Sometimes," He Sighed, "i Think The Things

Now I Know That Our World Is No More Permanent Than A Wave Rising On The Ocean. Whatever Our Struggles And Triumphs, However We May Suffer Them, All Too Soon They Bleed Into A Wash, Just Like Watery Ink On Paper.

An En Is A Karmic Bond Lasting A Lifetime. Nowadays Many People Seem To Believe Their Lives Are Entirely A Matter Of Choice; But In My Day We Viewed Ourselves As Pieces Of Clay That Forever Show The Fingerprints Of Everyone Who Has Touched Them.

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.

What An Unbearable Sorrow It Would Be, To Realized I'd Never Really Tasted To Things I'd Eaten, Or Seen The Places I'd Been. What Life Would I Have? I Would Be Like The Dancer Who Had Practiced Since Childhood For A Performance She Would Never Give.

I Studied Japanese Language And Culture In College And Graduate School, And Afterward Went To Work In Tokyo, Where I Met A Young Man Whose Father Was A Famous Businessman And Whose Mother Was A Geisha. He And I Never Discussed His Parentage, Which Was An Open Secret, But It Fascinated Me.