Good morning!
This is the season of harvesting. This morning a news piece from Japan reported the return of a stork to Fukui (Well of Luck) Prefecture, where Eiheiji (Perpetual Peace Temple) is located. Storks, symbols of life and luck, were once extinct in Japan, but people started to incubate, hatch, and return them to nature artificially. Now forty-four storks live in Japan – one of them visited Echizen-shi, Fukui.
Fukushima (Island of Luck) Prefecture, now contaminated by nuclear radiation, is uninhabitable according to the Chernobyl standard. While the government wants to remove the contaminated topsoil to let people live there, it will in fact be unlivable for decades, according to that standard. When the topsoil is removed, there will be no farmland and no life link.
People supporting storks in Fukui stopped using the chemicals that once broke the life link and brought life loss. Fukushima became an isolated island in an island country, reminding us of Easter Island. There, people cut all trees, cutting the life link and biological bases – boats, houses, homes. Eventually people fought, killed each other, and devoured human flesh.
Whether we make isolated islands or perpetual peace depends on us all and every person. Whether we regain the holy (wholly wholesome) life link or regress into a sinful (separated, selfish) deadly dead-end all depends on each of us. May perpetual peace and pure prognosis prevail on earth!
9/29/11
