(Near) Death from Above

Today at the beginning of an advanced class I had the students asking each other about their weekends. One student, in her forties, said she visited her grandmother-in-law in the hospital. She is 95 years old and going strong. The next student shared an exciting tale of shoe shopping with her husband. Next one of my older students, whom we will call Mrs. Y, spent about 10 minutes telling about her ongoing battle with a department store over a carpet washing problem. She didn't ask for it to be washed, they washed it anyway, the color was changed. She has been demanding that they replace it for 3 1/2 years, to no avail. Not one to give up easily, if at all, the powerful and persistent Mrs. Y did not stop trying. The entire time she has been carpetless in an uninsulated house. At 70 years old that means something. At the end of her story Mrs. Y said, "I am proud to say that yesterday I won. They finally agreed." She proceeded to share all the details of how she got a $15,000 carpet for only $4,500, and then when she was finished, she asked if I thought she had done well. What else could I say but "Congratulations!"? Clearly this is a woman who values principle highly.

Last a young man who is still in college shared about how he and a friend went out to eat, and even though it was windy and pouring rain, he refused to take a taxi (which would have cost each of them $3). Instead he insisted they ride their bicycles while holding umbrellas, even though the restaurant was more than a 15-minute bike ride away. He said his friend, who had suggested a taxi or a nearer restaurant, was noticably annoyed, but eventually went along with him. I asked him why he didn't just take a taxi. Eventually I got two reasons: 1) "I don't like going to a restaurant by taxi because somehow it seems like an empty way to behave." and 2) "I wanted to make sure I was hungry when I got to the restaurant so I could eat a lot, so I rode my bicycle to get an appetite." I told him that if I were his friend he would have been pedalling alone, and I would have been warm, dry, and laughing at him when he eventually made it to the restaurant and I was already enjoying appetizers and beer. But I have to give him credit for knowing what he wants and sticking to his guns, even if it did mean getting himself, and his friend, soaked.

Near the end of class I thought it would be fun to ask if any of them had ever had a near-death experience. All of them shook their heads with one exception, Mrs. Y. From previous experience and today's carpet story, I know she is not one to be trifled with. She carries a certain amount of authority, and demands respect while at the same time being able to joke and laugh. As a result of that, plus her often dry sense of humor, it can be hard to tell whether she is trying to be funny or serious. "I have had a near-death experience," she began. "When I was a child, I almost died when the B-29 Bombers flew over Kobe. They dropped so many bombs. They were falling all around me. Those planes and those bombs came from YOUR country, right?" I have shared many laughs in the past months with Mrs. Y, but she was not laughing when she said this. It was more than a little uncomfortable. But Japanese People who remember WWII well enough to talk about it, and talk about it in ENGLISH, are few and should be treasured. So I asked her if we could talk about it again sometime one-on-one. She agreed. That seemed to lighten the mood slightly, and then class was over. I am looking forward to talking with her. And I'll be sure to post the pearls that are bound to come from that encounter.