crudest buddhist

morning cup of coffee and a bowl of miso soup...with rice. or how about waking your first, second-generation man-cub at four in the morning with a toe twist and handing him a splintered shovel? my grandfather was nowhere near your stereotypical nissei, but there were many ways that apple fell close enough to the tree to become part of it's root system. he passed on peacefully in his first daughter's arms on jan 10. i was asked to do part of the eulogy as kind of a "from the grandkids" portion. trying to come up with ideas wasn't as easy as i first thought. he was such a stoic, strong guy...but there were these moments. you knew he was joking, and it was hilarious, but they came out so sporadically that it always took a second or two to register.

he took me on my first fishing excursions to ala moana and the less popular, ala wai canal. i remember catching jellyfish while he would bring in the edible stuff. i remember bringing them home in a bucket for my grandmother to see. although i don't remember ever carrying the bucket. he always brought an extra pole in case some person randomly walking by wanted to try to catch something. once i hit this chinese guy in the face while attatching the lead. don't ask me how.

funny how i was brought up around so much more christian people, went to a christian school, attended a christian church, even have mostly christian best friends, yet my thinking and most of my core lies in buddhism and taoism.

why the heck do burial coordinators at gravesites all look the same??? i mean seriously, no matter what ethnicity, they can't go to work without three quarts of oil to slick back their mane from the seventies.

the coolest part of the "inurnment" was after the playing of "taps", the sargeant presented a perfectly folded flag to my grandmother, thanked her for her husband's tribute and saluted her with such respect you'd think she was a general about to retire. i guess that can be expected from someone who will fight for people he will probably never know. my props to all of them.