Re: Fwd: Japan and our future

[Guest guest]

Joy, I'm not surprised that this comes to us from you. What a meaningful message, and a challenge to us all to do the many things we can do to reduce and reject things we can do without. I've never understood why many people replace perfectly good vehicles when it costs more to insure and register new ones. And, if people knew how much water and edible grain it takes to produce one pound of beef or pork, they might want to eat lower on the food chain, or eat grains and beans along with other non-meat protein sources. On it goes for everything we consume, use, or purchase just to "have".

Just got home from seeing the animated children's movie "Rango" with my local grandkids. What a powerful message about water: that those who control it control everything. This will be the next big world shortage. What each of us does right now has huge impact on the world our grandchildren are going to inherit.

Thanks for opening our eyes!

Kay

FW: Japan and our future

Blossoming Through Shared Suffering - Examples from Japan: Jane Brunette

Mixed in with the disturbing images coming out of Japan is a flower seen

by a woman in Tokyo as she walked home from work after the earth shook

and the waters poured in.

Yuka Saionji saw a little flower and thought, "all of us can now try to

run away from radiation, but what of this flower? I bent down to the

flower and just felt moved to say, 'I'm sorry.' "

I read this on Yuka's blog post and my eyes filled up. It made me want

to thank her publicly for being able to maintain such sensitivity in the

midst of tragedy.

This is the act of a true flamingseed: one who uses difficult conditions

to blossom into awareness and compassion. And she isn't the only one.

She reports on so many others using this time of deep, shared suffering

as fuel to open their hearts and serve others in whatever way they can.

Here are a few examples from her post:

* I saw an old lady at a bakery shop. It was totally past their

closing time, but she was giving out free bread.

* There was a lady holding a sign that said, "Please use our

toilet." They were opening their house for people to go to the restroom.

* My co-worker wanted to help somehow, even if it was just one

person. So he wrote a sign: "If you're okay with a motor cycle, I will

drive you to your house." He stood in the cold with that sign. And then

I saw him take a gentleman home, all the way to Tokorozawa!

* When I was waiting at the platform, so tired and exhausted, a

homeless person came to us and gave us a cardboard to sit on. Even

though we usually ignore them in our daily life, they were ready to

serve us.

* An old man at the evacuation shelter said, "What's going to happen

now?" And then a young high school boy sitting next to him said, "Don't

worry! When we grow up, we promise to fix it back!" While saying this,

he was rubbing the old man's back.

We promise to fix it back. That one really stung me. We have left behind

nuclear waste and dangerous reactors, global weather changes, oil

spills, and failing economic systems for our children to fix. I want to

say to that boy and to all those who will be born in the future and

inherit these things, "I'm so sorry." Thinking of them now - the future

children and the future flowers as well as the good hearts inside all of

us who are alive now - I want to use this tragedy as Yuka and the

everyday people of Japan have been using it: to join with others and

find a way to live that honors and cares for us all. Not just those

living now, but also those to come. Not just the humans, but the

animals, the flowers.

Andy Couturier wrote in a blog post that in Japan, it takes one nuclear

reactor just to power all the drink dispensers that allow people instant

24-hour access to hot and cold drinks. I wonder how many it takes in

America? Am I willing to give up instant hot and cold drinks to prevent

nuclear fallout? Each of us have to make this choice, and I notice that

when others around me continue to be wasteful simply because we all have

trouble seeing the consequences, I find myself thinking that my little

choices won't make a difference. But just like the small choices these

Japanese people made to do what little they could to help, our small

choices do matter. They add up to a way of life, as they did for the

inspiring Japanese people Andy profiles in his book.

In the tradition of the Menominee (a Native American tribe from

Wisconsin that I am descended from), every person is taught as a child

that before they take anything - even a blade of grass - they need to

make a prayer that explains why they are taking it and what good they

will use it for to benefit all beings. And for everything they take,

they need to offer something in return. Because I want to become more

conscious of my consumption patterns and do a better job of

distinguishing what helps from what hurts, I'm thinking that this might

be just the prayer to use before going shopping, before buying a drink

in a styrofoam cup from an automatic hot drink dispenser, before casting

my vote for anyone who advocates continued use of nuclear power, before

following my conditioning toward a lifestyle that requires a great deal

of resource use. I don't know what the Menominee call this practice, but

I think of it as "The Prayer before Consumption."

The prayer before (or instead of) consumption

1. Give thanks for all that is given to me.

2. Make an offering in return.

3. Explain why I need this thing now, and how I will use it not just

for my own benefit, but to benefit all. (If it fails this test, then I

leave it where it is.)

I vow right now to adopt this practice wholeheartedly and with great

care, in honor of all the Japanese - but especially, in honor of the boy

who rubbed the back of the elderly man in the evacuation center and

said, "Don't worry! When we grow up we promise to fix it back."

May he be given far less to fix - and far more to build on.

(Source:

http://flamingseed.com/2011/03/blossoming-through-shared-suffering/;

accessed March 18, 2011.)

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