Inner Muses

I started writing this article before the COVID-19 pandemic hit; before the death of George Floyd engulfed the United States in a wild fire of protests; before the peaceful protests, the rioting and the looting across our major cities spurred a fascist response by our president reminiscent of Hilter's brown shirts. So much has happened since I returned from Japan in November of 2019. Still, when I returned, I was hit by profound reverse culture shock as I re-entered the United States. I do my best to describe it here, but I've got to push to get this out before the next crisis distracts. The impact of that culture shock continues to color my view of these unfolding crises and the lessons I hope the country is learning from it. Each time my friends ask me "How is it being back in the US?", I again feel the urge to write this post. The answer is too big. Elevator answer: I'm glad to be back with my family. I am thankful to be with them and have a job I can wo...

I'm going to take a break writing about my new life in Tokyo to share a parenting experience. When Kinori was born, Yuriko and I had to decide many things about how to raise him. One of my contributions to the mix was our stand on guns. I felt that popular American culture desensitized kids to violence and made guns seem glamorous and fun. Kids, particularly boys, shooting for play was just a nightmare to me. So, I just said no to guns. No toy or real guns in my house. No way. Hah! Everything became a gun. Sticks, lego, everything was held to shoot humans, animals, walls, bikes. Bang, bang. But, I held fast, I was not going to buy any toy guns no matter how much he pleaded. Then he reached an age where he started getting his own money.  Our rule was that if it's your money, you can buy what you want with it.  That's what puts the "your" into "your money".  There came the toy guns. What's more, he got into paint ball, so his guns could actua...