Good Morning everyone.
The Kings season is coming! Last year, very fortunately, I was able to go to Arco Arena over 10 times to see the Kings play. This year Michiko and I went to a pre-season game. Thanks to our friend, Hiroko Takamoto. We saw the new golden Kings uniform. I think this year, the Kings are showing good teamwork. So, I hope… they will do well and bring us the championship.
Tomorrow is Halloween. Did you prepare your costume yet? Last year I made a Homer Simpson’s costume for Halloween. It was not scary… 2 years ago I wore a Dracula’s costume. But some children were so scared by my Dracula that they cried. So, last year I wore a funny costume.
This year I made a Sponge Bob costume. Do you want to see it? Tomorrow night, if you go to Rev. Bob’s home, you can see it.
I have often said before, “please try something new” and also I have encouraged, “please take responsibility for your actions”. But some people are unable to take care of themselves.
Last Tuesday, I received a call from a member. First she said “my son is in the hospital. Before he was very sick, but now he is doing ok.” She spoke Japanese and English. So, I could not get much information about her son.
I said “I will go to visit him. Could you tell me what food he likes?” And she answered “he likes Japanese Senbei. He likes Rice crackers.”
The next day, on Wednesday, I visited with him at the hospital. I brought Japanese Rice Crackers Senbei for him. When I entered his room, only he was there in the bed. I said to him “hello, my name is Kaz Nakata. I came from the Sacramento Betsuin. How are you?”
He replied “I’m fine…I know the Betsuin… I know Rinban Masunaga…” And I said “I don’t know about Rinban Masunaga. Because I came from
And I gave it to him and I said “when you have time, please eat it.”
“BariBari” He opened the bag of rice crackers and he started to bite them!
…“Stop it!” I screamed. Because I did not know if he could eat them or not. Most of you know, after some kinds of surgery, a patient should not eat anything. So, I asked him “are you ok to eat anything?”
He said “yes…it is no problem” and finally he ate one rice cracker.
He said “no problem”… But I was so scared. Because I did not have enough information about his illness.
Finally a nurse came to his room. So, I asked the nurse “I heard that he had surgery. Does the doctor allow him to eat?” The nurse replied “yes. It is no problem for him to eat.” Then my tension disappeared and I gave a long sigh of relief.
This visitation went ok. Later his mother called to thank me. But if something bad happened because of my Rice Crackers, it might be my fault…and she would not be thanking me…
Maybe some people would say “the patient said it is no problem to eat. So, if he has complications, it is his responsibility.”
And maybe some other people would say “even if the patient said no problem, we should not feed them anything before we get enough information about their condition.”
It is also most important to pay attention before we do something. It is easy to say that people have to be responsible for their own actions.
But in some cases, we cannot take such responsibility. Because we may not know what we are doing…like when we get sick…
Of course, we must try to be responsible for our decisions and our actions. But we cannot always expect responsible behavior from very small children or people who are not well… Sometimes we have to protect people from themselves. I was given a very important lesson from this visitation.
Gassho