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May 25, 2006
Remembering the Days of Youth
Last Thursday (5/18), I got together with some friends from my college days and we had a really great time. Our Alma Mater is Hitotsubashi University in Tōkyō. The school had an English Club in its International Studies Department at that time and all of us were members during our time spent there. Club members had tradionally thrown heart-and-soul into the production of an English drama presentation. Even years later, this performance is always one of those unforgettable college memories.
At the time I was there, our International Studies Department advisor was an American fellow named Claude Holman who worked at the U.S. military base in Tachikawa. He really liked the students at Hitotsubashi so he volunteered to help us correct our English pronunciation and speech manuscripts, and he also showed up to help oversee our drama practices. I myself stayed at the Holman home in Tachikawa several times. The American-style meals I had there were so appealing to a poor and always-hungry college boy like me. Anyway, Mr. Holman spent 30-some-odd years helping college students before returning to the States to care for his aging father. I found out that he'd been living in a small Kentucky town called Dawson Springs. He recently came back to Japan for a visit and six of us got together with him to talk about "old times."
We all went out to the Nishi Azabu area of Tōkyō and gathered at the home of Dr. Iwao Nakatani, the current president of Tama University. I was the youngest one there, the others beings two or three years my senior. One of them currently holds an ambassadorship, another is a professor at Kyōto University, a third is a branch manager of a linguistics education institute and the fourth is an executive at the Shizuoka Gas Company. Apart from the rather generous bulge around his middle, Mr. Holman was just like we remembered him. Our conversation quickly went back 40 years or so. It was an incredible experience that was part class renunion and part cross-industry idea exchange. I asked Mr. Holman how he came by the great "volunteer spirit" that he'd always exhibited. "Dawson Springs," he replied, "is a small town with a population of about 3,000. The whole town is filled with the volunteer mindset. I grew up in that atmosphere."
All of us found ourselves saying things like, "Time really flies!" or "Life is so short." That, of course, is all so true. One of us also said, "When you're young, you understand with your head that life is short, but it doesn't really sink in. If you can meet a mentor that will make you think about things at that point in your life, it's such an advantage."
The fact that, as a college student, I was able to meet fine leaders, upper classmen and friends like these has been a tremendous blessing in my life. But even more than that, my greatest blessing has been that I was able to meet my Creator while I was young. My present worldview and the foundations for living that I now have were all formed at that time. I couldn't help but recall the wise words of Solomon in the Old Testament:
Remember your Creator in the days of your youth, before the days of trouble come and the years approach when you will say, "I find no pleasure in them." (Ecclesiastes 12:1)As we parted, each of us spoke a personal word of gratitude to Mr. Holman. I said to him, "You've sown many good seeds during your life. I can see now that as time has gone by, an abundant harvest has been the result. I'm so thankful for your generous heart." He replied, "It's been my great joy!"
As I boarded the last bullet train back to Mishima, I couldn't help but think about what a refreshing evening it had been. I'm so blessed! May your weekend be a blessed one for you and yours, as well. Shalom in Y'shua's precious name.
Kenichi Nakagawa
Posted by HarvestTV at 10:07 PM | Comments (0)