A piece of mirror...
Recently, I've been reading this
VERY GOOD book by
Daisaku Ikeda Sensei.
Its called "
A Piece of Mirror and Other Essays".
It really made me see many things in a different way.
How culture, people's mind etc can do wonders to this world.
I've decided to share bits of the stories I read inside this "Little Book of Wonder".
Today, I'll share about the Essay - "
A Piece Of Mirror"
(Abstracted)
"My parents were married in 1915, and my mother as part of her trousseau brought along a mirror stand fitted with a very nice mirror. Twenty years or so later, however, the mirror somehow or other got broken. My eldest brother, Kiichi, happened to be home at the time, and I sorted over the fragments and picked out two of the larger ones to set aside as keepsakes.
Then the air raids on Tokyo began and soon they were a daily occurence. I could hardly bear to look at my mother's face. As though it might somehow help to protect her life, I kept the piece of mirror always with me, sticking it carefully inside my shirt as I dodged my way through the incendiary bombs that fell all around us.
I will never forget the
disgust and
anger with which Kiichi, on leave from China, described the
inhuman atrocities he had seen committed there by the Japanese army. Japan was wrong, he said, and he felt deeply for Chinese people. I developed a profound hatred for war, its
cruelty,
stupidity and
waste.
Eventually, when the war ended, we recieved notification that my eldest brother had been killed in the fighting in Burma. I thought at once of the piece of mirror I knew he must have carried in the breast pocket of his uniform. I could imagine him, during a lull in the fighting, taking it out and looking at his unshaven face in it, thinking longingly of his mother at home. I know how he must have felt, because I have a piece of the mirror too, and when I look at it, it brings back memories of my brother."
THIS, is the
cruelty of war.
Blinded by
Power and
Greed, many innocent people died and many more left with a wound that will
Never Heal.
So, We, Us, People of the
21st Century...
Must Never allow such Tragedy to happen Again.
NEVER!The next time round I'll share with you the other Essay - "
Mother and Child"
THE MOST IMPORTANT PERSON IN THE WORLD!!!
Just another busy day...
Big Day.
Feeling Warmth.