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In the traditional system of grading in American schools, letters of the alphabet from A to F, excluding E, represent the academic level on test papers and report cards. A is superior. B is above average. C is average. D is below average and F represents failure. Recently, the results of a national health survey in the U.S. were released. Although some improvements were seen, Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders stated that the nation's citizens rate only a grade D for their health habits. About two-thirds of people aged 25 or older exceed their recommended weight range. Seventy-eight percent of men and 59 percent of women are overweight. Seventy-eight percent of the respondents said they get some form of regular exercise, but only 40 percent exercise strenuously at least three times a week. There has been no recent decrease in the number of smokers; one in four Americans smoke cigarettes. But there has been a decrease in the number drinking alcohol with 40 percent replying that they never drink. The first century Roman satirist, Juvenal, wrote: "We should pray for a sane mind in a sound body" and the 17th century English philosopher, John Locke, affirmed that "A sound mind in a sound body is a short but full description of a happy state in this world." -------Due to the activities of the many young American men who have come for a year or two to advance the cause of their church in the last two or three decades, "Mormon" has become a familiar word in Japan. Do you know who Mormon was? According to Mormon doctrine, he was a 4th century prophet who related the history of the early inhabitants of America from about 600 B.C. to about 420 A.D. in the Book of Mormon, one of the sacred writings of Mormonism. According to this account, America was settled by a lost tribe of Israel and a special message from God for America was revealed by that prophet, Mormon. On April 6, 1830, 164 years ago today, this "Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints" was officially organized under the laws of the state of New York by Joseph Smith Jr. and a few associates. Earlier, Smith had reputedly uncovered golden plates and translated the strange hieroglyphics written on them. Because of their peculiar doctrine and controversial customs, Mormons were persecuted and forced to move from place to place until they finally settled in what has become the state of Utah where their headquarters is now located. Mormonism is a distinctly American religion which developed outside the mainstream of the Christian Church. -------In English dictionaries, encyclopedias or other references works with listings in alphabetical order, invariably the shortest listings are found under the letter X. There are very few English words or names that begin with this letter. How many do you know? Certainly the most famous foreigner to come to Japan with a name beginning with X was the man who was born into a noble family in the northern part of Spain on this 7th day of April in the year 1506. While studying in Paris, he became acquainted with Ignatius of Loyola. Together, they founded an order in the Roman Catholic Church called the Society of Jesus, or the Jusuits. In 1541, Francisco Xavier was sent as missionary to the Portuguese colony of Goa, on the west coast of India. There he preached with great success and went on to other areas of Asia, arriving in Kagoshima in 1549. During his two year stay in this country, he introduced Christian thought and founded many Christian communities. After leaving Japan, he was on his way to China, when he died at the age of 46. In his 11 years of missionary activity, he ministered in many different places and made many converts. He was said to have possessed a singular combination of profound mysticism and common sense, qualities that most people find difficult to harmonize. -------In Japan, many Buddhist temples or Shinto shrines are famous for both historical and architectural reasons. In England, this is true of many Christian churches. In recent years, the established Church of England has suffered a serious decline of worshippers in many of its architecturally beautiful churches. One reason for the decline is a change in the character of the communities in which the churches are located. The heart of the City of London is no longer a residential area. It is now the center of the country's financial business where rents are among the highest in the world. There are 36 churches in the City proper, where 300,000 people work but only 5,000 people live. An official commission recently reported that nearly all of the three dozen churches have a congregation of fewer than 10 and that most of them should be closed. Even if they are closed, however, they cannot be torn down. They are protected by a law which forbids the demolishing of such architecturally and culturally valuable buildings. The problem is: what should be done with them? How should they be used? Should they be turned into meeting halls, offices for voluntary groups, museums or commercial shops? This is one of many problems the Church of England is now facing. -------One day last summer we took a foreign guest from our home north of Chicago into that big city to go sightseeing. As we left the downtown area to return home, we decided to stop at the home of a retired couple who lived on the north side of the city. This couple had served as missionaries in Nagoya many years ago and we became close friends, so we wanted to see them during our short stay in the United States. I found their home and left my wife and our guest in the car while I rang the doorbell. There was no answer, so I wrote a note to put in their mailbox. Just then, a neighbor walked down the driveway between the two houses. I asked him if he knew where they were and he replied that their daughter lived in the house next to his, so I went there and found the daughter at home with her children. It had been many years since I had last seen her--as a high school student, but I asked if she remembered me--and she did. I called to my wife, who came from the car and we had an enjoyable, if short, conversation about old times in Nagoya. Her parents were on a trip and were expected to return the following day. They called us after their return, informing us that they had stopped in my hometown to visit us as they were returning from their trip, but we were absent. Later, we did get together with them and enjoyed talking, eating and reminiscing. -------Discussions between Japan and the United States, between Israel and the PLO, between the various factions fighting in the former Yugoslavia, between North and South Korea and between political groups in the Japanese Diet are all aimed at bringing about a reconciliation of different viewpoints. The reconciliation of opposing positions is essential for a peaceful society. According to the last verses of the 5th chapter of the Second Letter of Paul to the Corinthians, the message that Christians are expected to proclaim to the world is a message of reconciliation. In this case, however, reconciliation is not between different groups of human beings. It is reconciliation between God, our loving Father, and people, his wayward children who have turned away from God to follow their own self-centered desires. According to these verses, the sacrifice of Christ for the sins of all people is the means by which the heavenly Father and his hostile children are reconciled. Jesus' followers are supposed to be peacemakers, seeking to bring peace between opposing forces, but we see the spiritual reconciliation between God and human beings to be essential to gain true and lasting reconciliation between us human beings ourselves. -------An informal word for a policeman is cop, spelled c-o-p. There are various theories regarding the origin of this word. One theory is that it is an acronym for constable on patrol. Another is that it is a shortened form of copper, in reference to the large copper buttons previously worn by London police. It is probably rooted in the Latin verb capere, meaning to capture or seize. Although it is not a derogatory term, most policemen would prefer to be called an "officer" than a "cop". The phrasal verb, "cop out", means to fail or refuse to commit oneself or to renege on a promise and the phrase "to cop a plea" means to plead guilty to a lesser charge so as to avoid standing trial for a more serious charge. This is what figure skater Tonya Harding did last month, but this will not be possible when we stand before God on Judgment Day. -------In Japan, If we see a man with his hair shaved off, we presume he is a Buddhist priest. In the South American country of Chile, however, it was once the custom to shave the heads of those who were convicted of being pickpockets to make them easily identifiable. Thus, if Buddhist priests travel in Chile, they should not be offended if people are a bit wary of them. Some men have no hair, not because it has been shaved off but because they are bald. The medical term for baldness, or loss of hair, is alopecia, spelled a-l-o-p-e-c-i-a. Baldness may be caused by illness, a functional disorder or a hereditary disposition. As a genetic trait, baldness begins at the forehead and crown, progresses slowly, and is irreversible. Some bald men insist that baldness is a sign of intelligence, but a humorist has made the following observation. A man who gets bald across the front of his head is a thinker and a man who gets bald on the crown of his head is a lover. It follows that a man who gets bald all over his head thinks he's a lover. An American author, Don Herold, has written, "There's one thing about baldness; It's neat." -------According to one of my reference books, 106 years ago today, on April 13, 1888, a new shop opened in Tokyo next to a police station. It was not only a new shop, it was a new kind of shop. The name of the shop consisted of four Chinese characters. The last one, pronounced 'kan', denotes a building, as in 'eiga-kan' or 'tosho-kan'. The third one was the character for tea, pronounced 'cha' or 'sa'. Thus, the shop was a place where Japanese or Chinese tea was served. But the first two characters are the more interesting ones. These two characters, pronounced 'kahi', literally mean right or wrong, good or bad, pro and con. So, what kind of new shop do you suppose this was? It was not a shop to discuss the merits and demerits of Oriental tea. Actually, it was a coffee shop. Nowadays, when the word "coffee" is put into Chinese characters, two characters with a 'tama-hen', a radical meaning jewel or gem, are used, but other characters were also used when the first coffee shops appeared in this country. In English, the word cafe, which is the French word for coffee, originally denoted a coffeehouse, but now is also used for a restaurant or bar as well. However the word is written, coffeehouses or tearooms are popular places to socialize in Japan. -------The word "carpenter" is rooted in a Latin word for a two-wheeled carriage and originally denoted a wagon maker. It is now used for a person who constructs, finishes or repairs wooden objects and structures. According to a recent news article, municipal governments and construction companies in Tokushima Prefecture are making plans to open a carpentry school for high school graduates because the number of young people entering that profession is rapidly decreasing. The school will offer a two-year course for 20 high school graduates who will learn such skills as planning and lathing through on-the-job training. Local construction and engineering companies will support the school and students will be employed by the companies during their training period. A Labor Ministry report has indicated that the average age of carpenters was about 47 and that just one percent of all carpenters were under 30 years of age. Obviously, carpentry is not attracting young people. The same may be said of farming and various other traditional occupations that require manual labor. It is unfortunate if all young people are thinking only of getting a high paying job that requires little physical effort. It was an old Jewish custom to teach all boys some manual trade even though they became teachers or scholars. Thus, Jesus was a carpenter and the Apostle Paul was a tentmaker. -------In the state of Israel, there is a rock mountain that towers some 400 meters above the western shore of the Dead Sea. In ancient days, a fortress was built on the top of this flat-topped mountain with steep, cliff like sides. It was considered impregnable, but in the year 66, at the outbreak of the Jewish war against Rome, an extremist Jewish sect executed a surprise attack on the Roman garrison stationed there and seized the fort. For the next six years, these Zealots remained in control of this citadel as Roman legions destroyed Jerusalem and gained control over the rest of the land. Finally, after a siege of almost two years by 15,000 soldiers, the one thousand men, women and children in the fortress could hold out no longer. As a final act of defiance, however, the defenders agreed to kill themselves rather than be enslaved by Rome. Lots were drawn to determine ten men who would kill the others. One of these ten then killed the other nine and committed suicide. According to the Jewish historian, Josephus, this occurred on the 15th day of Nisan, which more or less corresponds to the present month of April, in 73 A.D. Two women and five children hid and survived to tell the story of the end. Masada holds a special, respected place in Jewish history. -------My hometown in northeastern Illinois lies midway between the cities of Milwaukee, Wisconsin and Chicago, Illinois. When I was a child, two railways linking those two cities passed through that town. One was an electric line that connected with the "el", or elevated railway, in Chicago. On the other line, trains were pulled by steam locomotives. Now that so many people go by car, the electric railway is no longer there and trains on the other line run infrequently. To go to Chicago on the expressway from Zion, one must first drive about 10 kilometers west to an interchange of that Tri-State Tollway which runs through the three states of Wisconsin, Illinois and Indiana. Going to Chicago, however, we never got on the tollway at that nearest interchange, for just south of that interchange was a toll station. We always went to the next interchange to avoid paying that extra toll. On American tollways, tolls are not always taken upon entering and leaving the tollway. On this Tri-State Tollway, there are toll stations at various intervals on the tollway itself. In fact, it is possible to make use of a short part of the tollway by entering at one interchange and leaving at the next one without paying any toll at all. -------To many people this is the most pleasant time of year, the season called spring. But the meaning of this word is not limited to a season of the year. Two other meanings of "spring" are found in the story of Jesus' conversation with a Samaritan woman in the 4th chapter of the Gospel of John. While Jesus was sitting by a well, a woman came to draw water and he asked her to draw some for him to drink to quench his thirst. In the course of their conversation, Jesus told the woman about spiritual water that would quench the spiritual thirst of people. This water would spring up from a spiritual spring within the heart of the believer. In this case, the noun, "spring", denotes a natural fountain or flow of water and the verb, "spring", means to move upward. All people experience both physical and spiritual thirst. Water from a well or natural spring can satisfy physical thirst, but Jesus implied that his teaching will bring new life and spiritual satisfaction to those who accept it and believe. Spring is the season of the year when new life begins in the physical world. It is a good time to enjoy the spiritual refreshment that comes from the springing up of an inner spring which is stimulated by a healthy faith. -------This third Monday of April is celebrated as Patriots' Day in the U.S. state, or commonwealth, of Massachusetts, commemorating the first battle of the Revolutionary War which occurred on April 19, 1775. Since 1897, this has been the day when the Boston Marathon is held. A marathon is a cross-country foot race of a distance of 26 miles, 385 yards, about 42.2 kilometers. Marathon is the name of the Greek town where a battle took place in 490 B.C., after which a man ran about 23 miles from that town to Athens to announce the victory of the Greek forces over the Persians and then dropped dead from exhaustion. Olympic Games of ancient Greece did not include a distance race, but the Marathon race was instituted in the modern Olympics in 1896. "Marathon" is now used to denote other contests or activities that require prolonged effort or endurance. -------Japan is an economic superpower, America's biggest overseas market and a chief ally. Nevertheless, there is not only a trade imbalance between these two countries; there is a news imbalance as well. A recent report revealed the results of a study of evening news programs of five major Japanese and five major U.S. television networks. In the seven months from September 1992 to May 1993, Japanese programs included 1,121 news reports from the U.S. while there were a total of 92 stories about Japan on U.S. networks. News from the U.S. accounts for one-third of all foreign reports on Japanese television, but American networks devote only 3 percent of their foreign news to Japan. Why are there so few stories about Japan in comparison to European countries? One explanation is related to time and money. It takes half the time and half the cost to report a story from Europe compared to one from Japan. Another reason is that subtle cultural patterns in peaceful, orderly Japan do not provide the kind of pictures American viewers desire. Misunderstandings and friction between people and peoples may arise due to insufficient information or the lack of a sincere attempt to understand the other party. -------One hundred and five years ago today, on April 20, 1889, a child was born into the family of a customs official in the Austrian town of Braunau. Dropping out of high school, this boy was frustrated in his hope to become an artist after twice failing the admission examination for the academy of arts. In the First World War, he became a corporal in the German army and received a medal for bravery. He became a fervent nationalist and developed a vicious hatred of Jews. In 1921, when the National Socialist German Workers', or Nazi, party was formed, he became the party chairman. While serving a prison sentence following an unsuccessful coup attempt, he wrote a book entitled 'Mein Kampf', "My Struggle", in which he revealed his strategy for world domination. In 1933, Adolf Hitler became the chancellor of Germany and set the nation's course that culminated in the Second World War and the Holocaust depicted in the award-winning film 'Schindler's List'. An emotional orator, he aroused the nationalistic feelings of the people and led them to a shameful disaster. He demonstrated the validity of his observation that "The great masses of people... will more easily fall victim to a great lie than to a small one." We must always be alert not to be deceived by bigoted demagogues. -------In a Japanese university, the 'Shogakubu' is the Department of Commercial Sciences or the Faculty of Business Administration, but the 'Shogaku-no-kai', a newly organized academic society in Osaka, is interested in a different kind of 'shogaku.' Can you guess what kind of research this group will be conducting? The focus of their study will be on a unique trait of human beings by which they express amusement, voicing inarticulate sounds from an open mouth. This Laughter Studies Association, whose members include doctors, lawyers and entertainment-related professionals, will study the effects of laughter from a medical viewpoint, do comparative research on laughter in different cultures and examine Japanese comic entertainment, including traditional 'kyogen' and modern 'manzai.' Studies indicate that laughter can accelerate the healing process and that humor could be utilized as therapy in treating illnesses. In Japanese society, laughter has not been encouraged and many people cover their mouths when they laugh. I believe that a wholesome sense of humor is an important element in a healthy life and I hope that regular listeners to or readers of these daily messages recognize the traces of humor in some of them. -------The meanings of English names of many countries are quite unclear, but the meaning of the name of the westernmost state of Europe is very easy to understand. Can you name this country without looking at a map? It is an island state with an area a little less than half that of the Japanese island of Honshu. Its name implies that it is a cold land and, in fact, more than 13 percent of its land area is covered by snowfields and glaciers. Most of its inhabitants live in the fertile coastlands that comprise seven percent of the island. It is the country of Iceland, in the Atlantic Ocean just south of the Arctic Circle. For centuries, Iceland had a unique calendar that divided the year into two seasons of 26 weeks each, and the first day of summer was a major holiday. People hoped to find frost the evening before because that was a good omen, indicating that winter and summer had "frozen together". Traditional customs of holding feasts and exchanging summertime presents are no longer observed, but the first day of summer according to the old calendar is still a national holiday, celebrated with parades. Following the long, dark winter, we can imagine the happiness of Icelanders when the summer season arrives. -------Taking the tollway to Chicago from my hometown, there is not much to see along the way. In contrast with Japan, the land is flat so there are no mountains to go around or through nor even to view from a distance. On that Tristate Tollway, no tickets are required. Toll gates are located at various points along the road and a standard amount is charged for each car. Drivers with the correct amount simply throw the coins into a machine with a large funnel-shaped mouth and then proceed after the bar is raised. Those without the proper change go through a separate line where money can be changed. There is only one service area in the 80 kilometers between the Wisconsin-Illinois state line and Chicago. That particular service area, west of the town of Lake Forest, is called the Lake Forest Oasis. An oasis, of course, is literally a fertile spot in a desert where there is water. This "oasis" is the only place along that part of the tollway where fuel for cars or people can be obtained. There are parking areas and gas stations on both sides of the road to service cars going in the opposite directions. The restaurant is located on a large, enclosed bridge spanning the highway. There, one may eat a snack while watching the cars pass underneath. In our busy lives also, it is good to find, or make, an oasis to gain periodic refreshment and refueling for both body and spirit. -------At the conclusion of the Gospel According to John, following the story of Jesus' resurrection from the dead, three appearances of Jesus to his disciples are recorded. The first two appearances, occurred in a room where the fearful and sad disciples had gathered and locked the doors. Jesus suddenly appeared and greeted them with the salutation, "Peace be with you." On the third occasion, he stood on the shore of the lake and called to the disciples who were in a boat a short distance away. They had spent the entire night on an unsuccessful fishing endeavor. In the morning mist, at first they didn't recognize Jesus, but when he told them to cast their net on the other side of the boat which resulted in a big catch, they realized who the stranger was. After pulling the net full of fish to shore, they joined him in an early morning snack of bread and fish. These stories teach us that the risen Lord is with us at all times, even when we do not recognize him. He brings peace to our troubled hearts and both inspires and helps us to make our lives more fruitful. Those whose spiritual eyes have been opened by faith may perceive his presence and be encouraged. -------In newspaper articles reporting the killing of two Japanese students in Los Angeles last month before the killers drove off in their car, the term, "carjack", was often used. In this case, "carjack" does not mean a device to jack up a car. Like the term, "skyjack", denoting the forcible takeover of an airplane, this word, which means seizing or stealing a car, comes from the term "hijack". During the period of Prohibition in the United States, a hijacker was a man who stopped trucks carrying illegal alcoholic beverages and stole the liquor. As a verb, hijack means to stop and rob a vehicle in transit. It is said that this word came from the greeting commonly used by hijackers when they stopped the truck drivers. They called out "Hi, Jack!" Or when they pointed a gun at the driver and ordered him to raise his hands they said, "stick'em up high, Jack!" -------"Media" is a popular word these days. Literally, the plural of medium, it is commonly used to denote various kinds of mass communication. These "Daily Word" messages are communicated through the media of the telephone, postal service, NIFTY-Serve computer network and NTT's CAPTAIN system. In my message for March 1st, I noted that unless a sponsor were found, the "Daily Word" messages would no longer be carried on the CAPTAIN system beginning in April. In today's message, I am happy to report that the messages are still available on that system and will introduce the sponsor. It is one of the Meitetsu family of companies, called Meitetsu Media. Established ten years ago as a credit card company, it has 600,000 users of its Media Card which are honored at the Meitetsu Department Store, 70,000 other stores in Japan as well as places around the world where VISA and Master cards are accepted. Card holders are given special rates for travel services, at designated hotels and at certain golf and skiing facilities. It also has a Financing Department and a Bridal Service Department. I am happy that Meitetsu Media was willing to sponsor this telephone service without attaching any conditions and I hope it will prove to be a beneficial investment. -------There are a number of mountain ranges in various countries that have a double name including the word sierra, spelled s-i-e-r-r-a, from a Spanish word meaning "saw". These rugged mountains have a saw-toothed appearance when viewed from a distance. There is a Sierra Morena in Spain, a Sierra Maestra in Cuba, a Sierra Madre in Mexico, and a Sierra Nevada in California. Do you know where the Sierra Leone mountains are found? The answer is: In the Republic of Sierra Leone. The next question is: do you know where that country is located? Sierra Leone, a little smaller than the Japanese island of Hokkaido with 4 1/2 million inhabitants, is situated in west Africa along the coast of the Atlantic Ocean. Its capital is the port city of Freetown, which is a significant name. This city and the country were settled by freed slaves from British territories. Britain controlled this colony until April 27, 1961, 33 years ago today, when it became an independent nation. Along with other former European colonies in Africa, it has had a troubled history since its independence as the various native tribes and outsiders jostled for supremacy. Diamonds are one of its major exports and the third largest diamond ever found was the 969.8-carat "Star of Sierra Leone". -------Last year, a team of researchers carried out a five-year study of 805 Dutch men, between 65 and 84 years old, to examine the relationship between diet and heart disease. According to the results, published in a British journal, certain beverages, fruits and vegetables contain chemical substances that reduce heart attacks. The study indicated that men who drank much tea and consumed many apples and onions were less likely to suffer from coronary heart disease than those who did not. Although it is difficult to establish a definite cause and effect relationship between certain foods and certain illnesses, it is obvious that some foods are beneficial to our health and others are not. Therefore, we should try to include the former in and eliminate the latter from our diet. We should also be concerned about the kind of reading material and television programs we select for our mental or spiritual food for they will affect our spiritual health. If you wish to receive written copies of these telephone messages before they are spoken, please send a self-addressed, stamped envelope plus ¥30 in stamps for each week of messages desired. Japanese translations are also available for an additional ¥30 per copy. This is: "Daily Word", Post Office Box 30, Moriyama Post Office, Nagoya 463. -------On top of the microwave oven which sits on a cupboard near my place at the dining table, there is a shortwave radio. Usually during breakfast and at lunchtime, when I eat at home, I listen to English language radio broadcasts from different countries. It is common for announcers in the various countries to give the time, using the term "universal time". For example, when it is 7:00 a.m. in Japan, it is 22:00 hours universal time. Another, older expression with the same meaning is "Greenwich Mean Time". At the time when Great Britain was the most influential of seafaring nations, when it was accurate to say that "the sun never sets on the British Empire", an observatory was established at Greenwich, just east of London and the line of zero longitude was fixed as passing through that point. The rest of the world was then located on meridians to the east or west of that Greenwich Meridian and time zones were fixed accordingly. So "universal time" is the time in London. From April to October in the United States, clocks are moved ahead one hour to provide more hours of daylight after normal working hours. This is called Daylight Saving Time. England also has British Summer Time, but universal time does not change. -------I purchased my first computer while on a short visit to the United States ten years ago. I chose a Macintosh which was very easy for a beginner to use with the icons on its screen and the movable device called a mouse. Later, the head pastor of our church purchased a Macintosh and then the same kind of computers were purchased for use in the church office. Last summer, when I went to the States, there were six of seven Macintosh being used by the church staff. Knowing this, I felt confident I would have no trouble working on material that I carried with me on disks from Japan during my stay there. However, I had purchased a newer version of the Macintosh six months before returning and I found that these disks could not be used on the older Macintosh computers. I felt very frustrated thinking I would not be able to type up the "Daily Word" Echoes essays and do other word processing tasks I had envisioned. Fortunately, there was one newer computer in the church office and the secretary was able to copy my disks onto other disks which were usable in the older computers so I was able to accomplish what I had planned to do. On most days when I was in town during our stay there, I went to the church where I was able to make use of a private office and when one of the computers was available, I was able to use it. -------Among the 27 books included in the New Testament, 21 are in the form of letters to churches or individuals. A dedicated missionary evangelist named Paul was the writer of most of those letters. Because of his new teaching which questioned the traditional customs of his day, Paul was persecuted and put into prison. One of the letters he wrote while in prison was to the Christians in the town of Colossae. Despite his imprisonment, at the beginning of this letter he notes that he always gives thanks to God when he prays [1:3] and, near the end of his letter, he exhorts his readers to do the same [4:2]. In chapter 3, verses 12-17, he indicates a number of qualities that should characterize Christians, including the words: "And he thankful"--thankful not only when singing hymns, but in "everything you do or say". His advice in chapter 2, verse 7, is to "be filled with thanksgiving." For a person suffering unjustly in prison to write such a letter filled with so many references to thankfulness is quite unusual. It is the reflection of an inner sense of contentment that comes from a healthy faith. Thankfulness to God and to others should be a distinguishing mark of those with a faith like that of Paul. -------I'm sure you need not be reminded that today is a part of Japan's "Golden Week". This name was first applied to this week of many holidays by movie theater managers about 40 years ago. In English, common expressions beginning with the word "golden" include: "golden age", an idyllic age of the past or an ideal age of the future; "Golden Gate", the strait forming the entrance to San Francisco Bay, spanned by the "Golden Gate Bridge"; "Golden State", the nickname of the state of California; and "Golden Horn", the inlet of the Bosporus around which the Turkish city of Istanbul is situated. The "golden calf" was an image fashioned by Aaron while Moses was in Mt. Sinai (according to Exodus, chapter 32), but now denotes money as an object of worship. The "Golden Rule", given by Jesus in Matthew 7:12, is: "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you". -------Forty-seven years ago today, on May 3, 1947, Japan's new constitution became effective. In commemoration of that event, May 3rd has been designated a holiday called Constitution Day. In Japanese, the official name is 'Kenpo kinen-bi', but in English, we do not usually speak of a "memorial" to a person or thing that is still in existence. We usually memorialize someone or something after his/her/its expiration. We could speak of today as the Memorial Day of the Constitution's Coming into Effect, but it is simpler to just call it Constitution Day. Although most Americans would not be able to identify Constitution Day in the United States, previously, September 17 was given that name to commemorate the signing of the U.S. Constitution on that day in 1787. Nowadays, it is commonly called Citizenship day, but it is not a holiday. Article 98 of the Japanese Constitution states: "This Constitution shall be the supreme law of the nation...." Therefore, it is important for Japanese citizens to be acquainted with its spirit and stipulations, especially as stated in the Preamble and Chapter 3, Rights and Duties of the people. We must remember that duties or responsibilities always accompany rights or privileges. -------Recently, a picture in a Japanese newspaper caught my attention. It accompanied an article about a new, underground parking area in downtown Nagoya. The picture was of the tape-cutting ceremony at the official opening of this parking place. What interested me in particular were a couple of things that gave a peculiar Japanese flavor to the ceremony. First, was the number of people involved. In tape-cutting ceremonies I have seen in the United States, there has been only one person with a scissors who cut the tape. In this picture, there were seven men with scissors, each of whom cut a small portion of the tape--presumably at the same instant. Behind them was another line of 14 men who also held a tape, but who had no scissors. Secondly, in ceremonies I have seen in the U.S., the tape was suspended across the entryway to the new structure, so cutting it actually symbolized opening the way into it. In this picture, the tape was suspended between two short posts separate from the entrance. In Japan, it is difficult to choose one and only one person to whom to give the honor of cutting the tape. And because there are so many people involved, the entryway is so narrow that newspaper and television reporters cannot get good pictures so the tape is moved to a more convenient location. This is an example of how Western customs are adapted to the Japanese situation. -------This fifth day of the fifth month has been celebrated as Children's Day in Japan since 1951, the year my wife and I arrived in this country. Today is also Children's Day in South Korea. In the West, one of the most common and beloved playthings in a teddy bear. This toy animal is stuffed with soft material and covered with a fabric resembling fur. Hundreds of toy bears from all over the world are now on display in a museum in Paris. This exhibit, including many windup and mechanical toy bears manufactured in Japan in the 1950s, has proved very popular to young and old alike. According to child psychologists, children project themselves onto teddy bears who are good listeners and bring comfort to them. They often take a teddy bear with them to bed, to the hospital or on a trip because it makes them feel secure. Can you imagine why these toy animals are called "teddy bears"? They were named after U.S. President Theodore (Teddy) Roosevelt who was fond of bear-hunting. He was once depicted in a cartoon sparing the life of a bear cub and this became the origin of the term. According to the Old Testament book of Isaiah, chapter 11, verse 7, in a future peaceful world, "Cows and bears will eat together, and their calves and cubs will lie down in peace." -------Over the years, the value of a certain piece of land changes depending upon many different factors including its location, the surrounding area, natural resources, etc. Although the price of land in downtown Tokyo or Nagoya has decreased over the past few years, it is still well out of the range of most citizens. I'm not sure what the cost of a square meter of land is these days in downtown New York, but 368 years ago today, on May 6, 1626, Peter Minuit, the director-general of the Dutch colony of New Netherland, purchased a piece of land from a tribe of Native Americans called Manhattans. That 57 square kilometer tract, now known as Manhattan Island, has become the heart of New York City. It is said to have been traded for trinkets worth about 60 Dutch guilders or 24 American dollars. Within 20 years after that purchase, that small tribe of Native Americans was almost completely destroyed as the result of battles with the Dutch invaders. We plan to hold another meeting of listeners to and readers of these "Daily Word" messages on Sunday afternoon, May 29th at 1:30 at the Nagoya Geijutsu Sozo Center near the Shinsakaemachi subway station. The theme of the meeting will be: Memories of elementary school days. You are invited to attend. -------My wife and I make it a practice to have our teeth checked by a dentist every year whether or not there is any problem. Even though Japanese dentists are well-trained and do a good job, we make it a point to make an appointment with a dentist in my hometown whenever we return to the States. One reason is that he is a good dentist. Secondly, he is a friend I have known from the time he was a small child. But a third, and decisive, reason is that, because we are missionaries, he never charges us for his work. Comparing dental office procedures in the United States and Japan, in our experience, there is a difference in the time involved. In Japan, we often have to wait a long time in the waiting room. In the U.S. we are usually seated in the dentist's chair closer to our appointment time. Also, we usually have to go to the dentist only once or twice: once for the general examination when his assistance cleans our teeth and he sees what needs to be done. If further work is required, the second appointment may last a long time--even over an hour, but we need not return many times for short appointments. Last summer, following a morning dental appointment, my mouth was still numb from the anesthetic when I had my lunch and I unknowingly bit my lip which swelled up for a couple of days. -------For over 80 years this second Sunday of May has been observed as Mother's Day in churches and communities in the United States. The custom has now spread to many other countries, including Japan. The love of a mother for her child is one of the best examples of the relationship of God, the Creator, with the human beings he created. Although the common figure used for God in the Bible is "Father", this does not imply that Gos is of the masculine gender. In the days when the Bible was written, this term included implications of authority, discipline, provision and protection as well as of love. But the Bible teaches that the love of God for his children is even greater than that of human parents for their offspring. In Psalm 27:10, we find these words: "My father and mother may abandon me, but the Lord will take care of me." And when God's chosen people in the Old Testament complained that God had forsaken them, the answer given through a prophet in Isaiah 49:15 was: "Can a woman forget her own baby and not love the child she bore? Even if a mother should forget her child, I will never forget you." On this Mother's Day, let us be thankful for the lasting love of our mothers and of our heavenly Father. -------One, spelled o-n-e, is the basic number in both philosophy and mathematics. All other numbers can be divided by this number and when they are, the result is the same as the original number. The same is true when other numbers are multiplied by one. According to the Bible, there is one and only one God. The word "only", meaning alone or sole, was originally made by adding the suffix "ly" to one and later the "e" was eliminated. Likewise, "atone" spelled a-t-o-n-e, was created by combining the words "at" and "one". To atone means to make amends for a sin. When human sin is atoned for, the one, holy God and human beings, created by God, are at one. In the classical version of the New Testament, in Romans 5:11, it is written that atonemant, ( or at-one-ment) was received through Jesus Christ who reconciled God and human creatures, making them one. -------Within the past two months, three more Japanese students were shot in the United States. The two shot in Los Angeles were killed and the one in Denver was seriously wounded. These were both sad and tragic events, but there is no indication that in these shootings or in the earlier shooting of the Japanese student in Louisiana that the race or nationality of the victims were relevant factors. These boys just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Another tragic event happened last month when two American helicopters were mistakenly shot down by U.S. fighter jets in Iraq. In this case, the term used for the direct cause of the death of 26 men of several different countries in those two helicopters was "friendly fire". This term is used when armed men mistakenly shoot at other men of their own group. Such tragedies may occur in any conflict and 134 years ago today, on May 10, 1863, during the American Civil War, Confederate General Stonewall Jackson died after being accidentally shot by his own troops while reconnoitering with his staff following a successful attack on the Union forces. While the loss of a loved one is always sad, it seems especially so when an accidental death is caused either by a mistake or by chance. -------Last month a new museum was opened in the city of Itoigawa in Niigata Prefecture. It is called the Fossa Magna Museum. "Fossa Magna" is a Latin term literally meaning "big ditch". That was the name given to the large, depressed land zone in central Honshu by the man who has been called the father of geology in Japan. The museum has a number of articles written by this man on display. Heinrich Edmund Naumann, a German geologist, was invited to Japan by the Meiji Government in 1875. For ten years he taught at the Imperial University of Tokyo as the country's first professor of geology. I have periodically read news items related to the discovery of bones of Naumann elephants in Japan, but I never knew the origin of this designation until I read about this new museum. In a biographical dictionary, I find the names of nine men with that surname but Heinrich Edmund is not one of them. Obviously, this Naumann is better known in Japan than elsewhere. Geology is the scientific study of the origin, history and structure of the earth. The more information about the earth and the universe that becomes available, the more reasonable it seems to me to believe there is a rational Mind, a purposeful First Cause behind it all: God, the Creator. -------I am not a golfer but I am acquainted with such golf terms as "birdie" and "eagle". In a recent newspaper article I was surprised to learn that squids, octopuses and dragonflies are also found on golf courses -- or in the mouths of golfers. In golf, par is the number of strokes considered necessary to hit the ball into a hole from a starting point, but good golfers may use fewer strokes. One stroke under par is called a birdie and two strokes under par is an eagle. I'm not sure of the reason for using those words for those meanings, but the use of dragonflies, octopuses and squids are related to the number of their legs. Dragonflies have six legs, octopuses have eight and squids have ten. These words are used for poorer golfers who score double the par number or more. Those who use six or more strokes on a par-3 hole are dragonflies, those using eight or more strokes on a par-4 hole are octopuses and squids use ten or more strokes on a par-5 hole. Due to the recession in Japan, golf courses are facing financial difficulties so the fees have been cut, but golfing on private courses is still too expensive for most people and conservationists continue to question the use and upkeep of such large tracts of land for such a purpose. -------Today is the 13th day of May. It is also a Friday, which is to say, it is Friday, the 13th. Some superstitious people in the West consider this an unlucky day. The most popular reason given for the origin of this superstition is that there were thirteen present at the Last Supper of Jesus with his disciples and that he was crucified on a Friday. I'm not sure whether or not May 13th was a Friday in the year 1787, but that was the day that a fleet of 11 ships left England bound for the continent of Australia which the English explorer, Captain James Cook, had claimed for England 17 years earlier. These ships arrived at Port Jackson, near the present city of Sydney, the following January. This was not a pleasure cruise, carrying tourists to go sightseeing or newlyweds on a honeymoon Rather, the 730 passengers were being taken to a new colony in this newly discovered continent far away from European civilization. All of them were convicted criminals for that first European settlement in Australia was a penal colony. For the next fifty years, Australia was considered a dumping ground for criminals, bankrupts and other undesirables from the British Isles. BY 1839 when the practice was discontinued, about 161,000 English convicts had been settled there. -------A humorous, somewhat scary, event occurred during our visit to the U.S. last summer when we visited my wife's elderly aunt in a nursing home in a Chicago suburb. At the entrance, we signed our names on the register along with the name of the lady we came to see. We were directed to a certain floor, so we went through a door which automatically locked after we passed through and took an elevator to that floor. That elevator had doors in both front and back. At certain floors the front doors opened while at others the rear doors did. When we got to the right floor, we went to the common room, which was also locked. A nurse let us in and we saw Aunt Virginia sitting in front of the television set with other elderly women. She was sleeping, so the nurse awakened her and brought her to a table where we sat and talked with her. My wife had been very close to this aunt during her childhood and youth and we had always visited her in her own home when we returned to the States. She was very happy to see us and greeted us warmly, but in the course of the conversation, it became clear that she didn't know who we were. After my wife showed her some pictures of our children and spoke of old times, she asked my wife if she knew her niece who was a missionary in Japan. My wife, of course, was that very niece. But the interesting, somewhat scary incident that happened as we were leaving will be related in next Saturday's message. -------In the ancient Middle East, Babylonia was a fearful imperial power. Old Testament prophets interpreted the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem as God's punishment for their sins. In 538 B.C., Persian forces under King Cyrus conquered Babylon and the Jewish captives in Babylon were permitted to return to their homeland and rebuild the temple. In the 45th chapter of the book of Isaiah, Cyrus is given the extraordinary description as the Lord's "anointed", or messiah, in Hebrew. This was the title used for priests and kings of Israel who were set apart by God for their special tasks. In this passage, the prophet proclaimed that Cyrus was a servant of the Lord who was blessing his activities even though Cyrus himself was unaware of it. The prophet emphasizes here that there is only one God of all, who controls both human history and natural forces. Light and darkness, good fortune and calamity are all under divine control and somehow fit into an over all divine purpose. We may not understand the reason for disasters(or for blessings), but faith in a universal God of justice and love who rules over all gives both comfort in times of sadness and an incentive to work to make our world a better place for all people. -------Did you know that some English nouns have no singular form ? They are only used as plural nouns. One example is paraphernalia, spelled p-a-r-a-p-h-e-r-n-a-l-i-a. This word comes from two Greek words meaning "beyond dowry". In the old days, dowry was the money or property brought by a bride to her husband at marriage. But that which a bride brought "beyond her dowry" was legally considered her own property which she could dispose of as she desired. The meaning of this word then changed to mean simply personal belongings and is now used for any collection of articles or equipment used in some activity. Scientists on an expedition must take much paraphernalia with them, but according to the Letter to the Hebrews, chapter 12, verse 1, those running the race of life must rid themselves of all paraphernalia that slow them down. -------The Declaration of independence adopted by the Continental Congress which marked the official beginning of the United States of America included a famous statement of self-evident truths: "that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness". Unfortunately, this lofty ideal was not put into practice in certain states which recognized slavery until the Civil War almost 90 years later. After that War between North and South, slavery was officially outlawed, but discrimination against Afro-Americans continued in various ways. One of its most flagrant forms was the segregated schools where separate and unequal education was being given. Finally, 40 years ago today, on May 17, 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that such segregated education was unconstitutional and, officially, the practice was discontinued. Probably no nation in the world is without discrimination in some form, but we should work to eliminate it completely. On Sunday afternoon, May 29th at 1:30, a meeting of "Daily Word" fans will be held at the Nagoya City Geijutsu Sozo Center. We will share our memories of elementary school days and you are invited to attend. -------A famous quotation from Shakespeare's drama, 'Romeo and Juliet', is the following: "What's in a name? that which we call a rose / By any other name would smell as sweet." Not long ago, Japanese newspapers carried stories about the father who wanted to name his infant son Akuma and the government office that balked at registering the name. More recently, an article appeared in an English-language newspaper about a 17-year-old California high school student who wanted to change his name from Peter Eastmen Jr. to "Trout Fishing in America", which is the title of a counterculture book and of a country-blues band in Arkansas. As a sign of his independence, he wanted the new name to appear on his high school diploma. When high school officials refused to comply, he went to a judge to officially register his new name. His father paid the $182 filing fee as a graduation present. As the judge signed the documents, he told the boy: "This may cause you no end of trouble in your life." In the Old Testament book of Proverbs, chapter 22, verse 1, it is written: "A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches". In this case, "name" has the meaning of "reputation" and this verse should be remembered by people in politics, business and society at large. -------During the latter part of the 16th century, the confused political situation in Japan was moving toward unification under a single, strong leader. Three of the central figures in this movement came from this Nagoya area and are recognized in the traditional pageant of the Nagoya Festival in October. The first of these three feudal lords was Oda Nobunaga who hailed from the province of Owari. It was 434 years ago today, on May 19, 1560, that he was propelled into prominence after leading his warriors to victory over an army more than ten times their number. The troops of Imagawa Yoshimoto were resting in a valley after victories over a couple of forts. Nobunaga had been advised to wait and make a stand at his stronghold in Kiyosu, but he refused to do so. Instead, he went on the offensive with a force of 3,000 men. Aided by a violent rainstorm and strong winds, which may be considered another 'kamikaze', his surprise attack resulted in a crucial victory in that Battle of Okehazama. From that small-scale engagement, Nobunaga went on to further victories that promoted unification of the nation. There is now an historical monument at the site of that battle just outside of the present city limits of Nagoya. -------Boerge Ousland is a 31-year-old Norwegian who is a North Sea diver. As you may know, the North Sea is the body of water between Norway and Great Britain. North of the North Sea is the Norwegian Sea. North of that is the Greenland Sea and still further north is the Arctic Ocean. In the middle of the Arctic Ocean, which is covered with ice all year round, is the North Pole. From the first decade of this century, a number of energetic, ambitious men have reached the North Pole after long treks over the ice. Most of them were members of a team and used such vehicles as dog sleds or snowmobiles. Last month, Mr. Ousland became the first person known to have reached the North Pole on a solo trip over the ice without using a vehicle or receiving airdrops. He spent 52 days to make the 1000 kilometer trip and lost 20 kilograms during that time. For a year before making the journey, he drank a glass of olive oil every day to build up his fat reserves. From the time he set off from Siberia in minus 37 degree temperature until his return, he did not change his clothes nor wash. During that long trek under the midnight sun, Ousland said he thought about everything from God to how he should build his new garage and that "being alone was the best part of it. It was great--just me, the ice and no one else." I would add that Someone Else must have been with him also, protecting him and giving him strength, even if he was unaware of it. -------Last July, my wife and I visited my wife's elderly aunt in a nursing home in a Chicago suburb. She was very glad to see us and we talked for half an hour or so, but it was a somewhat odd conversation for it was obvious that she did not really know who we were. After the nurse let us out of that common room and locked the door behind us, we went to the elevator to return to the main floor. This elevator had doors that opened on opposite sides and we either got off on the wrong floor or the wrong side and became confused. As we wandered around in a state of confusion, we felt the smiles of some people we met were tinged with pity, or empathy, as we must have appeared to be mixed-up residents of the home. We jokingly expressed concern that, if we were not careful, we might be kept there. We decided to get on the elevator again and this time we did get back to the mail floor. We walked down the hallway leading to the lobby, but the door at the end of the hall, which we came through an hour earlier, was locked and we couldn't get out until we found a button on one side which needed to be pushed to unlock the door from the inside. Needless to say, we were relieved when we got in our car and drove away. -------The English word "church", rooted in a Greek word literally meaning "belonging to the Lord" is used in various ways. It may denote a building, an extensive denomination or an individual congregation. The basic meaning, however, is a fellowship of believers united in a common faith in Jesus Christ, their Lord. In the church calendar, this 7th Sunday after Easter commemorates the birthday of the church. The strange event which produced that birth is recorded in the 2nd chapter of The Acts of the Apostles. On the Jewish festival of Pentecost when Jesus' disciples were all gathered together in one place, they heard a noise "like a strong wind blowing" and saw "what looked like tongues of fire which ... touched each person there." Then, they were "filled with the Holy Spirit." Now, almost two thousand years later, it is difficult to imagine what actually happened there, but it is clear that the group of confused disciples, disappointed and afraid following Jesus' death, were somehow transformed into a band of bold witnesses who were willing to joyfully suffer martyrdom for their faith in the Lord who had risen from the dead and was once again with them in spirit. That joyful witness continues through the church today. -------It is my custom to play tennis on Monday mornings when the weather and my schedule permit. What do you suppose is the origin of this word ? As you know, many English words have been derived from words in other languages. In some cases, the derivation is clear but in the case of "tennis", there are various theories regarding its origin. One theory is that this word comes from the name of an old Egyptian city where the first coverings of tennis balls were made. Another theory is that it came from an Arabic word meaning "to leap or to bound". And a third theory, which is the preferred one, is that it comes from a French word meaning "receive" which the server shouted before hitting the ball with the sense of "Ready ?" Whatever its origin, the name of this game sounds the same in all three languages: English, French or Arabic. -------During my primary and secondary school days I played baseball and basketball. Although I have also played American football, I was not very interested in it because I considered it too rough. Soccer was not a popular sport in the United States when I was growing up, so I have never played that game which has now become a professional sport in Japan. Soccer also may be a somewhat rough game and is known for stimulating disorderliness among its fans. Thirty years ago today, on May 24, 1964 a riot broke out during an international soccer tournament at the National Stadium in Peru when the referee disallowed a goal by the home team against Argentina. Police used tear gas to quell the disturbance and during the panic to get out of the stadium, 301 people were killed and over 500 were injured in the biggest disaster in the history of sport. Emotions, sports and other human activities, must be controlled and not be permitted to run to extremes. On Sunday afternoon at 1:30, you are invited to the meeting of "Daily Word" listeners / readers at the Nagoya City Geijutsu Sozo Center near Shinsakaemachi subway station. My wife and I would be happy to meet you there and to hear one of your memories of elementary school days. -------Today, May 25th, is the birthday of Josip Broz who was born 102 years ago in Croatia. You may not recognize that name because this man is better known by the name he chose when he was almost 50 years old. At that time, he was the head of the Communist Party in Yugoslavia and leader of the resistance forces opposed to the occupation by the Axis powers. Following the war, Marshal Tito, became the head of a new federal government of Yugoslavia. For the next 35 years, until his death, he was the dictator of that country with its variety of ethnic, cultural and religious groupings. After breaking away from the Communist bloc in 1948, he became a leader of nonaligned nations. For a decade after Tito's death in 1980, partisan nationalistic policies of member states were kept in check until the breakup of that Balkanized country began four years ago and is continuing today. Some listeners or readers of these messages may remember the name of Marshal Tito from their elementary school days. All of us have fond or dismal memories of those days and we will be sharing some of them at our meeting on Sunday afternoon at 1:30 at the Nagoya City Geijutsu Sozo Center. You are invited to attend, listen, speak and partake of refreshments my wife will prepare. Following that meeting, I will preach at the English worship service of Nagoya Union Church. -------The present English alphabet has 26 letters. The letters represent sounds, but some letters, especially vowels, may be pronounced in many different ways. Consonants also may be pronounced differently depending upon what letter precedes or follows. The letter C and Q are actually unnecessary because the sounds they represent are also represented by the letters S and K. In high school and in college, I studied Spanish so, although I don't remember how many letters are in the Spanish alphabet, I was interested to read in a recent newspaper article that two superfluous letters were eliminated from that alphabet last month by the Association of Spanish Language Academies. The two letters, CH and LL, which have had their own separate headings in dictionaries until now will henceforth be listed under the letters C and L respectively. To change the traditional alphabet of a living language is a bold move but both English and Japanese writing systems could be improved or rationalized. You are invited to attend the meeting of "Daily Word" fans on this coming Sunday afternoon at 1:30 at the Nagoya City Geijutsu Sozo Center north of the Shinsakaemachi subway station. We will talk about memories of our elementary school days and we would be happy to hear one of yours. -------Many Japanese words have the same pronunciation, but there are different Chinese characters to distinguish them. In English, we have only a single alphabet, but homophones can be distinguished by their spellings. On a recent Friday evening after dinner when our granddaughter and her father were having a spelling game at the dinner table, they stumbled across the English word 'seil'. How should it be spelled? Of course, it can be spelled s-a-i-l or s-a-l-e, depending on the meaning. After dinner, I thought of other homophones in the same category, ending with 'eil', which can be spelled a-i-l or a-l-e. A whole set of them came to mind: 'beil', 'heil', 'meil', 'peil', and 'teil' as well as 'seil'. All of these words can be spelled with the letters a-i-l or a-l-e. How many of the meanings of these 14 words do you know? If each one is given seven points, a perfect score is 98. What is your score? You can finish playing this word game by looking up those words you don't know. Sunday afternoon at 1:30 is the time, the Nagoya City Geijutsu Sozo Center near the Shinsakaemachi subway station is the place for the meeting of listeners to/readers of these "Daily Word" messages. My wife and I will be happy to meet you there if you can come. We will talk our elementary school days. -------During our visit to the United States last summer I was asked to conduct the funeral for the elderly mother of a family I had known since my childhood. Since I lived in Japan, I have seldom been called upon to officiate at ceremonies in the United States and that was the first funeral for me to conduct. Fortunately, another pastor also participated so I was not alone. Unlike Japan, those who attend the funeral ceremony do not all wear subdued colors. At Christian funerals, hymns are sung -- either by those in attendance or by soloists or both. Along with the reading of meaningful Bible passages and prayers, s short sermon is delivered. Incidentally, the prayers offered at a funeral ceremony in Protestant churches are offered only to God and it is believed that one's eternal destiny, determined by the individual and God, is not affected by the postmortem prayers of others. At the conclusion of the ceremony, those in attendance file past the open casket to view the physical body of their loved one for the last time. The casket is then closed and carried by pallbearers to the waiting hearse in which it is placed for the trip to the ceremony. -------Memory is a wonderful ability. Both individuals and nations have both happy and sad memories of past events. We may be selective in which events we choose to remember and sometimes our memories are faulty. Also, whether consciously or unconsciously, we may color past events, but , in any case, it is important to remember. An American philosopher, George Santayana, wrote: "Those who do not remember the past are condemned to relive it." On the other hand, we must also heed the words of former President John F. Kennedy, that "Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or the present are certain to miss the future." Old Testament prophets often exhorted people to recall wonderful acts of God in the past, but in Isaiah, chapter 43, verses 18-19, we find these words from the Lord: "Do not cling to events of the past or dwell on what happened long ago. Watch for the new thing I am going to do." The person with a healthy faith in God will remember the past and learn from it. But the focus of attention will be in the future which is always bright for those who believe. Learning from the past and actively working for what is good and right in the present, let us face the future with hope. -------For over a hundred years following the Civil War, this 30th day of May was observed in most states of the U.S.A. as Memorial Day, in honor of soldiers killed in battle. Now, most states have changed the holiday to the last Monday of May, which is also today. Memorials are established to bring people or events to our minds. A "memento", from a Latin verb meaning to remember, is something that reminds us of something or someone. Souvenirs obtained on a trip may become mementos of that journey. "Memento mori", a Latin phrase also used in English, literally means "remember you must die". It may denote a skull or some other reminder of the shortness and uncertainty of life, reminding us that we also will die. On memorial days for those who have passed away, we should reflect on our own lives and make spiritual preparations for our demise. -------Those present at last Sunday's meeting shared memories of their elementary school days. That is the first theme for those who wish to write an essay for the next issue of '"Daily Word" Echoes' scheduled for publication on July 31st. You probably have both happy and sad memories of ordinary and extraordinary events during your childhood. If you write about one or more of them and send the essay to me, I will correct it before it is printed. The second theme for that 46th issue of the 'Echoes' is 'Koban', or Japanese local police boxes. These ministations found in many residential or business communities have served an important function in maintaining peace and order in Japanese society. In recent months, police officers from the United States and five Central American countries have come to Japan to study Japanese 'Koban'. I would be interested in reading your thoughts or experiences related to 'Koban'. Have you had occasion to visit them? If so, why and when? What do you think are their strong points and why do you think foreign policemen come to study them? I hope to receive all essays for the coming 'Echoes' by July 9th. If you have questions or comments to make about any message or about this telephone service, I would be happy to hear from you. My address is: "Daily Word", Post Office Box 30, Moriyama Post Office, Nagoya 463. -------In the city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, there is a well-known coeducational, Jesuit school, called Marquette University. The states of Wisconsin and Michigan both have a Marquette County and the main city of Marquette County, Michigan is the city of Marquette. All of these places were named after a Jesuit priest who was sent to North America from France as a missionary to native Americans in the year 1666. Father Jacques Marquette was born on June 1, 1637, 357 years ago today. Father Marquette studied various native American languages and lived among the people he ministered to. Along with another Frenchman Louis Joliet, an explorer, he discovered the upper Mississippi River. These two men were the first to confirm the existence of a water highway from the North Atlantic Ocean through the St. Lawrence River, the Great Lakes, smaller rivers and the Mississippi River to the Gulf of Mexico. Father Marquette's life ended when he was 38 years old. Like many other missionaries to foreign lands, although his motivation was religious, his activities were not limited to the religious sphere. Literally, a missionary is one sent on a mission but that mission often extends beyond a parochial goal. -------
Scientific progress has both a positive and a negative side. An obvious example of this predicament is related to nuclear power. Japan, the only country to suffer the horror of an atomic bombing, is a leading promoter of nuclear energy. It now has a nuclear recycling plant in operation which reprocesses spent nuclear fuel to reproduce plutonium. A recent newspaper article stated that increasing concern over nuclear proliferation has prompted a delay in plans to construct a second such plant. Another article noted that 2000 tons of nuclear waste stored on aging Russian ships is expected to be dumped into the Sea of Japan before long. A third article told of radioactive tests being conducted in apartments in Taiwan which were built between 1982 and 1984. Radioactivity from the steel rods used in their construction has been found in between one and two percent of the apartments tested and in some cases it was high enough to pose a possible health risk. Marya Mannes, an American essayist, has written a poem, entitled "Testing". Fifty-seven years ago today, on June 3, 1937, a wedding ceremony was performed in France in which an Englishman named Edward married an American woman name Wallis. Until six months previously, Edward had been the king of Great Britain and Ireland. Having become King upon the death of his father, George V, in January 1936, he was very popular until he announced his intention to marry this American woman who was then suing her second husband for divorce. The British government opposed the marriage and a constitutional crisis developed. The issue was whether the King had the right to marry the woman of his personal choice even though her marital background made her unacceptable to the government and to the public. A proposal of a kind of morganatic marriage, in which titles of the partner of royal birth are not shared with the partner of lower rank, was not productive and the crisis was finally resolved when Edward VIII became the first English monarch in history to voluntarily give up his throne after reigning for only 325 days. He was subsequently given the title, Duke of Windsor, and his wife, the former Wallis Warfield, became the Duchess of Windsor. This historical incident is a reminder that marital problems in Britain's royal family are not all that new. -------Following the funeral ceremony I conducted last summer in my home church in the United States, I rode in the hearse with the casket, or coffin, containing the remains of the deceased to the cemetery on the outskirts of the town about two kilometers away. This quiet, wooded area has served as a burial place since the community was founded some 90 years ago. Graves of my parents and some other relatives are there so my wife and I usually make visit there during our trips to my hometown. Although there is now a crematory across the street from the cemetery, burial is still the usual way to dispose of bodies in that town. The grave had been dug and a tent had been erected alongside under which we gathered. A short ceremony was conducted at the grave site, including prayers, Bible readings and a short talk. Sometimes, the coffin is lowered into the grave while the people are still present, but on this occasion that was done after people had left. Gravestones in this new part of the old cemetery are all flat slabs on the ground with shallow holes on both sides in which flowers may be placed. This makes it possible for the grass covering the graves and on the surrounding area to be easily mowed with a tractor-type lawn mower. Traditional gravestones, in various shapes and sizes, are found in the older part of the cemetery. -------Poets and other writers have used various figures to describe human life. In a couple of New Testament passages, it is depicted as a race. The 12th chapter of the Letter to the Hebrews begins with the figure of a contest taking place in a stadium with the runners surrounded by a large crowd of witnesses cheering them on. In this case, the witnesses are the many Old Testament figures mentioned in the previous chapter who had maintained their faith in spite of many obstacles and seemingly insurmountable difficulties. The past victories of others that were won through faith should give encouragement to those who are enduring problems in the present. The writer of this letter admonishes his readers and himself to "rid ourselves of everything that gets in the way, [including] the sin which holds on to us so tightly, and let us run with determination the race that lies before us." He adds that runners should not be looking at other runners or at the crowd of onlookers as they run. They should keep their eyes fixed on Jesus, "on whom [their] faith depends from beginning to end." In the race of life we need to discard what slows us down, put forth our best effort and concentrate on the example and spirit of our Leader. -------Following Sunday, the day of the sun, this second day of the week is Monday, the day of the moon. Among ancient people, it was believed that exposure to the moon affected the mind. People were advised not to sleep with the moon shining in their faces to avoid becoming moonstruck, or insane. It was further thought that degrees of insanity were related to phases of the moon and that people became more frenzied as the moon increased to its full size. In old Roman thought, the phases of the moon were controlled by the moon goddess, Luna, and it is from that name that the English words "lunacy" and "lunatic", relating to insanity, were derived. In Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, Theseus remarks that "the lunatic, the lover and the poet" all share a fertile imagination. I would add that there is probably a bit of lunacy in all of us. -------In yesterday's message, I made reference to a drama of William Shakespeare. In classical Western literature, Shakespeare's dramas hold an esteemed place and, along with the Bible, are often quoted in learned lectures and writings. A number of dramatic forms have appeared in the course of Japanese history, including 'no', 'kyogen', and 'kabuki'. Nowadays, there are more modern types of dramas, including those seen on television. The Bible contains many dramatic stories and the entire book of Job, in the Old Testament, is an ancient drama. For those who wish to write an essay for the next issue of '"Daily Word" Echoes' I am suggesting the theme of: Drama. You may write your opinions of Western dramas or of the various kinds of Japanese drama. Have you read any of Shakespeare's dramas? Could you understand them? Have you read the book of Job? If you have, what was your impression? Do you ever go to see 'kabuki' or 'no' dramas? Have you participated in dramatic productions yourself? How do you compare or contrast Japanese drama with that of the West? I will correct essays sent to me and print them in the next issue of the 'Echoes', scheduled for publication on July 31st. This is: "Daily Word", Post Office Box 30, Moriyama Post Office, Nagoya 463. -------What do you consider a suitable age for a person to marry? The age of those marrying for the first time has been rising in Japan, I believe. A recent news article reported that, among the Hindus in India, the first and second days of the full moon cycle in May are considered an auspicious time to get married and that many marriages took place on those days in the northern state of Rajasthan, a poor, desert region which continues to follow ancient traditions. Many of the marriages were performed in secret, however, because they were illegal. Now in India, the minimum age for marriage is 18 for females and 21 for males, but most of these marriages involved children under the age of 7. Until a few years ago, an estimated 30,000 child marriages were performed annually but a government campaign and increased police surveillance is said to have greatly reduced that number. Even so, the United News of India reported on one 6-year-old boy who was married to an infant girl curled up in her mother's lap. It is said that child marriages are mutually convenient for the families because the bride's parents don't have to support her for very long and the groom's family gains an unpaid, virtual slave and sometimes a dowry. But to sensitive outsiders, this is a gross violation of the human rights of the child. -------Do you know the name of the largest bird in the world? It may reach a height of 244 centimeters. Although it is a bird, it cannot fly. But it can run very fast. In fact, it is probably the swiftest of all land animals, attaining speeds of over 90 kilometers an hour. In Japanese, it is called a 'dacho.' The character for 'cho' denotes a bird, but that for 'da' includes the character for a horse. Ostriches have long, bare necks, long, strong legs and short wings. Their feathers are used for decoration and brushes. Do you know where ostriches are found -- outside of zoos, that it? Their natural habitat is the desert lands of South-west Asia and Africa. A person who tries to avoid disagreeable situations by refusing to face them may be called an ostrich. Do you know why? This is the result of a myth that ostriches hide their heads in the sand when being pursued, thinking that because they cannot see, they cannot be seen. Zoologists declare that the myth is false, but the idea continues to be believed by people who are less alert than ostriches. It is difficult to change traditional beliefs that have been accepted for many generations even though they are shown to be false. -------In Japan, the wife of an emperor is an empress, the husband of an empress is an emperor and, in modern Japan, there cannot be an empress without an emperor. In the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, however, things are different. The wife of a king is a queen, but the husband of a queen is not necessarily a king and there may be a queen without a king, which is the case at the present time. Queen Elizabeth ll is the eldest daughter of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth. In 1947, the present queen married Philip, a Greek prince who was a grandson of a Greek king, a great-grandson of a Danish king and a great-great-grandson of British Queen Victoria. Before his marriage to the British princess, Philip renounced his Greek and Danish titles, became a British citizen and was given the title: Duke of Edinburgh. Princess Elizabeth became queen upon the death of her father in 1952. The male offspring of this royal couple were princes from the time of their birth, but Philip was not made a prince by his wife until ten years after their marriage and five years after she became queen. Now known as Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh is called the royal consort of the queen. Today is the birthday of this prince, who was born on June 10, 1921 on the Greek island of Corfu and we wish him a happy 73rd birthday. -------For the past twenty years, my wife and I have made a regular visit to the United States, our homeland, every three years for a couple months during the summer. For this reason, we continue to renew our State of Illinois drivers licenses and keep them in effect so we can legally drive whenever we go back to the States. Our Japanese drivers licenses expire after three years, but Illinois drivers licenses are good for four years. Although both of our birthday are in December, when there is a legitimate reason, the Illinois license may be renewed some months before or after its expiration date, so one of us is usually able to renew our license during the summer of our triennial visit. Last summer, it was my turn to renew my license which was to expire in December of last year. In the local drivers license office, there was a long counter, behind which four or five officials stood or sat next to a sign with a large number on it. At the Number 1 section, I explained to the receptionist the reason I wanted to renew my license early. This lady gave me a number and told me to wait until that number was called. Many other people were waiting ahead of me, but there were many seats on which to sit awaiting our turns. As usual, I had a magazine with me to read while waiting. I will continue this story in next Saturday's message. -------In both Oriental and Occidental literature, birds and animals are sometimes used in symbolic ways, but their meanings may differ depending on the culture and history of the particular area. In Japan, a crane evokes a different impression than a crow or a bat and a dog will convey a different image than a fox or badger. In the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 10, verse 16, Jesus speaks figuratively of four animals whose characteristics would be well understood by his disciples. He said (according to the "Today's English Version", which I use for my English Bible Classes): "Listen! I am sending you out just like sheep to a pack of wolves. You must be as cautious as snakes and as gentle as doves. " As Jesus' disciples went from place to place proclaiming the Good News of God's love and ministering to people's needs, they met opposition from various sources. Here, Jesus gave them advance notice that this would happen and told them how to meet it. They should not attack or fight, but use common sense and manifest a peaceful spirit in keeping with their message and ministry. When facing opposition or persecution in the world today, the followers of Christ should remember this advice. -------Do you know what a bigot is ? A dictionary defines this word, spelled b-i-g-o-t, as "A person who is rigidly devoted to his own group, religion, race or politics and is intolerant of those who differ." There are different theories regarding the origin of this word. According to one theory, it is a contraction of the words "by God". Narrow-minded bigots may believe that their beliefs and actions are inspired "by God". There is an interesting tale of the Duke of Normandy refusing to kiss the foot of a French king with the words: "No, by God". Another theory is that it originated from a Spanish phase, hombre de bigote, meaning "man with a mustache", implying that men with mustaches are more obstinate than those without. Whatever the origin of the word, bigotry should be avoided. To fair-minded people, the words and actions of bigots are counter-productive. -------In 1951, I graduated from seminary and came to Japan as a missionary. The subject of my graduation thesis was suggested by August Karl Reischauer, the father of the former U.S. ambassador to Japan. Its title was: "A Comparison of 'Salvation' in the Amida Sects of Japanese Buddhism and Christianity". At the end of next week, I am scheduled to give a lecture at a Buddhist university in Nagoya on the subject of 'Bukkyo no Bunka to Kirisutokyo no Bunka' and I would be happy for listeners to / readers of these messages to assist me by informing me of their impressions of Japanese Buddhism, the theme for essays this week. In your experience or study, from your viewpoint, what is the function of Buddhism in present-day Japan? How has it influenced Japanese thought and life over the years? Do you think Buddhism has changed since it entered Japan? What do you consider significant about Buddhist Culture? Essays on this subject sent to me will be corrected and published in the next issue of '"Daily Word" Echoes' and elements of those received beforehand may be incorporated into my lecture. My address is: "Daily Word", Post Office Box 30, Moriyama Post Office, Nagoya 463. 'Dozo yoroshiku onegaishimasu'. -------Three weeks ago, the body of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis was buried in Arlington National Cemetery, next to her first husband. This cemetery, located in the state of Virginia just across the Potomac River from the capital, was established on June 15, 1864, 130 years ago today, during the Civil War as the final resting place for those who had served in the armed forces, but high-ranking Federal government officials and their dependents may also be buried there. Over 230,000 individuals have now been interred in that cemetery, including those of two presidents, William Howard Taft and John F. Kennedy. Above the grave of former President Kennedy an eternal flame, which Jacqueline lit over 30 years ago, continues to burn. This cemetery is also the site of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. In this tomb, the remains of unidentified soldiers, one each from the First World War, the Second World War, the Korean War and the Vietnam War have been placed. The inscription on the Tomb of the Unknowns reads: "Here rests in Honored Glory an American Soldier known but to God". The word "cemetery" is rooted in a Greek word meaning "to put to sleep". The Bible speaks of believers who died as falling asleep and teaches there will come a day of resurrection -------Great Britain is an island off the west coast of Europe. It consists of three political units: England, Scotland and Wales. Scotland is in the northern part of the island and was inhabited by Picts and Celts before the invasion of Anglo-Saxons from the continent. Thus, people of Scottish lineage have a long and proud history. There are different adjectives used in relation to the land, people or language of Scotland. Scotsmen, Scotswomen, or simply, Scots, themselves prefer the word "Scottish" to "Scotch" and may consider "Scotch" or "Scotchman" as somewhat offensive even as Japanese prefer not to be called "Japs". Of course, "Scotch" is commonly used for the particular kind of whiskey produced in Scotland from malted barley and Scotch broth is a mutton broth thickened with barley. Another term using this adjective is Scotch verdict. In American and English courts, a jury is usually required to bring in a verdict of "guilty" or "not guilty" in criminal cases, but in Scotland a third alternative is allowed. In this case, the jury strongly suspects that the defendant is guilty but the prosecution has not produced sufficient evidence to prove his or her guilt. Thus a "Scotch verdict" signifies "not proven". -------Today, June 17th, is a holiday in the American city of Boston, the capital and largest city in the state of Massachusetts. Named after the English town from which many of its early settlers had come, Boston is a city with a rich historical heritage. It was settled by Puritans in 1630, ten years after the Pilgrims arrived in Plymouth. This holiday commemorates the Battle of Bunker Hill, the first great battle of the Revolutionary War. Patriots had established themselves on a couple of Boston hills and the British authorities decided they must be driven off. As British redcoats slowly advanced in disciplined order in full-dress uniform, the poorly organized and shabbily dressed rebels waited until they were in range and then fired their muskets with devastating effect. The British fell back, regrouped and attacked again. Again they were repulsed. On the third attempt, they dislodged the patriots who had run out of gunpowder. As a result of this battle, 140 Americans were killed and some 300 were wounded, but British casualties were almost 2 1/2 times that many. Although the British took the hill, nine months later they were forced to leave Boston as the Revolutionary War continued. On this Bunker Hill Day, a parade of bands, military units, civic organizations, public office holders, etc. moves through the city to the Bunker Hill monument as over a hundred thousand people line the streets. -------At a local office of the Drivers License Bureau last summer, I went to have my Illinois drivers license renewed over four months before it was due to expire. I was given a number and told to wait my turn. There were about fifteen people ahead of me. When my number was called, I went to the Number 2 counter, showed the man my current license and explained that I lived in Japan and wanted to renew my license early. He was interested to hear that I was a missionary and told me that he also was a Christian. I then went to the Number 3 counter where I was given an eye examination. At the Number 4 counter, I paid the required fee, but I forget how much it was. Then I sat down to wait with others until my name was called. I was told to check the information on the new license which would be issued to me, to sign my name on it and then to be seated on the special stool to have my picture taken. A few minutes later, I was given my new license which expires in December 1997. It is about three-fourths the size of my Japanese drivers license and includes, along with the color picture and my signature, my Illinois address, my birthday, sex, height, weight, eye color and the dates of issue and expiration. It also notes that I must wear corrective lenses when I drive. -------Many New Testament books are written in the form of letters. Most of them are addressed to churches or groups of believers, but four of them are addressed to individuals. Two of those four are addressed to a young pastor named Timothy. The First Letter to Timothy includes advice and instructions regarding church administration and worship. The second chapter begins with an exhortation that prayers be offered to God for all people -- especially for those in positions of authority, so that citizens may live a peaceful life. In keeping with this exhortation, it is customary for the rulers of a nation to be mentioned in the prayers offered during worship services in Christian Churches. The aim of such prayers is that society will be orderly and peaceful. Certainly, such prayers are needed in the troubled political and social unrest and instability throughout the world today. Following this advice, it is twice noted that "God wants everyone to be saved". The Bible makes clear that there is one God of the whole world and that is God's desire that all people be saved -- not those of only one race, nationality or religion. And it is the responsibility of believers in God to both pray and work to bring that divine desire to fulfillment. -------There are a number of English words that begin with the prefix "pan". In this case, "pan" is not related to the flat, shallow kitchen utensil used in cooking. Rather, it is the Greek word meaning "all" and is found in such words as panorama, pantheism, pantheon, pandemic, pancreas, panoply and panacea. That last word, "panacea", meaning all-healing, denotes a remedy for all diseases, evils or difficulties, a cure-all. In Greek mythology, this was also the name of the daughter of Aesculapius, the god of medicine and healing. From ancient times, men have searched for an effective cure, or elixir, for all illnesses. An elixir of life was the aim of ancient alchemists who not only attempted to change base metals into gold but to find a potion to prolong life indefinitely. The Bible teaches that genuine, eternal life is gained through a healthy faith. -------In the United States and Europe some men and women wear a covering for their head. There are different words for these hats or caps, depending on their size and shape. Some hats have brims and many caps have a visor. Frenchmen often wear a beret, Turks prefer a fez and Mexicans wear sombreros. Englishmen may wear a bowler or a derby while many American men would choose a fedora. I am not acquainted with the names of the various kinds of bonnets or hats that ladies wear, but in the West some old-fashioned gentlemen and some fashionable women would not feel comfortable going out without a hat. An American businesswoman has written the following advertising blurb about hats. "A hat is the difference between wearing clothes and wearing a costume; it's the difference between being dressed--and being dressed up; it's the difference between looking adequate and looking your best." What do you think about hats, caps or bonnets? Do you ever wear one? Have you ever worn one? Why do we see so few Japanese people wearing hats? I will correct essays on this theme sent to me and include them in the next issue of '"Daily Word" Echoes'. This is: "Daily Word", Post Office Box 30, Moriyama Post Office, Nagoya 463. -------Japan is experiencing on a minor scale some of the problems related to a diverse society as men and women from other countries and cultures settle here. But it is very different from the situation in the New York City borough of Queens, which is now the most diversified county in the United States. Between 1983 and 1989, 184,000 immigrants arrived in Queens and according to the 1990 census, 36 percent of Queens' almost two million residents are foreign-born. In the Elmhurst area, immigrants from 112 countries have settled in the neighborhood and the public school has become inundated. Built for 900 pupils, it now holds about 1400. Some classes have been moved to different buildings, the gymnasium has been converted into a large classroom and reading classes are held in a washroom. Over 90 percent of its pupils speak a language other than English. By far, the top foreign language is Spanish, followed by Mandarin, Korean, Cantonese, Bengali, Tagalog and Punjabi. In all, 35 different languages are represented, including nine from India. Needless to say, the teachers and administrators face an awesome task trying to educate such a diverse student body. An English poet has called variety "the very spice of life, that gives it all its flavour." -------The word "volunteer" is rooted in a Latin word meaning free will or choice. A volunteer is a person who offers his or her services freely, without pressure and without expectation of any payment. There are many so-called volunteer groups operating in Japan, but because of the Japanese tradition of expressing gratitude through gift-giving, especially in return for favors received, many volunteer groups give monetary gifts to cover transportation expenses or provide other means of recompense for services offered. A recent report issued by a group of corporations, foundations and volunteer groups in the United States interested in charity and voluntary action indicated that three out of five of all Americans aged 12 to 17 are involved in some kind of volunteer spends 3.2 hours a week in such work, which ranges from helping a neighbor paint his house to singing in the church choir. The most common volunteer activity is baby-sitting, but other activities include: serving as a youth leader, cleanup work, assisting the elderly or handicapped and teaching Sunday School. Most young people say they volunteered through a church or synagogue, but schools also encourage volunteer service and the state of Maryland requires community service for a high school diploma. -------The word "depress" literally means to press down, but there are various definitions of "depression" depending on whether it is used as a term in meteorology, astronomy, economics or psychology. In the latter case, it denotes an emotional condition characterized by discouragement, sadness and a feeling of inadequacy. There is said to have been a rise in this kind of depression among American young people since World War II and a recent study postulates a link between this condition in young adults and the excessive viewing of television. A professor of psychiatry at a state university in Pennsylvania reported that "thousands of hours of TV viewing expose children to repetitive acts of senseless violence and may further distance children from social contacts with peers and family, leading to an increased risk of major depression". In his study of the incidence of depression among 24-year-olds from 1954 to 1984, he found that there was a correlation between the prevalence of depression and the time spent watching television. He suggested that other factors contributing to depression among the young could include a rise in two-parent working families and rising divorce rates. It is important for parents to provide a healthy emotional as well as material environment in which to raise children. -------During our visit to the United States last summer, I filed the necessary documents to receive Social Security benefits. Having reached the age of 65 the previous year and due to financial difficulties in our supporting church, I was officially retired as of the end of August. One of the required documents was an official copy of my birth certificate so I went to the office of the county clerk to obtain it. The official called it up on the computer and looked puzzled, for the birth date given on the computer was different than that which I wrote on my application. From my parents I was informed that I was born on December 16th and that is the date that appears on all my official records until now: passports, drivers licenses, school and church records, etc. I presume that when someone, before the advent of computers, transcribed the number 16, the loop on the number 6 was made too small and appeared like an 11. Anyway, on the computer print-out my birthday was listed as December 11th. The clerk smilingly told me that I now can celebrate two birthdays. I explained the situation to the Social Security official and was told that I only needed to remember that on any Social Security-related documents I must remember and record my "new date of birth" while other records need not be changed. -------Usually, having a prison record is considered shameful, but to some people, having served time in prison for opposing unjust laws, demonstrating for justice, the protection of human rights or some other noble cause is considered to be a mark of honor rather than of shame. This may be similar to the feeling of the Apostle Paul who was imprisoned because of his preaching about Christ. In II Timothy, a New Testament letter written from prison shortly before his martyrdom, Paul referred to himself as "a prisoner for Christ's sake". He encouraged Timothy not to be ashamed of him but to take part "in suffering for the Good News" [1:8]. From the beginning of the Church, suffering for one's beliefs, for sincerely seeking to follow Christ's teachings, has been the experience of many dedicated believers through out the world. As Paul stated in this letter, the Spirit God has given us "does not make us timid; instead, his Spirit fills us with power, love, and self-control" [1:7]. Strong convictions make a person bold, but we need to recall that it is not only power that the Spirit gives us, but also love and self-control. When power is separated from these qualities, the result can be very shameful and un-Christian. -------The English word "pathos", spelled p-a-t-h-o-s, denotes a feeling of sympathy or pity. Actually, it is a Greek word meaning suffering. When the English poet, Alexander Pope, needed a word for false pathos, he could not find one, so he chose the Greek word bathos, meaning "depth", and introduced it into English to mean insincere or very sentimental pathos. Bathos, beginning with a b" instead of a "p", is also used to convey the idea of a sudden transition in writing or speaking from the sublime to the ridiculous. When a dignified line of reasoning or a stately speech ends abruptly on a trivial note, it is anticlimactic, bathetic and often humorous. The following quotation is an example: "Valentine's Day is approaching, a time to recall that your wife still likes candy and flowers. Show her you remember, by speaking of them occasionally." -------In our home, we subscribe to both an English and a Japanese newspaper. My wife and I usually read a newspaper while we eat breakfast, though we eat at different times. I usually look through the English newspaper before reading the Japanese one. Of course, some articles I read very carefully and others I skip over very quickly and simply glance at the pages full of classified ads or business news. The suggested theme for an essay this week is: Newspapers. Do you read a newspaper every day? Do you ever read more than one? Do you ever change your subscription to a different one? Why or why not? Do you perceive a difference in the viewpoint of different newspapers? Which pages of the newspaper are you especially interested in? Are there special columns or features that you particularly enjoy reading? Have you ever written to or for a newspaper? Do you have any suggestions regarding how newspapers may be improved? I will correct essays on this theme sent to me and print them in the next issue of '"Daily Word" Echoes', which is expected to be available at our meeting of "Daily Word" fans on July 31st. So please send your essay to reach me by July 9th. This is: "Daily Word", Post Office Box 30, Moriyama Post Office, Nagoya 463. -------Today is a national and religious holiday in some predominantly Roman Catholic countries celebrating one of the oldest of saints' days in the Christian calendar. In the Roman Catholic Church, certain days are designated feast days honoring particular saints. The oldest church calendar still in existence, dated in the year 354, lists June 29 as the feast day for two saints: Peter and Paul. These two men are dominant figures in the New Testament and in church history. Both of them are thought to have died in Rome and around the year 319, the Roman Emperor Constantine had churches, called basilicas, built over their reputed tombs. The great Basilica of St. Peter, now in Vatican City, is Rome's largest church and the Basilica of St. Paul is located outside of the ancient city's walls. On this 29th day of June in the year 1577, a child was born into a Flemish family who had fled to Germany because of the father's Calvinist beliefs. He was given the name of Peter Paul and became one of the greatest painters in Western history. The paintings of Peter Paul Rubens are now considered priceless works of art. Although Rubens had many apprentices and associates whom he trained to assist him, his paintings were designed by him and he added the important finishing touches. -------The election campaign for the office of president of the United States of America in the year 1800 was a very hard-fought, emotional one. The Federalists, who supported a strong federal government, chose President John Adams as their candidate. He was opposed by Thomas Jefferson, who placed greater trust in the common man and preferred a central government with limited power. He was the candidate of the Republicans, or Democratic Republicans, who later became known simply as Democrats. Jefferson was opposed by many clergymen because his religious beliefs, known as deism, were unorthodox. In the middle of that election campaign, on June 30th, 194 years ago today, it was reported that Thomas Jefferson had died. Many people were shocked and saddened at this news, but a few days later it was made clear that the death was not of the presidential candidate but of an old Negro slave who had taken his master's name. Jefferson's opponents had purposely publicized the death in an ambiguous manner to focus attention on the fact that Jefferson was a slave-owner in order to damage his campaign. The scheme failed, however, for Thomas Jefferson won the election and became the third president of the young republic. -------When I saw the title of the newspaper report, "'Konnyaku' makers prepare exports", I was reminded of the problem that faces translators. The article explained that Japan's "konnyaku" industry is developing new products from this calorie-free starchy food for export. Konnyaku has been produced in Japan for a long time, but how does one explain what 'konnyaku' is to a foreigner? One Japanese-English dictionary gives the following "translation" -- which is actually a transliteration): "a konjak; a koniak(u); konnyaku", which is not particularly helpful. A bigger dictionary gives this more complete translation: "devil's tongue; a paste made from the starch of devil's tongue". The problem with this translation is that I have never heard of "devil's tongue" and the term is not found in common dictionaries. In an unabridged dictionary, however, I did find it listed. Devil's tongue is defined as "a foul-smelling somewhat fleshy tropical bulbous herb of the family of Aracaceae that is sometimes grown in the greenhouse for its large leaves and showy dark red spathe surrounding a long spadix." Since I do not know what a "spathe" or a "spadix" is, it required still further research to understand the meaning. Although I have enjoyed eating 'konnyaku', I would rather not to have to explain what it is. -------One of the trips we made from my hometown in Illinois last summer to visit friends was to the Twin Cities of St. Paul and Minneapolis in the state of Minnesota, a distance of some 640 kilometers. Of course, along the way, we sometimes stopped at gas stations to fill the gas tank. An interesting event occurred at a gas station in the Twin City area. It was at a self-service station where the driver himself operates the gas pump. On the car we were using a sticker was affixed with the name of the car dealer where the car was purchased. That dealer was located in Waukegan, a city not far from my hometown. The driver of the car behind me, who was awaiting his turn at the gas pump, read that sticker and asked me if I was from Waukegan. I replied that I was from Zion, near Waukegan, and he informed me that he used to live in Zion, told me where he had lived and mentioned people he remember there, some of whose names I also knew. When I told I was a missionary in Japan and gave him the name of our church, he knew where it was located. It was a pleasant surprise to meet someone by chance who had lived in my hometown at a gas station in a different state hundreds of kilometers away, At such a time, a commonly used English expression is: "It's a small world". -------One of the characteristics of Christianity is its missionary activity. Jesus' final words to his disciples clearly indicated their responsibility to be his witnesses throughout the world, to proclaim the Good News of salvation to all people. The New Testament book, The Acts of the Apostles, relates how this witnessing and proclamation, first to the Jews and then to Gentlies as well, began and developed. In the 10th chapter of his Letter to the Romans, the Apostle Paul, the first great evangelist to the Gentlies, marks clear that all who believe the Good News will be saved, but he poses the question: "how can they believe if they have not heard the message? And how can they hear if the message is not proclaimed? " He concludes that "faith comes from hearing the message, and the message comes through preaching" [14,17]. Those of us who have been changed by the love of God which was taught and manifested in the life and death of Jesus Christ have an inner compulsion to share this Good News with others -- not simply because we are commanded to do so, but because true love, joy and peace are qualities that cannot be kept within oneself. By their very nature, they must be shared with others. -------Can you imagine what a "pebble worm" looks like ? How large do you suppose a "pebble worm" is ? That was the name given by the Greeks to a large reptile that often rested on pebbles beside a body of water, krokodilos, and it is from that Greek word that the English word "crocodile" is derived. Small crocodiles feed on fish and small aquatic animals, but the larger ones, which may exceed six meters in length, eat mammals and may attack human beings. The ancient Egyptians considered crocodiles sacred, symbols of deity. Many temples have been built to honor them and embalmed crocodiles were also placed in ancient Egyptian tombs. Because of the idea that crocodiles moan and sigh to attract their victims and then shed tears while devouring them, the expression "crocodile tears" signifies false tears or an insincere display of grief. -------Phineas is an Old Testament name, but the most famous man with this name in recent history was born 184 years ago today, on July 5, 1810. Known as a great showman who created what he called "The Greatest Show on Earth", he made the famous pronouncement: "There's a sucker born every minute." The showmanship of Phineas Taylor Barnum began when he was 25 years old when he bought and exhibited an 80-year-old black woman whom he claimed was 161 years old and had been the nurse of George Washington. He later put on display the original Siamese twins, Chang and Eng, and toured many countries with the celebrated midget, Tom Thumb. He also created and exhibited the Fiji mermaid using the top half of a monkey and the bottom half of a fish. Following an early retirement and going bankrupt, he began the circus which made him famous. After joining his main competitor, it became known as the Barnum and Bailey Circus and featured a 6 1/2 ton elephant, Jumbo, which he called "the only mastodon left on earth". P.T. Barnum had a knack for squeezing money out of people and made a statement which may be difficult for Japanese to pronounce or understand: "Every crowd has a silver lining." -------Among various English words ending with the suffix "graphy", from the Greek word for "write", are telegraphy, photography, geography, calligraphy and orthography. Calligraphy means beautiful writing and orthography denotes correct writing. The penmanship of calligraphers may be elegant or artistic, but if their words are misspelled, they would be unacceptable to an orthographer. A question occurs, however: who is the judge and what is the standard of beautiful writing or correct spelling? As you may know, there are different acceptable ways to pronounce certain English words. British English, American English and Australian English have their own peculiarities and there are still further regional variations within these categories. The same holds true for spelling. British spelling includes a "u" following the second "o" in such words as "honor" and "color". And words such as "center" and "theater" are spelled with a final "re" instead of an "er". Because English pronunciation is so irregular, it is very difficult to formulate rules for spelling. Actually, emphasis on a correct or uniform spelling of words is a comparatively recent effort. William Shakespeare himself spelled his name in a number of different ways and the present spelling of his name is merely an agreed-upon convention. -------Although the word "penman" is not so commonly used, it may denote a person who writes, including authors or copyists. "Penmanship" means the art, skill, style or manner of handwriting. Over the years, my long-suffering wife has typed or retyped my three theses submitted to three different educational institutions. The first one, submitted to a seminary, included a number of words in Greek. She could not type such words on the typewriter, so she left spaces for those words which I filled in later. A problem was that she sometimes left spaces for words she thought were Greek but actually were English words which she could not decipher because of my poor penmanship. Since then, I have discontinued cursive writing and print my words instead--which, are a bit easier to read. At the annual meeting of the American Medical Association last month, doctors were admonished to polish their penmanship when writing prescriptions. The poor handwriting of many doctors is attributed to bad habits picked up in medical school when they took notes of lectures very rapidly. It was noted that prescription errors resulting from poor penmanship can cause adverse reactions, illness or death. Good penmanship requires time and busy people are often poor penmen. -------Three weeks ago, while watching a news telecast of the visit of Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko to Washington, we were surprised to hear a reporter refer to them as "the Emperor and Empress of China". Another reporter immediately corrected her, but we smiled as we remembered how often, in years gone by, people confused China and Japan in conversations with us on our visits back home. A recent article in the 'Chunichi Shinbun' reported on the results of a survey taken among 2nd year high school students in a small town in the state of Michigan. All 53 of them knew that the capital of Japan was Tokyo, but not one could give the name of the prime minister. Four of them gave the name of the former prime minister of Singapore. When asked if they knew the name of a Japanese, only two of them did. Both of them knew the name of Midori Ito, the ice skater, but others gave the names of nine non-Japanese, including the late Chinese actor, Bruce Lee. When compared to a similar survey taken among high school sophomores at the same school 20 years ago it was clear that knowledge of Japan had not improved during that time. In fact, the number of students who could name the Japanese cities that had suffered an atomic bombing had decreased by 1/4. There is a need for increased international understanding on both sides of the ocean. -------One reason we return to our homeland periodically is to meet relatives and to renew acquaintances with friends. On our trip to the United States last summer, we visited relatives in the states of California, New Mexico and Illinois. We also spent time with friends in the states of Oregon, Michigan and Minnesota. Many residents of the states of Minnesota are descendants of immigrants from Scandinavian countries, many of whom were Lutherans. Thus, many Lutheran missionaries to Japan hail from that state. When we visited the home of a former missionary couple just outside of Minneapolis, they invited a number of other retired missionaries we had known in Japan. Ten of these missionary friends we had not seen for many years gathered for a brunch on the day after we arrived. It was good to talk about the "good old days" in Japan and to hear what had transpired with them and their families since we last met. Most of them had not changed much, but it was obvious that all of us had gotten older. That evening, a Northwest Airlines pilot from my hometown who now lives in Minneapolis dropped by with his wife to visit. He had called us a couple of years ago from Osaka but was not able to get to Nagoya because he felt he was coming down with a cold and had to fly out the next day. -------Many years ago when I was studying Japanese Buddhism, I visited the Buddhist center on Mount Koya. There I spoke with four young priests or novices, students at Koyasan University, and asked them to tell me the meaning of hotoke. To my surprise, their faces went blank and not one of them could give an answer. I could not imagine an American youth studying for the Christian ministry not being able to give some kind of explanation of the meaning of God or Christ and I again realized a difference in traditional Japanese and American religious attitudes. The Bible contains many references to the character of God and the person of Christ. God is the Almighty Creator of all and Christ is the Living Word who manifested the character of the unseen Father in human history. In the New Testament book of Colossians, chapter 1, verse 15, Christ is called "the visible likeness of the invisible God. " The Christian's basic understanding of God comes through the character and life of a historical figure, Jesus, the Christ, who suffered and died, vicariously, on behalf of others. In his life and death, he revealed the infinite love of God for all people and proclaimed the Good News of salvation through trusting in God. -------Manana is a Spanish word meaning "tomorrow", but it is also used for an indefinite future time. Slow-moving, guzu-guzu suru, Spaniards often speak of doing something manana. Such people may be called procrastinators. The English word "procrastinate" comes from the Latin word for tomorrow, cras, preceded by the Latin prefix, pro, meaning "for". To procrastinate means to put off doing something until a future time, to postpone or delay needlessly. Edward Young has written that "Procrastination is the thief of time" and one of Benjamin Franklin's aphorisms was: "Never leave that till tomorrow what you can do today." As we get older, we recognize more clearly the value of time and the need to make good use of opportunities that present themselves quickly. In the King James Version of Ephesians 5:16, we are admonished to "Redeem the time." -------Today, July the 12th, is Independence Day in Kiribati, if you know where that republic is located, you are more knowledgeable than I was before I composed this message, for I had to consult a reference book and an atlas to discover where Kiribati was and even how to pronounce its name, spelled K-i-r-i-b-a-t-i. In the south Pacific Ocean west of Australia there are many islands--thousands of them, which are included in the comprehensive term, Australasia. Oceania is another term used for these Pacific islands. Kiribati comprises three island groups with a total of 33 islands, the total area of which is slightly less than that of New York City, and has a population of about 75,000. Formerly known as the Gilbert Islands, it is located at the intersection of the Equator and the International Date Line. The capital island of Tarawa was the site of one of the bloodiest battles of the Pacific War when the U.S. Marines dislodged the occupying Japanese defenders. The Republic of Kiribati was granted its independence from Great Britain 15 years ago today when Princess Anne, representing her mother, Queen Elizabeth, presented the independence documents to the new government. Happy Independence Day to Kiribati. -------In the high school and college that I attended in the United States, the major sports were football (which outside the U.S. is called American football), basketball and baseball. These were seasonal sports: football in fall, basketball in winter and baseball in spring and summer, so the same athlete could become a member of all three teams if he so desired. Soccer, the world's most popular sport (called football outside the U.S.) was not popular there at that time. It is now gaining popularity, however, as reports on the World Cup games between 24 countries, played in American cities, have been publicized. On July 13, 1930, 54 years ago today, the World Cup Football Competition was instituted in Montevideo, Uruguay. That year, thirteen countries entered the competition and the World Cup was won by the host team. In World Cup Championships, Italy, Brazil and West Germany have won the Cup three times each, Uruguay and Argentina twice and England once. This year's championship match is scheduled to be played in the Rose Bowl in Los Angeles next Sunday. In sports and in life, we should remember the words found in II Timothy 2:5: "An athlete...cannot win the prize unless he obeys the rules." ------- |