Father's 107th heavenly birthday

It was my father's 107th heavenly birth day yesterday. As already reiterated it in this blog, he was born in 1919, the year of end of the WWI. Losing his parents early in his life, he has strived through the WWII era. Getting married to mother immediately after WWII, which had imposed him military duty and forced him to waste his precious time of youth, he finally built own family even in extreme poverty. 

Recently, I have discussed with my brother, a psychiatrist, how we were raised by parents. We were really poor but, strangely enough, not conscious of that in young days. Maybe, my parents were living in a kind of ethos that there were something more important than economical wealth in our lives. It might have made us free from the sense of poverty in life. I am not boasting this. They have not left us anything of richness but only that attitude of living. I owe it to them, especially my father.

 This photo has been posted before. The only family photo for possibly the golden wedding anniversary for my parents. Now all of us, their children, are as old as my parents at this time, 80, 77 and 72 resectively. May we go through the rest of our lives as they did.

For the past week or two, I have been working in the garden/farm. Sitting on a tiny chair and pulling the weeds, I often remember of my parents. I am keeping this propery as my parents used to decades ago. It is a small work but surely an honor to spend the last chapter of my life in this way. 

Until we might see again like at this wedding anniversary.   

A big earthquake in Kumamoto

 This afternoon, they have had a big earthquake with magnitude 7.1 in Kumamoto Pref, an area of southwest Japan. It has left extensive damages in the wide area. At a big shopping mall, the 2nd floor has collapsed and dozens of people, mainly the personnel, have been confined in the building. A high way was destroyed. Houses fell apart. No exact number of casualties is not reported yet. It is quite plausible that large number of people have been killed or injured.

I could not seismologically explain what has caused it. There is, however, the Median Tectonic Line, MTL, crossing Kumamoto Pref. MTL is recognized as a geological terminology but a fault, running from the central part to the southwestern part of our country. There have been a number of big earhquakes at various places along it in hundreds of years interval. It is really the largest fault. 

Around this earthquake epicenter, there are 3 nuclear power plants, NPPs, located. Actually, 3 of them are running at present. Ikata NPP is very close to MTL, only 6km away from it, in Ehime Pref. of Shikoku Island. It is an isolated place where they could hardly rescue or support the NPP once a serious accident should occur. In addition to the other 2 NPPs, it should be stopped as soon as possible. Actually, only 10 years ago, they have had a couple of big earthquakes comparable to this one. The faults directly cause earthquakes are not MTL itself but it is highly suspected the area along MTL is "activated" now. At least, in geological time span.  

Needless to say, the people affected by this disaster should be rescued soon. Without life line, it might be very tough for them to get through the situation in this hottest season of a year. 

Selling my private practice

Today, this old clinic is being sold. Since quitting work at this place 14 years ago, I am least concerned about this building. Yes, dreams and hopes were rammed into this house 31 years ago. My father used to dream with me at my own practice. He had helped us at the office for several years until he could not attend there by himself. It might be the last and biggest filial piety to my father. 

Honestly, I was not so much indulged in managing this practice. It was worth, however, working children for some years. I have given my cell phone number to patients and their parents when close observation was necessary or emergency could happen on them. Their phone numbers are still kept in my smartphone. I thought someday they should had needed my advice on phone even after closing my practice. Almost nothing! I am still their doctor while I am only a guy involved with in the past. Most of them might have grown up now. It is the time for me to delete those phone numbers.

The zelkova tree on the western side of the building has prevented from harsh sunray in the sunset. From my room on the 2nd floor, I used to see my father dragging his feet to his car after the lunch time duty as a clerk.
 

The reception room. My father used to be concerned about the books for the children in the book shelf. There used to be famous fairy tales or even books on peace. 

The examination room. It was not digitalized but was equipped with rhinoscope. 

The time as a pedicatrician is now completely over. I should step out now.

To make a sales contract, I would leave for a town nearby with my wife now.

Anonymized children

 Those children killed in Gaza and the West Bank are anomymized. They existed only as a number. UN commission has announced as below.

  https://www.instagram.com/reels/DaFtBswHZ6O/

This reminded me of Ivan telling Alyosha in The Brothers Karamazov that he would say no thanks to God for his savior so far as innocent children are shedding tears.

It is an absolute absurdity.  

A rainy season day

It won't stop raining. Drizzly rain. A typical rainy season day. The rainy season front is being stimulated by a typhoon passing by our area. So it will be a day off for me from working in the garden farm. 

This is the battle field for me to do with weeds. They are so vigorously growing that it is often tough for me to catch up with. Battling only with hands and a small sickle. No herbicide has been used. Without pulling/cutting them, they would grow like jungle in a few days.

Piled up weeds which were pulled/cut. Added rice bran on them, they will become good compost in a few months. Almost free and natural fertilizer.  

Turnip seeds left unused last season were sown on a corner. They were successfully sprouted. Lovely. 

As I have seriously expected poor harvest in our country or even world wide in the near uture, the food self sufficiency rate being only 38% in our country or even down to 10% if considering of the seeds and fertilizers dependent on the other countries, it has been a routine for me to plant sweet potatoes which could be substituted to rice. It is a serious question why the government would do nothing for the possible food crisis. They are concerned about only military expansion but not food security. Sweet potatoes are growing well without any fertilizer etc if the soil is kept dry. 

Tomatoes. It's a fight against bugs which eat them. No pesticides. If the situation is disadvantageous against the bugs, should I protect them wrapping with nets? 

Egg plants. Already harvested a few. Whenever picking them, I remember of a good old friend, Fred, K5FA, who used to plant a lot of them and told me they were ripened in our QSOs. He is already gone away.

Flowers of carrots. Beautiful. I will collect the seeds from them and plant them in fall. 

Another flower, almost wild at our garden. Marie gold. It is beneficial to prevent growth of a kind bacillus.

Rose. It is not my territory but my wifes. I am only cutting the weeds around it and pile them there.

 So many trivial photos. They may show you how I am getting along despite of the neuralgia on legs. The pain is well controlled with a med named Pregabalin. So far, only conservative treatment is good enough for me.

Again, whenever I sit on the weedy garden and pull them, I often ask myself how long I could do this work. The answer is always evident. So far as I could. As told before, I convince myself I am blessed to care for the property which has been cared for by my maternal ancestors. In a long term view, it might return to nature, which we could not worry or care for. 

So I am looking forward to coming back on the gound with a sickle soon.

The piano quartet played at the G7 summit party

Yo Yo Ma et al, renowned players, have played a piano quartet as the news says as below.

~~~

Classic FM

Classical stars perform for world leaders at the G7 summit in Evian, France. 

An international quartet comprising of American cellist Yo-Yo Ma, British violist Timothy Ridout, French violinist Renaud Capuçon, and Italian pianist Beatrice Rana took to the stage last night to perform the finale of Brahms’ Piano Quartet No.1.

They were introduced by French president Emmanuel Macron, to an audience that also included Keir Starmer, Donald Trump, and Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

 Alexandra Lebon
~~~
This piece is a sophisticated chamber music by Brahms composed in his young days. Conflicts in mind while yearning for something. It's hard to believe a young Brahms has composed such a serious work in his youth. 
It begins with the dialogue between cello and viola following the theme presented by piano. It seems to express inner conlicts and to govern the entire 1st movement. The 2nd theme given by cello sounds full of longing characteristic for youth. In my view, both themes won't be resolved and drive and develop the music.
The following movements are also dominated by the same mood. It is amazing young Brahms has put such conflicts and tension into this quartet. The last movement is pictured with bohemian melody, tranquil and sweet. It soon turns to be the vivid cadenza in forte and accelerando.  
It is amazing such a piece was chosen for rendition at the summit party. I suspect "the pretending boss" might have fallen asleep hearing the elegiac melody in bohemian style while startling awake at the end.  
The actual performance at the summit is not available. In stead, here is another excellent perormance;

Tomorrow will worry about itself

When I was young preparing for the entrance exam to a med school, I was attending to a bible class. I got an acquaintance with an elementary school teacher there. We were talking on the way from the class place to the station nearby after the class was over. I Pne time, she confessed to me that she had had a few patients with schizophernia at her family, her mother and a younger brother. Her family seemed to be heavily inherited with that psychiatric illness. Even though I have read a few books on psychiatry those days, like Minkovsky or Jaspers, particularly interested in that field of medicine, I have known little about the reality to be a family member of that illness. It took me years to understand what it had meant. When she told me about that, she never stopped introvertdly keeping smile on her face. In the end of that conversation, she mentioned about the Gospel in Matthew and told me she had been living in the way this sacred words indicated.

Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.

Having lived half a century after that episode, this words still stay in my mind. More and more becoming a relief in the daily life. Even surrounded with serious issues, private or social, this could be a real consolation to me. In that situation, I always recall of the conversation with her on the way to the railway station. If she is doing well, she must be over eighty years of age. How has she lived the past half a century? 

Tomorrow will worry about itself. It is a real relief and tells us, not abondoning the reality, we should live the day as if the last day on earth, I believe.