(August Dusk of Japan) Two Morning Glories in the Midsummer
The other day a Japanese TV animation program for children presented the following story:
A schoolgirl in the lower grade of an elementary school found one day a morning glory flower (Asagao in Japanese), though it was still in a state of a seedling.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morning_glory
A single seeding of the plant obscurely grew near a wooden wall of a house beside an empty plot without anybody to take care of it.
The girl, named Maruko, was impressed with the noble effort of the morning glory trying to fully grow and blossom while being unnoticed by any residents, though the summer sun rays and heat were apparently about to blight the young plant at the forgotten corner of the small town.
So, Maruko decided to put water on the young plant after joining the radio gymnastics practice held each morning officially as part of education for primary schoolchildren in the district during the summer recess of school.
Her friend, Tomo-chan, also joined Maruko to water the young and helpless plant in the evening, too. They also drove a small bar into the ground near the young seedling, so that it could support its body as it grew.
But, one day, Tomo-chan went out with her family for summer vacation, leaving Maruko alone to pour water on the morning glory now putting out a bud.
As the early-morning collective gymnastics practice was officially ended as scheduled, Maruko started to become less dedicated to visiting the summer plant every morning and even evening alone to attend it; she actually forgot to go and bring a canteen with water inside to the plot one morning and two evenings while the poor morning glory was bathing the strong sun ray.
One day, Tomo-chan called Maruko from a summer resort to ask how the morning glory was growing, which reminded Maruko of her precious volunteer work.
Ashamedlyshe played dumb with the good friend Tomo-chan; Yet, soon after the telephone call, Maruko ran to the vacant lot only to find the forgotten plant was losing strength with a few weakened buds.
Maruko being guilt-ridden started again to fervently water the morning glory in peril of running dry, which however looked so vain.
A few days after Maruko’s repentance, one morning on her way to the empty plot with a few canteens with full of water she was so surprised to encounter Tomo-chan who came back from the summer vacation overnight and could not wait for her scheduled evening service to the beloved plant.
Tomo-chan asked Maruko how the morning glory grew up and blossomed.
Maruko could not tell her friend that it looked still flaccid, though she eventually decided to honestly apologize to Tomo-chan for her selfish default.
But, as they reached the place while talking, the morning glory was standing there around the bar and looking so fresh and strong with its buds coming into flower.
They were all pale blue, though shining so brightly in the morning sunbeams of the summer as the two schoolgirls pouring water without the least regret onto the revived morning glory.
* * *
The other day I bought a book written by a Japanese author who traveled the Middle East in 1960’s. He was virtually following the path St. Paul had preached the gospel along 2,000 years ago, though the Japanese solitary traveler was not a Christian at all then.
One day on his sight-seeing trip to and from Damascus, he took a rest with an Arab driver and guide at a small eating house near a ruined arena theater probably built by the Romans on the Aqaba route.
http://www.saudiaramcoworld.com/issue/200401/guardians.of.the.pilgrim.wells-damascus.to.aqaba.htm
He strolled to the forgotten arena theater half covered by sand to find one morning glory. It looked like a miracle that a dark blue morning glory was blossoming in the ruin surrounded by a desert.
It was amazing, since there was nothing else all around that was so alive.
The single-stem small flower expressing itself so elegantly from a limited gap between dry stones of the ancient building impressed him so vibrantly.
Then he decided to visit Tarsus, since the lonesome but noble morning glory reminded him of St. Paul clearly for a mysterious reason.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarsus_(city)
At Tarsus, he found that the glorious port city was no more on the Mediterranean. A river deposited layers of mud and dirt so widely during past 2,000 years, so that Tarsus was situated 12 or 13 miles inland from the coast line. The biblically notable city was no more than a humble local town with humble Muslim residents in late 1960's.
Tarsus is now part of Turkey. But it was a Greco-Roman city when St. Paul was born there. Even before St. Paul engaged in his holy mission or 70 years before the time of St. Paul, the then prosperous city had flamed with the famous romance between Mark Antony and Cleopatra who had sailed from Egypt staking the fortunes as the queen of Egypt or the mother of a Caesar's son.
Indeed, the dark blue morning glory showing up in the ruin in the middle of the desert reminded the Japanese traveler of St. Paul and then Cleopatra.
He also called the Queen of Sheba to his mind, as his thought on ancient glory of Palestine and the east part of the Mediterranean got deepened.
Truly after his following the trails of St. Paul in 1960's, the Japanese author became a virtual Christian.
http://www.amazon.co.jp/%E7%A5%9E%E3%81%AE%E6%97%85%E4%BA%BA-%E8%81%96%E3%83%91%E3%82%A6%E3%83%AD%E3%81%AE%E9%81%93%E3%82%92%E8%A1%8C%E3%81%8F-PHP%E6%96%87%E5%BA%AB-%E6%A3%AE%E6%9C%AC-%E5%93%B2%E9%83%8E/dp/4569665462
* * *
Yet, what impressed me is not St. Paul, Cleopatra, or the Queen of Sheba the morning glory invoked in the mind of the Japanese traveler.
It was his description about how decent and pleasant Turks he met at Tarsus were.
Though the Japanese author could not speak their language, the manners of the local people to him deeply touched a string in his heart, since a friendly old man looked like asking him whether he was a Japanese or a Christian at a cafe in the town.
Usually, it is very rare for any well educated and disciplined or good-natured Japanese traveler to find or even be surprised to find a foreigner in a foreign country who has better manners than he or she has or any other respectable Japanese have.
Indeed, the way the author praised the manner in observing manners of some residents he met at Tarsus in 1960's is very extraordinary, even in my experiences of reading so much account by Japanese on local people all over the world.
The Japanese author wrote that Tarsus is a town from which we can clearly observe the world, since it is a feature of an ancient Greco city.
(Though very irrelevant:
http://www.barks.jp/listen/?id=52007274
http://www.fukuchan.ac/music/j-folk2/mafuyunokaerimichi.html )
Acts 22:3 I am verily a man which am a Jew, born in Tarsus, a city in Cilicia, yet brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel, and taught according to the perfect manner of the law of the fathers, and was zealous toward God, as ye all are this day.