Under a thousand bricks

When I read or see news articles about people buried under collapsed buildings I immediately flip my mind to what it's like down there. The things anyone would want in that situation. Recognition that the outside world knows they are there, that they are alive and in very deep trouble. Add to that some water and an assurance of quick escape.

Sadly, some people live like this, waiting to be found and saved. For others to help and pull them up above the terrible things that can happen to each of us in life. We just need someone else to figure out exactly what we want and need and bring it to us.

I thought I had found a place that was going to give this to me when I visited Japan. Even before we landed, the welcoming smiles and gestures signalled a new world of unspoken language. The spell lasted for a few days until I got into trouble. When I mean trouble, I mean out of money. There does not seem to be a place for proper embarrasement in that country. A foreigner without money? Heaven forbid. And so the decline in service started but there were many stalwarts who held the country's values close to heart. At every railway station in the morning I witnessed a person greeting the commuters. 'Ohiogozimasu'..repeated hundreds of times. After a few weeks in Tokyo I started to pick up on the details. I am particular and hence noticed how messy the telephone wiring system was. A bright young student pointed out that parts of the city were not so organised since the city was rebuilt. Then it occured to me that this city was flattened during the war. Nobody had mentioned this before, maybe out of a kind of shame. After this realisation i felt more relaxed. This culture was built mostly from scratch and look what they have managed. What is their secret. Who helped them out. You would expect this country to end up in the third world but they have reinvented themselves and despite not being perfect, have many claims of achievement in areas like technology, academia and sport, to mention a few.

I asked a few young people what the reason for this rapid rise was due to. I did not get a satisfactory answer but my analysis is that what binds the people together with a common goal is the unspoken language. A kind of telepathic understanding that they are not quite defeated. I read that the Japanese warrior overcomes his enemy from the inside out. Meaning mind then body. Can we learn from this. Build our minds first before we try to conquer the world. And as they like to say in the land of the rising sun..Ganbarimasu (I will do my best).