Pearl Harbor

About a month ago Katy and were in Hawaii. We toured Pearl Harbor on the island of Oahu. It was quite moving. On a Sunday morning, December 7, 1941 this was the site of the Japanese attack on the U. S. Pacific Fleet.

Many of us have seen the movie Tora, Tora, Tora or the movie Pearl Harbor. For many years I have wanted to see this place. I have wanted to tour the Arizona Memorial. I can’t explain why but I have particularly wanted to see the hill that the first wave of Japanese planes flew over. There is a line in the movie Gladiator just before the Romans attack the last stronghold in Germania, where as General Maximus gives the command to attack, he says to Quintus, “Unleash hell.” As Commander Fuchida led the first wave of the attack over the mountains to begin bombing, he realized that the Japanese fleet had achieved total surprise. To communicate that to his fleet he broke radio silence and yelled, “Tora, Tora, Tora” and in a matter of moments they unleashed hell.

A bomb went through the forward deck of the Arizona and exploded an ammunition magazine. The ship was sunk in the harbor and still rests there. 1,177 died on the ship and many are entombed with the wreckage. Oil still leaks from the Arizona. I spent some time reading the names on the list of men who died on the Arizona. Several times I saw the same last name; in some cases there were three and even four men with the same last name. I felt that this couldn’t all be coincidence so I asked a tour guide about it. We learned that there were 37 sets of brothers on the ship. Twenty-three sets died that day.



When we worked on and built our Veteran’s Memorial at Marysville-Pilchuck we learned what a gold star family is. A gold star family is one who has lost a son or daughter in combat. What would it have been like to lose all of your sons in one minute? I found myself remembering Kristen Hendrix, MPHS 2006 reading the dedication along with Gold Star Mom, Betty Pearson. I remembered Katey and Kelly Robertson walking Hazel Hammond out to the memorial where she very gently touched the name of her KIA son, Jack Hammond. I thought about Marine Corporal, Jack Elkins, from Washington State who survived the Bataan death march. I remembered his grandson, Marine Lieutenant Brian Hensarling. I remembered Marine Veterans, Greg Chiaravalle and Brian Johnson, who show their respect by volunteering to maintain the Memorial.

We also toured the battleship Missouri where the Japanese formally surrendered. Again, it was all very moving.


As you walk up to the spot where you board the ferry to the Arizona Memorial there are 18 display boards on the path. Board number 16 gives information about the first wave of the attack and has a picture of Commander Fuchida.


Walking by I saw an elderly Japanese man reading this board. He was crying. It wasn’t the kind of crying where he had just a moment of being choked up with a lone tear; he was crying hard, the kind of crying you can hear not just see. I wondered what he was thinking and feeling. Was he feeling shame for the carnage his ancestors caused that Sunday morning almost 70 years ago? Was he related to one of the sailors or aviators involved in the attack? Was he related to someone else who fought in the war? Almost for sure he is; I am. Was he feeling the lifetime of pain that the families of the dead would feel? What about those families who lost all their sons in one morning? Was he feeling shame? I wondered if maybe he was crying so hard because he might even be related to Fuchida. I also wondered if maybe he cried so hard because he had family who died when the Enola Gay dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Did he have family in Hiroshima or Nagasaki? Was he feeling a intense, seething anger for these attacks? Did he have friends and family who fought and died in the war? What was that old man feeling?

I wonder if he was feeling almost all of those things.

No matter what he thought about the past I wondered if he was feeling tremendous gratitude. All he had to do was purchase a plane ticket and show a passport to be able to stand on American soil. If I want to go to Japan all I have to do is purchase a plane ticket and show my passport. That we could both stand there did not happen without tremendous sacrifices. Maybe he was moved by those sacrifices. I surely was.



It is the weekend. Please be good. Drive your cares carefully. Ride with people who drive carefully. Treat yourself with respect. Spend time with people who treat you with respect. Treat other people with respect. Talk nice to yourself; you deserve it. I look forward to hearing from you or seeing you. Keep yourself whole physically and emotionally.

P

This Morning

Here today, gone to Maui! WooHoo!

Phone Calls: Part III

Phone Calls: Part III

You are asleep. Just as your alarm goes off and you start to wake up you realize your phone is ringing. You answer the phone before your alarm goes off. It’s that same voice again. Morning, after morning; it’s always the same voice. There’s a pause, just a very brief one; it is almost imperceptible. In that brief second you wonder if today the voice will criticize you relentlessly, complain at you in a dull, tired sort of way, talk to you angrily, or maybe even have some good things to say. Don’t you wish you knew before you went to bed what you would hear in the morning? Heck, you might even sleep better if you knew what you were going to hear in the morning phone call. What if when you went to bed the last thought you had was that tomorrow’s phone call was going to be great?

It is the weekend. Please be good. Drive your cares carefully. Ride with people who drive carefully. Treat yourself with respect. Spend time with people who treat you with respect. Treat other people with respect. Talk nice to yourself; you deserve it. I look forward to hearing from you or seeing you. Keep yourself whole physically and emotionally.

P

Swimsuits and Swim Trunks

Katy and I are going to go to Hawaii. She went once before we were married; I have never been. It’s a big adventure for us.

When the kids were little I would chase them around the back yard with a squirt gun. Then they would chase me. It’s a great summer memory from 20-25 years ago. I took them swimming at the “Y” back then too. To do these things I wore swim trunks. I still have those trunks. They’re green. The kids are much too old to chase around now and plus I couldn’t catch them anymore so I haven’t worn the trunks in a long time.

Katy and I have been talking about what we are going to do in Hawaii. We talked about doing some snorkeling. We both liked the idea but realized we don’t have swimwear. Well one of us doesn’t; I still have my old green swim trunks. I took them out of the bottom of my shirt drawer, kind of shook them out, put my thumbs inside each edge and pulled them apart a little. The elastic crackled and didn’t go back; they just sort of stayed pulled apart. (I feel that way some mornings.) Okay, the swim trunks are 30 years old, big deal. That meant that Katy and I are both in the market for new swimming stuff.

Katy started looking at Lands End. I didn't want to think about it particularly or have to make any complicated choices like color or style. I would be just fine having a pair of swim trunks like the ones I had except with new elastic in the waistband. That would be more than enough “shopping” for me. We had a print catalog of swimwear that had just come in the mail. She was leafing through page after page of “girl stuff”. I think there were two pages of “boy stuff”. That’s fine with me because I don’t want to think about it anyway.

After she saw a few she liked, or maybe that she was at least open to, in the catalog she went online to look. I heard her laughing so I came over to the computer to see what was funny. There were pull down menus with hundreds of choices, yes hundreds, for all of these things: size range, specific size, color, bra type, body shape, control, and best of all, “anxiety zones”.

Excuse me but what the heck does that mean? She pulled down the “anxiety zone” menu several times and laughed at the six choices every time. If you pick something off the anxiety zone list do you get less anxiety or more anxiety with the swimsuits in that section? Are you choosing a swimsuit to reinforce your anxieties? Do they mail the anxiety with the swimsuit and do you apply it before wearing it? How many times is the anxiety good for? Does the anxiety wear out as the swim suit gets older? I’m wearing out as I get older so maybe anxiety does too.
I got on the computer and clicked over to swim trunks. I found one that looked the same as my retired green ones and that was that. But then I started to feel left out. How come I only get to choose color and inseam? Some have pockets so that’s a choice too but how come I can’t choose from some anxiety zones too?

Oh the hell with it. We are going to Hawaii and we’re both excited! We are both going to put on swim wear for the first time in decades and we don’t give a damn about anxiety zones. We are probably going to look funny and we just don’t care. So there. We both ordered swim wear and decided not to order any anxiety with it.

It is the weekend. Please be good. Drive your car carefully. Ride with people who drive carefully. Treat yourself with respect. Spend time with people who treat you with respect. Treat other people with respect. Talk nice to yourself; you deserve it. I look forward to hearing from you or seeing you. Keep yourself whole physically and emotionally.

P

Phone Calls: Part II

You are asleep. Just as your alarm goes off and you start to wake up you realize your phone is ringing. You actually answer the phone before you shut off the alarm. The person on the phone knows you well. It is someone you have talked to many, many times before. You have known this person as long as you can remember. Right away she starts complimenting you. You don’t say much of anything, you just listen. Because this person has known you so long and because he knows you so well, he knows all of your weaknesses, all of your fears, and all of your disappointments. The voice is calm but the compliments are persistent. Much of this you have heard before.

How long will you stay on the line? How long? Until you get out of bed? Until you finish our morning routine? How long will you stay on the line? Until you are interrupted? Until you have another call? Until you have to talk to someone else face to face? In minutes or in hours how long will you stay on the phone? How long before you argue and say the compliments aren’t true? How long? Try answering in the comments. How long before you just laugh and hang up?

It is the weekend. Please be good. Drive your cars carefully. Ride with people who drive carefully. Treat yourself with respect. Spend time with people who treat you with respect. Treat other people with respect. Talk nice to yourself; you deserve it. I look forward to hearing from you or seeing you. Keep yourself whole physically and emotionally.

P

Phone Calls: Part I

You are asleep. Just as your alarm goes off and you start to wake up you realize your phone is ringing. You actually answer the phone before you shut off the alarm. The person on the phone knows you well. It is someone you have talked to many, many times before. You have known this person as long as you can remember. Right away she starts criticizing you. You don’t say much of anything, you just listen. Because this person has known you so long and because he knows you so well, he knows all of your weaknesses, all of your fears, and all of your disappointments. The voice is calm but the criticism is persistent. Much of this you have heard before.

How long will you stay on the line? How long? Until you get out of bed? Until you finish your morning routine? How long will you stay on the line? Until you are interrupted? Until you have another call? Until you have to talk to someone else face to face? In minutes or in hours how long will you stay on the phone? Try answering in the comments. Seriously. How long before you just hang up?

It is the weekend. Please be good. Drive your cars carefully. Ride with people who drive carefully. Treat yourself with respect. Spend time with people who treat you with respect. Treat other people with respect. Talk nice to yourself; you deserve it. I look forward to hearing from you or seeing you. Keep yourself whole physically and emotionally.

P

Attitudes: Part II

It's bedtime. You sit down on the edge of the bed and you take your attitude out and put it in a bag. You have written "My Attitude" on the bag. You have even taken some time to decorate the bag since your attitude is kind of important. There are two other bags next to yours. One is labeled, "Replacement Attitudes" and the other is labeled, "Leftover Attitudes".

You have a pretty good night's sleep. You wake up. The very first thing you do is put an attitude back inside of your head and heart. Before you go to the bathroom, before you take a shower, before you even open your eyes; it's the first thing you do--put an attitude back inside of you.

You didn't lose your attitude out of the running trail, you put it in your bag right next to your bed. It's waiting there for you. Would you want to make sure you put "your attitude" back in your head and heart? Would you want a "replacement attitude" or would you settle for a "leftover attitude"?

The bad news is you don't have to chose an attitude. Some attitude will always find its way into you. The one's that just find their way in usually aren't good ones; they usually come from the "leftover attitude" bag. The good news is that even you don't have to chose, you GET to chose if you want to." All so simple to say--not always easy to do. Still, I like that.

It's the weekend. Please be good. Drive your cars carefully. Ride with people who drive carefully. Treat yourself with respect. Spend time with people who treat you with respect. Treat other people with respect. Talk nice to yourself; you deserve it. I look forward to hearing from you or seeing you. Keep yourself whole physically and emotionally.

P