Reflections On A Proud Nation

We have no right to ask when sorrow comes, "Why did this happen to me?" unless we ask the same question for every moment of happiness that comes our way. - Author Unknown

My columns on Patch.com are generally light, humorous, oftentimes containing a timely, cryptic message interwoven amongst all the craziness.

That’s my style. That’s what I do – and I like to think I’m pretty good at it. But there are times that, if only for a moment, decorum is in order. This is one of those times.

In the late sixties, I was stationed at the Air Force Base in Misawa, Japan, high in the mountains of the main island of Honshu in the Aomori Prefecture. Misawa is approximately two hundred miles north of Sendai, the epicenter of the horrific earthquake and subsequent tsunami that devastated Japan just eight days ago.

Sendai was among the many cities and villages I was fortunate enough to have visited during my time in that beautiful country. But now that village and most, if not all of its inhabitants are gone - casualties of the violent and unpredictable forces of nature.

As if that weren’t enough, Japan now sits on the brink of a meltdown of at least one nuclear reactor in Fukushima. Traces of radioactivity are showing up in the drinking water and in milk and spinach from the area. There isn’t enough food or water available because the transportation system in that region is essentially shut down - the roads are nearly impassable.

In the face of this dire catastrophe, this living hell; the Japanese people have remained true to their cultural heritage. They have remained steadfast in the face of this national nightmare. Foreign journalists are consistent in their reports that despite the lack of even the most basic living essentials; looting and pilfering are virtually nonexistent.

This is no surprise to me. This behavior is the norm in Japan. I witnessed this cultural anomaly first hand during my time as a visitor to that country. These are the values that have been instilled in generation after generation of a proud and forthright people.

The people of Japan will endure and, I believe, will grow stronger for what they have had to bear, for in the face of adversity comes opportunity and hope.

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A Little Whine For Your Cheese - I’ve got the whine. You’ll have to supply your own cheese.

My wife and I were in the Hannaford store on Robert Drive a few days ago. Actually, we’re in the Hannaford store nearly every day, but the story I’m going to tell you is about the time we were there a few days ago. I’m not sure why that matters, but for some inexplicable reason, I was compelled to tell you that. I blame the little voice in my head that directs my every move.  

So we’re at the store. It’s a Tuesday. The reason the day is of importance is that Tuesday is Senior Day at Hannaford. Anyone sixty-two years of age or older gets a discount on their entire purchase. I think it’s five percent, but I’m not positive.

We had gone to the store to pick up ‘a couple of things’ we needed and, of course, managed to turn ‘a couple of things’ in to about eighteen things. I’m sure you’re familiar with that syndrome.

As I’m unloading our eighteen items onto the conveyor belt for orders of fourteen items or less and praying that the ‘over 14 item alarm’ doesn’t go off, my wife says, “It’s senior day. Make sure you ask them for the discount.”

Now let me be very clear about this. I do not ask for the Senior Discount! Period! End of story! Call me vain. Call me whatever you want. I’m not doing it!

So I check out, pay the cashier, a cute young girl about eighteen or nineteen years old, and my wife and I make our way out to the parking lot. I load the bags in to our car, slip behind the wheel and look at the store receipt. The clerk had given me the senior discount!

My ego still hasn’t recovered. My wife is still laughing.

I am not a senior citizen! I was merely born a more comfortable distance away from the Apocalypse than some other people.

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A Word Of Encouragement

I’ve been re-reading a few of my favorite books over the past few weeks. I’ve just finished three by one of my most beloved writers, Anne Lamott. I was introduced to Anne’s work several years back by another writer friend and after having read Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life, I was hooked.

Anne’s a great writer and a little crazy so we have something in common. Not the great part as much as the crazy part, although our writing styles are eerily similar. Anne and I both have a penchant for ‘telling it like it is’, which has made her tons of money while for me –it has mostly left me ostracized by my editors. Consequently, I became a freelancer, which is merely another word for someone who doesn’t play well with others.

Anne’s father, who was also a writer, was pretty much a Bohemian. He hung out with other writers, artists and various other creative types in the San Francisco Bay area. As you can imagine, Anne had a very liberal upbringing. In this we also differ, as in my own upbringing I was forced to wear a hair shirt every time I veered off course.

The reason I mention Bird by Bird is the interesting way in which the title came to be and the great lesson that lies therein. Anne’s older brother, who was ten years old at the time, had to write a report on birds as a school assignment. He’d had three months to get it done and was sitting at the kitchen table the night before it was due surrounded by books on birds, paper and pencils, but with nary a word on paper. As Anne said, “He was immobilized by the hugeness of the task ahead.”

Anne’s father, reading the angst in his sons face, sat next to him at the table, put his arm around him and said, “Bird by bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird.”

What great advice! So often we’re overwhelmed by the enormity of the task at hand – at the big picture - when all we have to do is take it bird by bird.

Make it a great week!

Bob Havey is an Easton-based freelance writer. His column, "The View From Here", appears each Tuesday at http://easton-ma.patch.com and his other column "Take Me Back" runs every Friday at http://mansfield-ma.patch.com.