Marin’s Boggle Blog

My father was in the US Air Force and when I was a child he was transferred often; seven times before I finished college and four of those while I was in elementary school. Our family home was never very cluttered with possessions because we regularly had to weed them out, pack and move on. My recent years have become far too settled in comparison in that I haven’t moved much for the last 3o years, and not at all for the last 15 except for an all too brief trip to graduate school. Most of my possessions even during that time, however, remained at home. So, I have more than my share of clutter now.

I decided recently to end the glut and get rid of all the junk around me. I needed to be ruthless and throw it all away! So I headed into my room with garbage bag in hand and determination in my heart.

I opened the first drawer - one I had noticed not too long ago that seemed to be bulging. Inside it the very first things I found were the last birthday card my mother ever sent me before her Alzheimer’s set in… the only photograph my brother and I ever took together with Santa Claus… and all my son’s baby and school-years photos which I have sadly never organized. Shame, shame! He could very well be the only young man on the planet whose mother never documented his life in perfectly ordered albums!

I sat for a long time and thought about what a bad start I was off to. How can one be ruthless with “clutter” like that, I asked myself!? After a time I decided that there might still be time to do that album before my son finds a wife (maybe…) and as for the rest - well, I just closed the drawer and moved to the drawers with clothes in them. I had much better success there, telling myself that each item I threw away was actually making room for a “new” one, maybe. A future with shopping!!

If only I could throw away those other possessions that represent glorious memories, and then have the prospect of shiny and wonderful new experiences in the future. However, I know that the task of clearing it out once and for all will probably fall to my children, just as it fell to me to clean out after my mother’s death. It was a bittersweet time alone with the memories that each item vividly evoked. Her life. Her love. Her devotion to her family. Her abiding faith in God. All of these were her gifts to me that possessions could never provide. So maybe I will just leave that drawer closed for a while longer.

I do worry, though, about my son’s potential photo album…

My grandson attends a public school in Fairfax County, Virginia, USA, and is enrolled in a Japanese language partial-immersion program. There it is possible for children to enter an immersion program from the first grade in Spanish, French, German, or Japanese. The school system believes in the great benefits of language immersion not only for language learning, but for its positive effects giving students greater flexibility in thinking, greater sensitivity to language, and improved listening skills. My grandson generally spends half the day with one teacher learning Language Arts and Social Studies in English, and the other half with a fluent Japanese-speaking teacher, learning Math and Science in Japanese. He does not really “study” Japanese; grammar is not explicitly taught, for example. On the other hand, how to communicate what he is thinking, feeling and observing in Japanese is a part of every day’s curriculum. He has been in the program since early September – about 3 months’ time. When I visited my daughter’s family last week I was surprised to find my grandson had learned an amazing amount in that very short time. In a telephone call to his grandfather here in Japan he sang a number of traditional Japanese children’s songs and his grandfather was surprised both by his proficiency and that he learned this all at a public school! The only unusual thing was that the words to “Genkotsu yama no tanuki-san” had been changed to protect American sensibilities. That is, the tanuki drinks “mi-ru-ku” and not an “oppai!” My grandson pronounced the word milk in perfect “Japanese.”

*This post was originally a newspaper article written for a Japanese audience. “Genkotsu yama no tanuki-san”  is an old children’s song about a tanuki  (badger) who is alternately held by his mother, carried on her back, is put to sleep and offered milk from her oppai (literally “breasts”) which in the Americanized version was changed to simply milk with a three-syllable Japanese-like pronunciation to make the same syllable count as tanuki.

 Recently I went for a walk along a path I have not taken for quite some time. Many of the potholes had grown larger and there were new ones. It’s not the sort of path that will be repaved very often, but as it runs along a main highway it does cross other larger roads. I noticed that at several of these crossroads there were new nicely painted pedestrian crossings alongside clearly marked bicycle paths. After a few streets, however, I also noticed that my fellow pedestrians were paying absolutely no attention to these markings and crossing wherever and pretty much whenever they liked. At one busier crossing things deteriorated completely. While I waited for the traffic light to change in our favor I was joined by four other “power walkers” and five cyclists on their way home from work and school. Finally, the light changed and the four power walkers proceeded to cross in the clearly marked bicycle lane! The cyclists meanwhile headed out over the pedestrian stripes! Me? Well… I just walked along the wide line separating the two lanes, all the while wondering whether the paint had been wasted or not. I guess if it made us realize that this was a place to be careful while we crossed, then it wasn’t a waste. But, so much for obeying “the letter of the law!” 

  April 10, 2009  

We often hear politicians and social commentators say that we need to improve or to preserve or to do such and such “for our children.” I’ve been wondering why we say that. Is it a realistic thing to say or just what we think sounds good? Do we really mean it? I know if I were to say something like “We need to preserve this forest so our children can enjoy it,” that I would be lying. I have never thought that. If I believe a forest should be preserved I want to care for it so that we – you and me, and probably our children, too – can enjoy it together. If I disregard my own enjoyment or right to enjoyment of the forest what will I have taught my children? Only that the forest is for “others” to enjoy, but not me. Maybe they will follow in my footsteps and never enjoy the forest! What good have I done, then? I would rather teach the next generation to enjoy and to care for that forest throughout their lives and to share that enjoyment and preservation work with their children. Isn’t that is the kind of effort “for our children” that will not only pay off, but that stands a chance to be perpetuated for all time.

    May 11, 2009

These days our news is full of information about the H1N1 flu, previously called swine flu. Real swine flu sometimes occurs in pigs in the United States and other countries, including Japan. When I was in the US in 1976 there was a strange human outbreak that resulted in one death and several hospitalizations and I remembering getting a swine flu shot at that time. There were jokes about the swine flu as many people had never heard that pigs could catch influenza! Then-President Ford was photographed getting a shot to encourage people to become immunized. At first with this present epidemic I got really tired of all the updates – there were so many that they became “inundates” instead – but, generally I agree that the World Health Organization has to control and contain new viruses that affect humans. This virus has now been identified as a strain very much like swine flu found in pigs, but cannot actually be traced to swine as the source of the virus. When I was talking to my son this weekend about the epidemic he said something interesting. His friend who is an AIDS counselor said only two people in the US have died of this disease so far and everyone is wearing a mask! Yet nearly 15,000 people died of AIDS in the United States in 2007, but it is still difficult to get people to practice safe sex and use condoms. We humans are strange. I hope we will have a vaccination for H1N1 and that the disease will be contained soon.

  June 16, 2009

Rainy season 2009 finally decided to bless us with some rain. It’s been raining for several days now off and on and sometimes it has literally poured. Maybe the pools will open for the summer after all! Maybe we don’t have to ration water after all! That seems good, don’t you agree? But, somehow on second thought it worries me a lot. Not because I enjoy summers of water rationing, or because I think pools are dangerous or unnecessary, but because I know that people are lazy basically. Now that yet another rainy season which started out have multiple reasons for us to be careful of our precious water has turned out better after all, I fear we – as well as those in our city hall whose job it is to solve the water problems we continue to have – will once again relax our guard and our resolve to do something until it all happens over again next year. Is anyone out there as tired as I am of this vicious cycle!? Enough rain or not, silly old woman that I am I want the problem fixed. Perhaps I alone feel that way? I’m just not at all confident that megumi no ame (Rain through God’s grace) is a concept to put our faith in.

Have you ever had trouble with one of those phone answering systems that ask you a question and tell you which number to push to register your answer? Many such systems in the US have switched to voice recognition technology. When the voice asks a question you can merely say “2” or “yes” or “existing reservations.” This is far easier if you are calling by cell or wireless phone. But, on a recent trip to Atlanta I overheard a woman from Europe “talking” on a cell phone to one of the automatic voice answer systems. She didn’t realize it wasn’t a real person and was having a terrible time telling the voice what she wanted. “That rude woman just hung up on me!” she announced. I offered to help and together we got her through the preliminary questions and to a live person who could help her. When her call was done she thanked me and apologized for her poor English skills. But, I assured her that the first time I used one of these systems several years ago, I also had trouble and the voice hung up on me, too! It’s maybe nicer to talk to a machine than to push buttons, but it can be just as confusing.

Last month I read an article that quoted Dr. Robert G. Voigt, a developmental pediatrician at the Mayo Clinic, in Rochester, Minnesota. He states there are four important things parents can do to develop a child’s optimal intelligence, and they are maybe not what you think. 1) Talk a lot. There is a correlation between the number of words a young child hears and his verbal IQ. 2) Read, read, read! Reading stories together forges an emotional bond and helps learning, too. Children grasp the basics of literacy such as that there are characters and words on the pages and that you read in a certain direction across the page. They learn that stories have a beginning, and a logical sequence to an ending. Reading a story again and again sharpens memory skills, and it’s a delight for them when they can predict what’s on the next page. Show that you approve of and enjoy reading, too. 3) Give your child time alone. Children don’t need continuous entertainment. They need some downtime to amuse themselves, too. Thinking time and testing things out alone is not wasted time. 4) Snuggle up! Once your child knows that you and other loving people will meet his needs in a loving and reliable way, he’ll have the drive to explore on his own and learn more. None of these measures require flash cards.

At the recent entrance ceremony for Tokyo University the award-winning architect, Mr. Tadao Ando, chided the parents of the freshmen for attending the ceremony. I admire Mr. Ando’s career and his architectural work. I have heard him lecture in person and found his ideas entertaining and quite down-to-earth. But, I couldn’t disagree more with his admonition to the parents on that day. As a teacher of long years I know that one of the most important factors in any child’s education is their parents’ attitude. Children whose parents are not interested in their education are seldom the best students. It really takes a family to educate a child; to teach a child academics and discipline inside and outside the home. I understand if university professors remind parents that their children should be on their own from now on, but to tell them their presence at an entrance ceremony is indicative of their child’s immaturity is nonsense. At my graduation from Harvard there were about 8,000 students from the combined university schools who received degrees. However, there were at least 33,000 relatives and friends who also attended (including the entire small village of one student from China!) Unlike the professors at Tokyo University, the President of Harvard praised everyone for caring about “their student’s” education enough to attend and celebrate.