The Way of the Heart returns.

The Way of the Heart returns.


Ms toastmaster, distinguished guests, my fellow members, and ladies and gentlemen.

I hope you remember the title of my speech I made a month ago. Yes, it was ‘The Way of the Heart.’

A month ago when I was making that speech, I had an impression that the phase “the Way of the Heart” is a little bit so vague and ambiguous for some of you and it might be kind of hard to understand the real meaning and content shown by that expression. 

So tonight using this chance, I would like to try to explain, demonstrate, and clarify the meaning and the contents of the phrase, “the Way of the Heart.”

I hope you are not worried. I am not going to give you any sophisticated and philosophical argument, or any abstract definitions of the phrase.  

I would like to give, rather, share with you some very concrete examples that show “the Way of the Heart” clearly.  That is why I gave to my speech today the title of “the Way of the Heart” returns

Several years ago, a student from the University of California went swimming with his girl friend at the foot of the Golden Gate Bridge. While the boy enjoyed swimming at a distance from the shore, the girl, she herself was an excellent swimmer, was playing in the shallow water near the shore. 

It was a sunny day. The temperature was so high and a little bit humid, so an ideal day for swimming. They were enjoying swimming and playing in the water for some time.

Just then, the girl heard the boy shout at a distance to her.

“Shark! Get out of the water! Now! A shark is coming!”

The girl searched him and saw the boy being attacked by a huge shark. 

At the moment, instead of making for the shore, she began swimming towards him, hoping she could save him at the sacrifice of herself.

Strangely, the shark swam away at her approach, but I am sorry to say that it was too late. The boy had been severely bitten by the shark and rapidly losing his blood.

Swimming with all her strength, she managed to pull him to the share. She knelt　just beside him, prayed together. The boy opened his eyes and said in a weak voice, “Thank you very much.” Soon he lost consciousness and died from loss of blood.

At the moment of serious danger, the boy had never thought of himself, but of the girl.

At the moment of real danger, the girl had never thought of herself, but of the boy.

Ladies and gentlemen, this IS the Way of the Heart.


Just one hundred years ago, in the year of 1912, a great tragedy occurred. Over one thousand five hundred people lost their lives in a moment. 

The big ocean liner, “the Titanic”, which had been considered ‘unsinkable’, sank beneath the waves of North Atlantic Ocean. 

It was very unfortunate, as the ship had been thought as ‘unsinkable’, there were not enough life boats to save the lives of all the passengers.

So the captain of the ship ordered women and children to leave the sinking ship in the life boats as soon as possible.

At the last moment, Mrs. Straus, the wife of a rich New York merchant refused the order.

Although Mr. Straus, her husband, urged her to get on the life boat to save her life, she said,

“No, we have been together for more than forty years. I won’t leave you. I stay here with you.”

Ladies and gentlemen, this IS the Way of the Heart.


The Way of the Heart seems very heroic, but it is also quite ordinary. 

It is the mother sitting up all night taking care of and watching over her child who has been sick in bed.

The Way of the heart seems very wise, but at the same time, it is quite foolish. It is Jesus Christ praying for his enemy who nailed him to the cross. He prayed at the last moment, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”

As you see, I have given you some examples. You can understand very easily that the examples of the Way of the Heart are just around us. We can see so many examples and instances of the Way of the Heart in our daily lives. You see, it is quite obvious.

BUT, and this is the big but in capital letters, it is impossible to explain up, demonstrate up, clarify up the real meaning and contents of the Way of the Heart.

Why?

Because, my dearest friends, it is “LOVE”.

Such is the Way of the Heart.

Thank you.

(794 words)

The Way of the Heart

These days it is next to impossible to live even one day without seeing, hearing,or using the woad "communication". But once we take time and begin to think what real "communication" is, we get nowhere.  What is the communication, to begin with?  Is there good communication or bad communication?  If there is a good communicator, what is the criteria to tell the good one and bad one?  It might be almost impossible to find a clear definition.

Well, a small, personal experience I had more than fifteen years ago, would give us an hint toward a big question, "What is communication"?

In 1990, my younger son and I were spending our holiday in a small village in the eastern part of France during the Christmas period. The final day of our stay happened to be Christmas Eve.

As you might know, the Mass of Christmas Eve is usually held at midnight. So when the Mass was over and we went out of the old Gothic church building, it was after midnight.

The sky was clear, so many stars were shining in the dark night, and, yes, everything around us was just "Christmas". We liked the atmosphere of the Christmas time of the village very much, except one thing: temperature!!

The air was so clear and shivering cold.

A grown-up, I was OK, but I felt very sorry for my younger son who was just eight years old.

I looked around to fine a restaurant or cafe where we could get something hot to drink. But it was such a late time that no shops were open.

But just then we were lucky enough to find a cart just in front of the church building with a bit sign of "Hot Chocorate!" on the top of it.

My son and I dashed to the cart.  Inside the cart there was a young girl doing some dishes.  As I didn't understand French at all, with gestures asked her to give us two cups of hot chocolate.

The young girl was so kind as to give us such big size of cups of chocolate.

In the small village, in the dark, silent night, and hot chocolate... we felt so happy with the young lady seeing my son, smiling that we felt we became just one!

I pull out my wallet and was going to pay for the chocolate, the young girl said to us.

"No, no, you don't have to pay. Tonight is the Christmas Eve. On Christmas Eve everything should be a present. The chocolate is a small present from me to you and your son.  Have a nice Christmas and have a nice journey!!"

We felt happy again hearing this, and said, "Thank you very much. The same to you!. Good night!"

We turned around and began walking toward our guesthouse.

A few seconds later, I realized something strange had happened...

Yes, that young girl said so, I am sure, but WHAT language did she use then?

The village we were in was located close to the border with Germany, so she must have spoken in French with a strong German accent, which language I did not understand at all.

But..but, she said so!   Or was that all my imagination?

In order to make sure, I ask my eight-year old boy.

"My dear, what language did that kind girl speak to us?"

He answered simply,

"Papa, I don't know. But she is so kind, and said to us 'You don't have to pay for the chocolate and have a nice Christmas!  I like her very much!"

Yes, there WAS communication between us, without any common language. There really was communication between us!

How come it was possible?

The answer is "The Way of the Heart."

No matter how many words use, no matter how elaborate expressions we use, without The Way of the Heart, no communication is possible. No communication is satisfactory.

Why?

Because it is LOVE!

Such is the Way of the Heart!

My ice-breaking speech

Knock! Knock!

Sudden knocks on the door.

It was almost eleven o'clock at night.

Dr.Kitagawa, wondering who it was, put down his coffee cup on the desk and opened the door.

There were two men standing there, who said,

"Dr.Kitagawa, we are from Tokyo Metropolitan Police department. We are sorry to say, Doctor, you are under arrest."

At the police station, the officer explained the reason of his arrest in detail. One of his patients died just after his operation. Dr. Kitagawa, chief surgeon, and his colleagues did their best but they could not save the patient life.

Doctor and the hospital office explained the medical situation in which the patient was in and that they did their best as health care professionals, but the patient's family did not satisfied with it.

They  laid a complaint before the police. Then the police decided to accuse Dr.Kitagawa of  ”Negligent homicide”.

That was the very beginning of the long story.

It took more than 4 years to prove there was nothing to be accused on the doctors' side.

And Dr.Kitagawa, through his tough experience of the legal matter in the court, made up his mind to devote the rest of his life to the establishment of "MADR" in Japan.

Ladies and gentlemen, have you ever heard of "MADR"? It is a shortened form of "Medical Alternative Dispute Resolution”"which works as a mediator between the doctors and patients and tries to find the resolution not by the court struggle but by discussion and compromise.

He did his best for its establishment, but just after the handing down of decision of his innocence, because of the hardship of the legal battle in the court, Dr.Kitagawa suddenly passed away.

Some years passed after his death.

One high school student came to visit my school. My school is a Pre-Med school. Our job is to take care of the students whose hope is to enter a medical college to become a doctor in the future.

The student, whose face I vaguely remembered, asked me to let him enter the school. When I asked his name, he said, "My name is Kitagawa."

I said, "Oh, you are the only son of Dr,Kitagawa. I saw you when you were a kindergarten boy!"

"Yes, it's me. Mr.Toyama, I want to be a doctor. Can I enter your school?"

"Of course you can, if you like. But... was that your dream to be a doctor? I remember Dr. Kitagawa said you were going to be a jurnalist?"

He answered, "Yes, that was my dream. But after my father's death, I changed my mind. I made up my mind to be a doctor and will realize Father's dream to establish MADR here in Jpana."

##########

Ladies and gentlemen, in Japan, medical tradition is handed down from generation to generation like this. I am very proud of my position as a director of the Pre-Med school and being able to help and support them to be a good doctor in the future.

Thank you very much.

By the way...laughter

Now I have just read the previous articles which have been on the blog, and I am wondering why such a long sentences are necessary to just describe what I think now.  Originally the title of the article was 'Long time, no see', by which I was going to tell the reader how many of my previous students have got to face me again through the social network Face Book. The same goes for this blog. Writing in English is not hard for me, but writing in RIGHT English is very hard job. This is a very good chance to think in a different language, which is also a different world view.
Give me a little more time to continue to write about my experience(s) as a teacher.

Long time, no see...(5)

During the six years in A High School, no period was so exciting and enjoyable as the last 4 years. The chief House Master was my position, which gave me a very large field I could work in. Inside a given grade, Chief House Master was just like GOD! That position could give a teacher mighty power
for student guidance and counseling . It was almost up to him whether the school would expel a student who had done something wrong.
Five years had passed when an idea occurred to my mind that everything I did was something to make sure that I could play God. The idea terrified me a great deal. Students should never belong to me, because they are all God' image.
It was then when I made up my mind to change my job again. This time the reason is not to deepen my study but to be a real assistant for students' personality development.

Long time, no see...(4)

The second school I decided to work for was A Tokyo Metropolitan High School, which was my alma mater.  Actually it was not really.  the second year was the last year I spent my high school life there. With my father, who moved to Fukuoka for his business reason, my family also moved there. My family means I was one of them. A very ambiguous, round-about expression was used to describe the situation I was in, because at that time I was a member of the family and simultaneously I was not.  A Tokyo Metropolitan High School was the only one boarding school Tokyo had. School required all the students to stay in the dormitory. No exception was admitted. That is why it was called all-boarding high school. To leave the dormitory meant to leave school.
There the position waiting for me was that of a house-master. About half of the teachers held positions of house-master concurrently. I was one of them. In the daytime teaching English was my job, and at night the job of house-master remained. Once or twice in a week, night duty waited for me. Other teachers were always complaining about the night duty, because it was such a hard work that they could not sleep at all over night. Naughty boys ( and I am very sorry to say, I was one of them) were always causing troubles at night. Some boys ran away from the dormitory and others were bullying their friends secretly. The job itself seemed very interesting for me and as for me it was very enjoyable.
In the second year in the school, the principal and vice-principals appointed me as a chief of house-master.   It was the very beginning of my long and winding road to be a TEACHER of  capital letters.

(continued)

Long time, no see...(3)

At the end of the fifth year I worked as a teacher in S Gakuen High School, a slight but not neglectable idea occured to me. The school board thought very much of me, and might expect much of me, and gave me many positions in the school system. For example it was in the second year that the board appointed me as a TAN'NIN teacher. They also appointed me as a section chief of academic affairs. At that time I was only 27 years old. The work itself was not too much for me, but it took too much of my private TIME!  Almost all of my time was taken for the preparation for tomorrow' work and no time was left for my own study. That was the chief reason I decided to leave S Gakuen and tried to find a positon as a full-time teacher of other school.
It took almost 10 months to find a right place in A High School, which happned to be the school I graduated from more than 10 years before.