A Christmas Story about a Letter from Canada
It is a letter to editorial this morning on the Mainichi Shimbun newspaper that I think to be very appropriate for this season.
A Japanese female college student learning in Canada wrote a letter to her friend in Japan. But, before sticking a stamp on it, she lost the letter somewhere, probably, in a campus.
She said, perhaps by international phone, to the friend that the letter should be most likely lying under a bench or somewhere with dust on. But she also added, maybe without or with expectation, that somebody might pick it up, stick a stamp on it, and drop it into a mailbox.
It actually so happened. The letter was marvelously picked up, carefully checked about its destination address, stuck an appropriate stamp on, dropped timely into a mailbox nearby or distant, and swiftly delivered to her friend in Japan.
And, most importantly, her friend who received the letter which had once been lost but discovered and dropped into a mailbox by an unknown person ventured to write a letter to editorial of the Mainichi Shimbun newspaper in Japan with spirit of thankfulness.
Of course, every reader knows that the very kind, unknown person in Canada should have little chance to read the words of gratitude on this Japanese newspaper.
This sort of kindness seems to be nowadays getting hard to find in urban areas in Japan. In the U.S., people might still be haunted by the anthrax incident.
Nonetheless, this story is very appropriate for the Christmas season. Something that was once lost has been found, making people very remote happier and thankful.
“DO NOT CONSIDER ANYTHING UNCLEAN THAT GOD HAS DECLARED CLEAN”