In the Fik of it

A young girl was going to commit suicide today.   I don’t even know her name, barely know where she lives – in fact, Google probably knows more about her than I do.   One thing Google doesn’t know though, it’s that she’s thinking suicide is the answer. I read the urgent note from the pastor; he was asking for prayer on her behalf, and before I even got to the end of the note, I was asking him for an address.   After I asked that critical question I began to pray.   In reflection, my prayers were more focused on NOT getting an address, as I’m neither qualified nor bilingual enough to carry on this level of intervention.   One thing I can do in any language though is to sit and pray with someone.   I was on the verge of leaving work to go sit with a stranger and offer what?   At best, some hope - what sort of fool does this?   Who is willing to risk a good paying job and career with ample responsibility for the sake of a stranger's bad day? ...

This past week I feel like I've been living the storyline from the movie "Lost in Translation" .   While I had assumed the movie to be a fictional encounter of an American abroad in Japan,  I'm now not so sure it was fiction. Many times I found myself laughing - they'd bow, then I'd bow in return only to have them re-bow again so of course, I'd bow back.  This courtship dance seemed to go on for an awkwardly long time  before I'd finally say "enough" and break the sacred cycle. After that little courtship dance we'd settle down to dinner. You know those awkward moments when you sit with strangers and then begin a conversation neutral enough not to offend anyone, yet focused enough that you don't end up " bornering " yourself in a dead conversation with no way out?   Try striking up a conversation when the only thing you can do is mime...  I typically do well in ambiguous situations but for me, with no language skills -...