For A Flicker Of A Moment I

We All Know That A Winter Scene, Though It May Be Covered Over One Day, With Even The Trees Dressed In Shawls Of Snow, Will Be Unrecognizable The Following Spring. Yet I Never Imagined Such A Thing Could Occur Within Our Very Selves.

I Don't Know When We'll See Each Other Again Or What The World Will Be Like When We Do. We May Both Have Seen Many Horrible Things. But I Will Think Of You Every Time I Need To Be Reminded That There Is Beauty And Goodness In The World.

As An American Man Of The 1990s Writing About A Japanese Woman Of The 1930s, I Needed To Cross Three Cultural Divides - Man To Woman, American To Japanese, And Present To Past.

Of Course The Pace Of Change Never Slows, Even When We've Convinced Ourselves It Will.

All At Once I Felt So Vain, Like A Girl Posturing For The Crowds As She Walks Along, Only To Discover The Street Is Empty.