Last year two of the kids had entrance exams, and this year one. Ai's junior high school recommended her to her first choice high school (public). She also passed both of the exams she took at two other schools (private) in town. There is still one more exam (public) in March, which she will not need to take now that her decision is settled.
Congratulations Ai! But remember, just because you don't HAVE to study for the March exams, doesn't mean you get to goof off, either. (Well, too much anyway.)
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Monday, January 25, 2010
1/2 + 1/2 = ?
Last night Erin Ai had a revelation!
She had been working on her autobiography for school, and was asking us about the reason for naming herErin. (The reason for crossing out the name, is that I can't tell this story without revealing her real name! Oh dear, I would never make a good spy, would I?)
By the 4th child, we were wondering how we could keep up our custom of having all of the children have one kanji in common. But I also wanted a name that could fit both Japanese and English without being too foreign for relatives in both countries. Ai knew that when we were expecting her we were beginning the preparations to build a house with a view from our lot of a woody hillside. Then, too, my middle name is Lynn, and part of her actual name has a similar sound in it. (To the Japanese ear, that is!) But what she had to ask is which country is her name connected to, and why is that something I always tell her.
And when I told her, you could see from her expression what an impact it had on her. An epiphany moment of sorts. She was so surprised she even cried. Imagine that. What did she discover?
In Japan, a "Half" is a person who is not 100% Japanese. Some people may think it's shortened from the word halfbreed, but I don't think that it is actually. And it's not necessarily a put down, either, though there are people who don't like the term. In fact, when I first encountered it with Megumi, I had heard from someone that they preferred saying "I'm not Half, I'm Double." The idea being that bicultural children grow up with 2 cultures, languages, customs, passports, etc, not 1/2 of them. Then when Nozomi told me that one of her elementary classmated had called her a Half as though it was not a good thing, I assured her that her friend was also a Half. Everybody is half of their mother and half of their father. (I've always wondered how her friend liked my little explanation about that.)
Back to Ai's query. Why do I always remind her that her name means Ireland? Why do I tell people that all of the siblings names are Irish? She's half Japanese and half American, right? Right. And the American part is a mixture of Irish, English and German, mostly Irish.
INSTANT SHOCK !
She never realized until last night. And she cried. Her face was radiantly surprised, and after she wiped her tears, guess what she did? She called her best friend, who.....
..... is also a Half. And while on the phone, she could hear her friend asking her own mother if her Philippine half was only Philippine. Her mother told her that there's some Spanish and German in the mix as well.
1/2 + 1/2 = Double and a Lot More
* Upon writing this, I re-read it, and I doubt anyone will understand it unless you know Japanese, English and the various ways of writing and pronouncing both languages. Oh well, sorry about that if you don't get the marvel of this episode.
She had been working on her autobiography for school, and was asking us about the reason for naming her
By the 4th child, we were wondering how we could keep up our custom of having all of the children have one kanji in common. But I also wanted a name that could fit both Japanese and English without being too foreign for relatives in both countries. Ai knew that when we were expecting her we were beginning the preparations to build a house with a view from our lot of a woody hillside. Then, too, my middle name is Lynn, and part of her actual name has a similar sound in it. (To the Japanese ear, that is!) But what she had to ask is which country is her name connected to, and why is that something I always tell her.
And when I told her, you could see from her expression what an impact it had on her. An epiphany moment of sorts. She was so surprised she even cried. Imagine that. What did she discover?
In Japan, a "Half" is a person who is not 100% Japanese. Some people may think it's shortened from the word halfbreed, but I don't think that it is actually. And it's not necessarily a put down, either, though there are people who don't like the term. In fact, when I first encountered it with Megumi, I had heard from someone that they preferred saying "I'm not Half, I'm Double." The idea being that bicultural children grow up with 2 cultures, languages, customs, passports, etc, not 1/2 of them. Then when Nozomi told me that one of her elementary classmated had called her a Half as though it was not a good thing, I assured her that her friend was also a Half. Everybody is half of their mother and half of their father. (I've always wondered how her friend liked my little explanation about that.)
Back to Ai's query. Why do I always remind her that her name means Ireland? Why do I tell people that all of the siblings names are Irish? She's half Japanese and half American, right? Right. And the American part is a mixture of Irish, English and German, mostly Irish.
INSTANT SHOCK !
She never realized until last night. And she cried. Her face was radiantly surprised, and after she wiped her tears, guess what she did? She called her best friend, who.....
..... is also a Half. And while on the phone, she could hear her friend asking her own mother if her Philippine half was only Philippine. Her mother told her that there's some Spanish and German in the mix as well.
1/2 + 1/2 = Double and a Lot More
* Upon writing this, I re-read it, and I doubt anyone will understand it unless you know Japanese, English and the various ways of writing and pronouncing both languages. Oh well, sorry about that if you don't get the marvel of this episode.
Better Late Than Never
HAPPY BELATED NEW YEAR
Here's a shot of my four. It was from nearly a year ago!
Hey! January is just about over, and I'm still trying to catch up with 2009!
Monday, December 28, 2009
ただいま！(tadaima = I'm home!)
Yesterday I became a full member of Sendai Minami Yoshinari Christ Church, a Lutheran Brethren Synod congregation about twenty minutes from my home. It took over twenty years for me to transfer my membership from my former church in Tokyo. What on earth took me so long? My sin. My pride. My shame. I did not want to give them up. Well, I was sorry about them, and I asked for God's forgiveness, but I still imagined that the triune me, myself, and I had to get my act together and convince, if not others, at least myself, that I was truly a real Christian.
Long story. I grew up in the Lutheran tradition, and it was nice. I believed that I needed a Savior, and I said I believed. But, so often my behavior didn't line up. I kept doing things for which afterward put me into despair. My life definitely didn't show any dramatic improvement. If anything, all I could see was someone who desired to do the right things, but never did. A complete moral failure.
In college, I remember asking a campus pastor, "Doesn't God want us to be good?"
"No, Becky, God doesn't want us to be good. He wants us to live with His Holy Spirit in us."
What kind of answer was that? I noted his comment in the margins of my Bible, and remained perplexed as to what he meant for the next 25 years. Maybe he meant that Jesus set us free, so we didn't have to worry about what we did or didn't do? Maybe not?
Another popular phrase, which I thought profound, was on a little desk placard someone gave me. Lord, thank you that there is nothing that together You and I can't do. Or something like that. I liked it because it made me feel like God and I were partners. He was there for me, and I could count on Him to always be there encouraging me as I went along the path of my choosing.
When I was 16 my Mom gave me a Bible for Christmas. I soon started marking it up, highlighting it, underlining and applying its principles to my life. Or maybe it was more like, I'd go looking for phrases that I could claim approved of the ways I thought things should be done. I went to that Bible often, always doing after-the-fact checks that the Bible really did line up with my concept of what God wanted for me.
The more I did that, the more I seemed to go further into despair. What on earth was wrong? I was in the Bible, but none of it seemed to "work" for me. Wasn't my life supposed to be an example to others? Wasn't my Christian life supposed to brings others to Christ? It certainly wasn't doing that! It wasn't even making my life all that satisfying to me! Maybe Christianity wasn't what it claimed to be? Especially since my parents divorced and the family I grew up in was crumbling, and my Japanese fiance's family seemed to have it all together, maybe I was too narrow-minded and arrogant thinking that Christianity was the only way.
So, I started, well not really allowing that all religions are equally valid, but at least not insisting that Christ was the only Way, Truth, and Life..... at least while we are alive on this earth. I didn't really get into other religions, though I did do yoga while pregnant. But I quit that as I started freaking out whenever the yoga instructor would talk in his hypnotic tone about how we were bowing down to Mother earth. I didn't like that.
Then I would meet with Christians who insisted I could not be a Christian because I was baptized when I was only a toddler, and I had to have a "born-again experience," a visible change from my sinful self to my new (sinless?) self. Since I could not point to such an experience, that was proof that I was a false Christian. That put me further into despair and made me mad as well. And, everyone "knows" that Christians are not supposed to get mad, so maybe they had a point there....
So, let's just put this on the shelf and cross the bridge when we get to it. Trouble is, you can't. I couldn't. Even though I had muddled God's Word, it was already there hidden in me. After years of going to church, a strong liturgical church at that, God's Word would come to me time and again. I could refuse to listen, but no matter how much I tried I couldn't keep from hearing it. And one day, it was as though I was put in a corner. Am I going to admit that Jesus is the Truth or is He just a liar?
I'm skipping all over the place here, but to make a long (mundane, too) story short, I got out my old copy of Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis. Two things from his book remain in my mind. One is that in Christianity, all hangs on the person Jesus, and who He is. There are three choices: He is a lunatic, a liar or LORD of Lords. The other thing Lewis said was that it does one no good to stand in the hallway wondering which door to step into. He was referring to all the Christian denominations; one has to be part of a public Christian community, you can't just sit in the hallway and say you are part of the body of Christ.
That's when I realized that I had things all backwards. Jesus called me to follow Him, not for me to lead the way and have Him run along after me. He said that He is the vine and I am a branch; whatever good work I may do is completely because of being connected to Him. Hardly an equal partnership!
It is not necessary that I prove that I am a Christian. That is not what I "have to" do. The only thing needed is for me to believe that Jesus is who He claimed to be, and that He has died in my place. And even believing is not my own accomplishment, that is a gift given me by the power of the Holy Spirit. And now I see what it means that God does not want us merely to be good for goodness's sake. He wants us to belong to Him, to come to Him in repentance, to receive the forgiveness that He offers and to rest in Him. Once that happens, the godly good will come. This is the peace, the eternal life, that we have in Christ. All praise and glory goes to God. It has taken a long time to transfer my church membership, but now that is done. Phew!
Long story. I grew up in the Lutheran tradition, and it was nice. I believed that I needed a Savior, and I said I believed. But, so often my behavior didn't line up. I kept doing things for which afterward put me into despair. My life definitely didn't show any dramatic improvement. If anything, all I could see was someone who desired to do the right things, but never did. A complete moral failure.
In college, I remember asking a campus pastor, "Doesn't God want us to be good?"
"No, Becky, God doesn't want us to be good. He wants us to live with His Holy Spirit in us."
What kind of answer was that? I noted his comment in the margins of my Bible, and remained perplexed as to what he meant for the next 25 years. Maybe he meant that Jesus set us free, so we didn't have to worry about what we did or didn't do? Maybe not?
Another popular phrase, which I thought profound, was on a little desk placard someone gave me. Lord, thank you that there is nothing that together You and I can't do. Or something like that. I liked it because it made me feel like God and I were partners. He was there for me, and I could count on Him to always be there encouraging me as I went along the path of my choosing.
When I was 16 my Mom gave me a Bible for Christmas. I soon started marking it up, highlighting it, underlining and applying its principles to my life. Or maybe it was more like, I'd go looking for phrases that I could claim approved of the ways I thought things should be done. I went to that Bible often, always doing after-the-fact checks that the Bible really did line up with my concept of what God wanted for me.
The more I did that, the more I seemed to go further into despair. What on earth was wrong? I was in the Bible, but none of it seemed to "work" for me. Wasn't my life supposed to be an example to others? Wasn't my Christian life supposed to brings others to Christ? It certainly wasn't doing that! It wasn't even making my life all that satisfying to me! Maybe Christianity wasn't what it claimed to be? Especially since my parents divorced and the family I grew up in was crumbling, and my Japanese fiance's family seemed to have it all together, maybe I was too narrow-minded and arrogant thinking that Christianity was the only way.
So, I started, well not really allowing that all religions are equally valid, but at least not insisting that Christ was the only Way, Truth, and Life..... at least while we are alive on this earth. I didn't really get into other religions, though I did do yoga while pregnant. But I quit that as I started freaking out whenever the yoga instructor would talk in his hypnotic tone about how we were bowing down to Mother earth. I didn't like that.
Then I would meet with Christians who insisted I could not be a Christian because I was baptized when I was only a toddler, and I had to have a "born-again experience," a visible change from my sinful self to my new (sinless?) self. Since I could not point to such an experience, that was proof that I was a false Christian. That put me further into despair and made me mad as well. And, everyone "knows" that Christians are not supposed to get mad, so maybe they had a point there....
So, let's just put this on the shelf and cross the bridge when we get to it. Trouble is, you can't. I couldn't. Even though I had muddled God's Word, it was already there hidden in me. After years of going to church, a strong liturgical church at that, God's Word would come to me time and again. I could refuse to listen, but no matter how much I tried I couldn't keep from hearing it. And one day, it was as though I was put in a corner. Am I going to admit that Jesus is the Truth or is He just a liar?
I'm skipping all over the place here, but to make a long (mundane, too) story short, I got out my old copy of Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis. Two things from his book remain in my mind. One is that in Christianity, all hangs on the person Jesus, and who He is. There are three choices: He is a lunatic, a liar or LORD of Lords. The other thing Lewis said was that it does one no good to stand in the hallway wondering which door to step into. He was referring to all the Christian denominations; one has to be part of a public Christian community, you can't just sit in the hallway and say you are part of the body of Christ.
That's when I realized that I had things all backwards. Jesus called me to follow Him, not for me to lead the way and have Him run along after me. He said that He is the vine and I am a branch; whatever good work I may do is completely because of being connected to Him. Hardly an equal partnership!
It is not necessary that I prove that I am a Christian. That is not what I "have to" do. The only thing needed is for me to believe that Jesus is who He claimed to be, and that He has died in my place. And even believing is not my own accomplishment, that is a gift given me by the power of the Holy Spirit. And now I see what it means that God does not want us merely to be good for goodness's sake. He wants us to belong to Him, to come to Him in repentance, to receive the forgiveness that He offers and to rest in Him. Once that happens, the godly good will come. This is the peace, the eternal life, that we have in Christ. All praise and glory goes to God. It has taken a long time to transfer my church membership, but now that is done. Phew!
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