(Week 3) One of my most precious things...

I have many precious things in my life. My family, my friends, my job, my beliefs, memories, experiences...my house...my hair (just kidding-I can lose that) are just of the things I don't want to lose.

I could write about any of those, but after some brainstorming, I felt that I have one ESPECIALLY precious thing that really seems to support all of the things precious to me. When I thought about "What would be the worst thing to lose in my life?" there are many things that would devastate me...like losing my wife Megumi or my children or one of my friends...but also discovered one other less tangible thing that would be really scary to lose. So I've decided to write about it to identify what it is a little more clearly in my own mind.

I think I would call it "a belief in the importance of caring," and I owe it mainly to my parents and their example. I believe that I should care for others and put others first, and that I can sacrifice my own interests (to some extent) to do that. Why do I believe that? One reason might be the Christian background I have and how I learned about the importance of selfless, unconditional love in church and the Bible. But I think it comes from other places too, and I think the strongest origin is in seeing my parents' example of loving and caring for not only family members (like us kids--who were difficult to love at times), but also even strangers.

One of my most impressive memories is the periodic visits my father made to a Hansen's Disease community in Karuizawa each year. The community has many Christians and my father and other missionaries from the Saku area would visit them to have a chapel time and interact. The first time I went, I was really frightened of the Hansen's Disease patients. Many had no hands or feet, and many had disfigured faces such as no nose, no eyes, and one gentleman even looked like his whole face had melted off with just a hole for a mouth remaining. Most people would stay away.

One of the gentlemen I met looked like this. In fact, this may be him.

However, there is no fear of getting the disease because they have all healed. They just have former scars of the disease. These people should be living with their families in regular communities, but they choose to stay in their own community because of the prejudice against them. Their community is very isolated deep in the mountains of Karuizawa/Kusatsu, and they really enjoy having people visit them.

My father visited them one a year or more, I think, and when I went with him and I felt the wonderfulness of having a heart of selfless caring for others. I also felt that that value of caring is something that is lost easily...as we get busy worrying about our own lives and own interests. But if we all begin to lose this, who is going to care for people who need help or love. And who will care for you when you become weak or useless? The ability to love and care for others is an elusive value, and, even though my ability may still be weak, I am glad that my parents helped me see this importance early on in my life. It is an extremely precious treasure that I want to keep activated in my own life.