son who most resembles his father, and the friend to whom most of my postings are directed.  What I mean to say is that there is an invisible "Dear Dave" at the top of this and many other pages.  In a way, he's like a conscience.  But a more forgiving conscience than the one inside my head so how can I not help liking him more than I like myself?

The other reason I'm mentioning my father's upbeat, whistling-in-the-dark attitude is my way of offering a backhanded apology/explanation to any reader who finds my recent posts insensitive to the current situation in my adopted nation.  Let me be clear:  the situation devastates me at every level.  But you can see all the terrible events unfold on television and read the uplifting stories and dire prognostications in the newspaper just as, albeit more vividly and real-time than, my grandparents could follow the Battle of the Bulge.  I am certainly not enduring the life-threatening horrors my father experienced in Belgium that cold December, but I want very much to follow his example and live up to his expectations (for once in my life at least) by focusing on the lighter side of things.  You don't need to worry about me and, more importantly, the Ancient Mariner does not need to worry about me.  He is working unbelievably long, mind-numbing hours to unravel logistical nightmares.  He can better concentrate his intellectual and emotional energies on the task at hand when he doesn't have to concern himself with meltdowns on the homefront.  When he is deployed like now, that invisible salutation is amended to read "Dear Mike and Dave".

So there you have it.

On the good news front, contact has been achieved with Suzuki-san, my dear book club friend who was born in Hiroshima in 1939 and had the good fortune to spend the month of August 1945 in the countryside.  She lives in Kamakura with her husband who is slipping into dementia.  She communicated with me by text-message so I felt compelled to frame my responses in the form of little telegrams.

To: Peevish
Sent: Mon, March 14, 2011 3:43:05 PM
Subject: Dont worry

Aside from general difficulties, I am OK.  I am well prepared with food, water, batteries, etc.  I am looking forward to reading all the books you gave me.

If you run out of books I will buy a bike and pedal some over to you.XOXOXO

So kind of you! I have more than enough already. Surprised by so many shoppers hoarding anything and everything!

Japanese shoppers hoarding? I don't believe it. Americans, on the other hand...

I saw rows of empty shelves in supermarkets.

Think deliveries are slow.

How are you and your family doing? Staying indoors as much as possible?

It's just me. He was in Singapore. Ship is now going to disaster area.

Wow! That was a big one. Hope it won't happen again tonight. Am exhausted from watching TV too much.

6.0 Shizuoka. Go to sleep, my friend.

Good night.

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Good night to you as well.  And happy birthday, little brother.