Billions of yen in donations for the victims of the Great East Japan Earthquake have come through a variety of donation websites taking advantage of the Internet to organize people’s humanitarian efforts.

Depending on the website, donations as small as 50 yen can be made, either via mobile phones or computers, through easy-to-use electronic transfer services. Many sites display the total amount and number of donations received and have exceeded 100 million yen in donations. One site had gathered more than 1.2 billion yen. The collected funds are sent to groups like the Japanese Red Cross Society.

via Billions of yen in relief donations come through Internet sites – The Mainichi Daily News.

In Japan:

セカンドハーベスト・ジャパンは、生活に困っている人々と彼らの支援団体を食を通じてサポートしている特定非営利活動法人（NPO）です。
English: http://www.2hj.org/index.php/news/send_us_food_and_supplies/日本語：http://www.2hj.org/index.php/news_j/disasterrelieffooddonations/

Outside Japan:

Donate to Japan Disaster Relief here: 

For more information: http://www.google.com/intl/en/crisisresponse/japanquake2011.html

Below is a comment left on an article about American airline flight attendants being concerned about flying into Tokyo.

My wife was Purser on a flight descending into Narita, Tokyo’s International Airport, when the earthquake struck. Her flight eventually ended in Osaka. When the crews were returned to Narita they visited shelters and left what food they could find as well as their own jackets, scarves and gloves.

Upon returning home, two days later than scheduled, she put out a call for warm jackets and cold weather gear. She and other crew members also purchased, out of their own pockets, as much preserved milk and flashlights as they could carry.

Yesterday the crew returned to Narita with more than 20 large bags of jackets, blankets, gloves and the milk and flashlights. Our entry way is still stacked to the ceiling with more jackets and clothing that will be going in every day with the flight attendants.

Were they nervous about it? Of course. How could one not be worried with the legions of science illiterate reporters spreading hysteria? Still they went to work and are doing far more than their jobs require.

Thank you to all of you who attended today. We managed to have a very interesting session, as usual, despite the sadness in our hearts.

(Click the image above to visit the Japan Red Cross donation site.)

Today, we discussed the first 3 items on the list of sections from St Exupery’s “Wind, Sand and Stars” (see the previous blog entry to read the entire list)

1. Guillaumet lost in the Andes – chapter II, section II, page 30-40 (end of chapter II)
2. Chapter IV (pages 48-62) – the cyclone
3. Chapter V, section II, pages 68-74 (end of chapter V) – night in the Sahara

We had some difficulty understanding section 3.

Update: After reading section 3 again, the key seems to be the last paragraph on page 71. He is remembering a house he lived in when he was a child. For some strange reason, the memory of this house becomes very strong to him while he is lying on the sand of the Sahara night. He realizes that his existence, his meaning, is not just the present (Sahara), but also his past. When he was a child, he liked to tease his old nurse (“Mademoiselle”): she was so domestic and domesticated, while he enjoyed being a rough, wild boy. But now he realizes that it was not only his wild rough, boyish adventures that created his personality, his character: it was also the house and the quiet, solid, domestic routines that formed his character and are still a vital part of him, perhaps even more solid and important than his present Saharan adventure.

I think this is what he means by “But that night in the Sahara, naked between the sand and the stars, I did her justice.” In other words, he finally discovered a reason to respect that domestic and tame Mademoiselle.

What do you think? Any other, different interpretations?

The next session will be on Wednesday April 27th. If this is inconvenient, please let me know. I plan to continue reading “Wind, Sand and Stars”, continuing down the list  of sections.

Sahara Desert Algeria 2nd November 2000 a photo by loose_grip_99 on Flickr.

Dear Readers,

Our next session will be next week. I plan to focus on the following episodes from “Wind, Sand and Stars”:

1. Guillaumet lost in the Andes – chapter II, section II, page 30-40 (end of chapter II)
2. Chapter IV (pages 48-62) – the cyclone
3. Chapter V, section II, pages 68-74 (end of chapter V) – night in the Sahara
4. Chapter VI, pages 76-82 (end of chapter VI) – the snakes under the table
5. Chapter VII, section I (pages 85-90) – the gazelle in the Sahara
6. Chapter VII, section V pages 106-119 – Bark the slave
7. Chapter IX, pages 174-189 – the Spanish Civil War
8. Chapter IX, section VI pages  215-224.
9. Chapter X – conclusion.

We won’t read ALL the above sections next Wednesday! But I would be interested to hear your comments. In particular, I hope you will tell me those sections, episodes, sentences or phrases which you particularly remember.

I look forward to seeing you Wednesday March 16th.

Update:

Here are 2 more things that Lewis wrote on the subject of the gap between modern and ancient societies. These are from letters that he wrote. The first is before making the BBC radio broadcasts that were later collected together into the book “Mere Christianity”.

1. I mainly want to talk about .. the Law of Nature, or objective right and wrong. It seems to me that the New Testament, by preaching repentance and forgiveness, always assumes an audience who already believes in the Law of Nature and know they have disobeyed it. In modern England we cannot at present assume this….(10 Feb. 1941, letter to Dr. James Welch, Director of Religious Broadcasting for the BBC).
2. The greatest barrier I have met is the almost total absence from the mind of my audience of any sense of sin… The early Christian preachers could assume in their hearers whether Jews, Metuentes or Pagans, a sense of guilt… Thus the Christain message was in those days unmistakably the … Good News. It promised healing to those who knew they were sick. We have to convince our hearers of the unwelcome diagnosis before we can expect them to welcome the news of the remedy. The ancient man approached God (or even the gods) as the accused person approaches his judge. For the modern man the roles are reversed. He is the judge: God is in the dock.”  (“God in the Dock”, God in the Dock, 1979, Fount 1998., p. 93) [ 『被告席の神』God in the Dock (1970年)　ウォルター・フーパー編　エッセー集。偉大なる奇跡 ―C.S.ルイス宗教著作集別巻1』（第1部） 本多峰子 訳　新教出版社　1998年8月.  『偉大なる奇跡『被告席に立つ神―C.S.ルイス宗教著作集別巻2』（第2部,第3部）本多峰子 訳　新教出版社　1998年11月

Here are some quotes from C.S. Lewis himself about the gap between modern man and man of antiquity (the past). The first 5 are from “De Descriptione Temporum”, Lewis’ first lecture at Cambridge University, 1954.

1. Christians and Pagans had much more in common with each other than either has with a post-Christian. The gap between those who worship different gods is not so wide as that between those who worship and those who do not…
2. I have come to regard as the greatest of all divisions in the history of the West that which divides the present from, say, the age of Jane Austen and Scott…
3. somewhere between us and the Waverley Novels, somewhere between us and “Persuasion”, the chasm runs.
4. I do not think that any previous age produced work which was, in its own time, as shatteringly and bewilderingly new as that of the Cubists, the Dadaists, the Surrealists, and Picasso has been in ours.
5. In [Jane Austen's] days some kind and degree of religious belief and practice were the norm: now… they are the exception.
6. Between Jane Austen and us, but not between her and Shakespeare, Chaucer, Alfred, Virgil, Homer, or the Pharaohs, comes the birth of the machines… It alters Man’s place in nature.

The second set of quotes comes from Book 1 of “Mere Christianity”.

1. Now this Law or Rule about Right and Wrong used to be called the Law of Nature. Nowadays, when we talk of the “laws of nature” we usually mean things like gravitation, or heredity, or the laws of chemistry. But when the older thinkers called the Law of Right and Wrong “the Law of Nature,” they really meant the Law of Human Nature. The idea was that, just as all bodies are governed by the law of gravitation and organisms by biological laws, so the creature called man also had his law
2. This law was called the Law of Nature because people thought that every one knew it by nature and did not need to be taught it…taking the race as a whole, they thought that the human idea of decent behaviour was obvious to every one.
3. some people say …different civilisations and different ages have had quite different moralities. But this is not true. There have been differences between their moralities, but these have never amounted to anything like a total difference. If anyone will take the trouble to compare the moral teaching of, say, the ancient Egyptians, Babylonians, Hindus, Chinese, Greeks and Romans, what will really strike him will be how very like they are to each other and to our own.
4. Men have differed as regards what people you ought to be unselfish to – whether it was only your own family, or your fellow countrymen, or everyone. But they have always agreed that you ought not to put yourself first. Selfishness has never been admired. Men have differed as to whether you should have one wife or four. But they have always agreed that you must not simply have any woman you liked.
5. the idea of a sort of behaviour [human beings] ought to practise, what you might call fair play, or decency, or morality, or the Law of Nature.
6. a Something which is directing the universe, and which appears in me as a law urging me to do right and making me feel responsible and uncomfortable when I do wrong.

And finally, from chapter 14 of “Surprised by Joy”:

Had something really dropped out of our lives? Was the archaic simply the civilized, and the modern simply the barbaric?

Thank you to all who attended Wednesday’s session, and helped to make it such an interesting discussion. We didn’t read very much of the book, but we did talk a lot about different, interesting subjects.

I think the Pyrenees Mountains were mentioned in the part that we read.  Here is a photo sent to me by an old acquaintance who lives in France. This photo is the view from their garden. (Click on the photo to see a larger version.)

We discussed the episode in the book where the young pilot makes his first trip. His day begins with a ride in a bus to the airport. Everyone on the bus is sleepy or asleep, and many of them are on their way to sleepy, bureaucratic jobs.  We talked about what St Exupery might have intended by this episode: does “asleep” have more than one meaning?

The movie I mentioned, starring Keanu Reeves is Point Break (called ハート・ブルー in Japanese). Patrick Swayze plays the charismatic leader of the gang of bank robbers. (See the trailer here).

We discussed the association of light with knowledge.  People who have achieved a profound understanding of human nature and life are said to be “enlightened”. I mentioned Jesus being referred to as the “light of the world”. 

John 1:4 – “In him was life, and the life was the light of mankind. ”

John 9:5 – “As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”

John 12:46 – “I have come as a light into the world, so that everyone who believes in me should not remain in darkness”.

Here is a famous painting, which hangs in the college I attended: William Holman Hunt, The Light of the World, 1851-53. Oil on canvas over panel. 49 3/8 x 23 1/2 in. Keble College, Oxford. Notice that Jesus in the picture is knocking on a door, as if to say,”Are you awake in there, or asleep?” Wikipedia tells us,

"Light of the World", by Holman Hunt.

The Light of the World (1853–54) is an allegorical painting by William Holman Hunt representing the figure of Jesus preparing to knock on an overgrown and long-unopened door, illustrating Revelation 3:20: “Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me”. … The door in the painting has no handle, and can therefore be opened only from the inside, representing “the obstinately shut mind”. Hunt, 50 years after painting it, felt he had to explain the symbolism. The original, painted at night in a makeshift hut at Worcester Park Farm in Surrey, is now in a side room off the large chapel at Keble College, Oxford.  Toward the end of his life, Hunt painted a life-size version, which was hung in St Paul’s Cathedral, London, after a world tour where the picture drew large crowds.This painting inspired much popular devotion in the late Victorian period and inspired several musical works, including Arthur Sullivan’s 1873 oratorio The Light of the World.

We also discussed “satori” and I learned that the Chinese character for this word is made up of two parts: heart and to know. I found that very interesting. Wikipedia tells me,

 Satori is sometimes loosely used interchangeably with kensho, but kensho refers to the first perception of the Buddha-Nature or True-Nature, sometimes referred to as “awakening.” Distinct from kensho, which is not a permanent realization but a clear glimpse of the true nature of existence, satori is used to refer to a “deep” or lasting realization of the nature of existence.

Guru is composed of the syllables gu and ru, the former signifying ‘darkness’, and the latter signifying ‘the destroyer of that [darkness]‘, hence a guru is one characterized as someone who dispels spiritual ignorance (darkness), with spiritual illumination (light).

“Lead me from the asat to the sat (in the McLaughlin song, the words were “from the unreal to the real”)
Lead me from darkness to light
Lead me from death to immortality
Om Peace Peace Peace.” ( Brhadaranyaka Upanishad — I.iii.28)

I leave you with a video of John McLaughlin and his acoustic band “Shakti” playing “La Danse Du Bonheur”, where he mixes traditional Indian music with modern Jazz. Here (sorry, WordPress won’t let me embed the video for some reason).

The February meeting will take place Wednesday February 23rd, at the usual time. I look forward to seeing you there.

The February session will be held on Wednesday February 23rd, at the usual time and place.

Here, I will post some answers to questions that were asked in the January session. I will also post links to matters that were discussed in the January session.

Later, I will post some suggestions for chapters or sections of “Wind, Sand and Stars” to read. We don’t have time to read the whole book, page by page.

You can help me choose chapters or sections. Tell me which chapter or section you enjoyed reading (in English or in Japanese).

Also, as you are reading, ask your questions in the comments. I will answer in the comments or at the next (February) session.

I look forward to hearing from you.

wind sand and stars by ed ed, on Flickr

Now we are reading “Wind, Sand and Stars” by Antoine de St Exupery. I imagine we will take about 3 months over this book.

Next, we will read a book by Bernard Malamud (I’m thinking of a short story called The Natural).

What shall we read after that?

Here are some suggestions.  I don’t expect everyone in our group will be interested in all of these. Some ideas are (much) more demanding than others. Some of them are definitely “study” rather than “reading for pleasure”. I may decide to create new groups meeting on different days, for example I am thinking of creating a Study Group for reading about Free-market Economics. Some teachers of economics and teachers of Business English have already expressed interest in such a Study Group.

1. Choose a theme for the year, and read several books on that theme during the course of the year.
   1. E.g. “children’s stories”
   2. or “children’s stories that have not yet been translated into Japanese”
      1. We could then also work on creating our own translation and, who knows? Maybe even publishing it!
   3. Basics of economics – reading 2 or 3 basic economics books for English-speaking highschool students.
      1. Some of these books have not yet been translated into Japanese.
   4. A 10-session course on “teaching children how to resist”. This course was designed by an American historian and economist (a retired professor). Here is his introduction to his course:
      1. Teenagers need guidance. They need role models. They need adult supervision from people who say, “Do as I say, just as I do.”
      2. Here is a home school course on civics, or economics, or history. Or maybe a summer school course in between the junior and senior year.
      3. Do not send a student to college without this.
   5. A 100-month course on how to be cultural literate in Western literature!
      1. Part 1 (books 1-50), and
      2. part 2 (books 51-100).
   6. A “Great (Western) Books” course – a slightly less ambitious version of #5.
      1. This course would start with easier books and move on to harder ones.
      2. Participants could drop out (or drop in) at any stage.
      3. The course would involve discussing the books as well as reading them.
      4. Homework would include writing your own discussion questions. 
      5. This is definitely a course of study, not a “relaxed reading” course.
   7. An 18-20-session course on logic and analysis, using actual English-language newspaper articles from the Japan Times, Asahi Evening News, and other Japan-based news media. This is a course in thinking, and how to think clearly. As a teacher, I see a great need for such a course in schools and universities, not only in Japan. Such a course should be taught in Japanese, but I do not know anyone teaching such a course. I cannot teach such a course in Japanese, but I can do it in English. Perhaps someone who takes my course in English can then create a similar course in Japanese. That would be a great challenge!
   8. Liberty and the system of individual enterprise. Here is a list of 125 books. We don’t have to read all of them.
   9. One annual theme could be an author, for example,
      1. Reading 12 books by Rudyard Kipling, or
      2. 12 books by Dickens, or
      3. etc.
   10. Some more “yearly themes”
       1. “spy stories” 
       2. “detective stories”
       3. “women authors”
       4. travel fiction
       5. science fiction
       6. Commonwealth fiction (writing by authors from English-speaking countries OTHER than the U.K. and the U.S.A.)
       7. writing by authors whose native language was not English, e.g.
          1. Joseph Conrad,

Sand Star

Originally uploaded by Ian Plant Nature Photography

The first session of 2011 will be January 26th, at the usual time and place.

We will be reading “Wind, Sand and Stars” by Antoine de St Exupery, in the English translation.

If you are not interested in reading this book, and would like to read something else in our Informal Reading Group, please tell me your request.