Good morning everyone!

Last Thursday on September 22^nd, I received a call from someone. “Hello, are you Kaz? Are you going to come to Mondavi center tomorrow night?”

I was at the hotel Bellagio in Las Vegas at that time. So, I was confused…

And I said “Who are you? What is the Mondavi center?”

He said “I am Don Brown. Can you come to Mondavi center?”

I did not know why I had to go to Mondavi center and also I did not know about him.

So I answered “I am sorry Mr. Brown. I cannot understand what you are saying. Maybe your call is not for me.” Then I cut a line.

On Thursday evening I came back from Las Vegas. Rev. Bob picked me up from Sacramento Airport. Thank you Rev. Bob. He asked me ‘’are you busy tomorrow night?” I said ‘’maybe I am not busy.”

And Rev. Bob asked me “can you go to the Mondavi center tomorrow night?” Then I said “What? Mondavi center?”

Rev. Bob said “Yes, there will be an interfaith event at the Mondavi center. It is an event called “a call for Unity”. You may be interested to go.”

I said “ohoo, I received a call from Mr. Brown. He asked me if I was going to the event or not.” Rev. Bob told me “you will also have an interview. Maybe you have to speak for about 1 minute. So, you should dress nicely” I said “I have an interview?” And I felt nervous…

Last Friday night I took Michiko to the Mondavi center. The event had a reception, before the main event. So, we had a light supper there.

When I reached the Mondavi center, I felt nervous. We went to the reception room and we got paper plates to have food. They served Sushi, Steak sandwiches, Tortillas, Doughnuts and many other things.

Michiko was next to me and she took a pile of food on her paper plate. She ate the food and said “it’s good, good” And she asked me “this is good food. Why don’t you eat?” Then I said “I’m nervous…I cannot eat anything now”

From 8 p.m. we attended the event, a call for unity. It was very interesting to me. They had many Sacramento churches performing; they had choirs, orchestra music, Jazz groups and an acappella singer. It was a religious musical event.

Between the performances, the event host, Don Brown spoke from the stage. A projector showed his face on a huge white screen. And under his face, he had a subtitle. His subtitle said “the very Reverend Don Brown”

I learned that he was the pastor of his church for the past 19 years here in Sacramento. But I did not know about him. He spoke for 5 minutes and he walked down to the audience and down our aisle…

I imagined I would have an interview on the stage at the END of event.

But he walked down to my seat! He passed me the microphone and he said “hello. What is your name?” with his smiling face.

My mind was empty and I was so nervous. I said to myself “Don’t be nervous. Don’t be nervous”.

Finally, I said “I am Kaz Nakata from the Buddhist church of Sacramento. I just came back from my honeymoon. So, I don’t know what can I say…”

For about 1 minute, everyone laughed at my answer. And my interview time was finished…. After the interview I enjoyed the event because I was no longer nervous.

This was my first attendance to an interfaith event. We have an annual all Buddhist Bodhi Day service. But I never had an opportunity to talk with other religious people. So, I said at my interview “Buddhists try to respect and understand all religions. We do not want to fight each other. So, we just try to make harmony with all living things.

Nowadays unfortunately, religions group sometimes make war…for their pride…for their sense of justice…for their honor…

I think such war has no meaning and no real purpose.

In Buddhism, We learn we should care for every living thing…like the Golden Chain.

We are Buddhist… it is not for our pride, justice or honor.

We are Buddhist…because we simply want to enjoy our lives with other every living thing… If we live respecting all life, Life is good.

Gassho