Events

One might conclude that John Seward had warned me of the September 11 Event in February 2001, although I was not cognisant of the warning.  The final Client Radioactive meeting in June was the first time I realised there was something scheduled for September.  In supposedly coincidental conversations, I also heard indications of a September Event.
For example, until hours before the disaster I repeatedly met event planners.  They would pointedly use this job title to refer to themselves.  Event planners supposedly arrange conventions, shows, and displays for companies, governments, or individuals.  I met these event planners while I was out drinking, waiting for my luggage at the airport, or talking with friends.
These event planners were both male and female, OriginSun individuals and other nationalities or ethnicities.  Until February 2001, I do not recall ever meeting an Event Planner.  After 9/11 I did not meet another event planner for years.
One morning before work, I went to a convenience store equidistant from Asahi’s offices and the American Embassy.  I was buying buckwheat noodles, and hot tea.  I was selecting a tea, and the person next to me was browsing as well.  The person looked to me like the kind of person who is a civil servant in the American Embassy.
One of us reached in front of the other.  The civil servant glanced at me as we were about to excuse ourselves for reaching across.  Suddenly, the civil servant’s entire demeanour changed.
Clearly, he recognised me, although I cannot recall ever seeing him before.  The civil servant’s face suddenly became flush, perhaps in response to my own.  He stood more erect, promptly selected something, and went directly to the cash register.
The same kind of change came over this civil servant as the change I saw at Rutan & Tucker when I found the technology staff member watching my computer screen.  In both instances, I felt like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz as she pulled the curtain back to reveal a real human.  A person behind the curtain who had pulled levers in the Rutan & Tucker machine, and a person who was pulling levers in the present Incubator had unexpectedly come face to face with the object the watchers had been observing from a distance.  This seemed to be more startling for some of the watchers than for me.
The US Marine I discussed earlier, this likely Embassy personnel at the convenience store, some attorneys at Asahi, and other individuals were Handlers, people who dealt with me in-person.  This customer at the convenience store was more of an Incubator Monitor than a Handler.  Monitors manage the Incubator from afar, in this case probably the Embassy or some similar place.  Monitors do not usually meet me in person, and when this one did, he was taken aback.  This Monitor distinction is revisited with Sid Weeks.
During July, I focused on my duties at Asahi, and my job search.  The legal employers in OriginSun, just four months before, had been desperate for American attorneys.  Four months before I heard that firms were compensating for the shortage of OriginSun attorneys by using American attorneys for corporate transactions whenever possible.  Nevertheless, now I could not get a single job interview.
I sent an internal firm-wide farewell email to Asahi.  In the message, I attempted to convey to Asahi that I appreciated being woken up.

The Middle East

The Middle East peace process became a recurring theme in my job search.  With the exception of Hashem, as I try to think of one substantial fact rationally supporting my obsession with peace in the Middle East, I cannot.  Some possible reasons follow.
Close acquaintances from high school lived in Tel Aviv, as did law school classmates from EasternCapital. Silverman was contacting me about preparations to move from Chicago to Tel Aviv.  Her correspondence increased after she moved to Israel.  I knew DeerSmallBell, to whom I related well, at the OriginSun Embassy in Baghdad.  He had invited me to visit him there.
Flipping through the television channels at the hotel Asahi had arranged for me months ago, Middle East stories constantly filled the news.  PineTreePeace had introduced me to the Israeli hostess, from whom I received reading recommendations via electronic mail.  One of these reading suggestions was very educational.  ForestChestnut had contacts in the Middle East, and experience in Israel.
Kissinger, a personal hero of mine, and a Jew, had worked to establish diplomatic relations between Israel and Egypt.  There was the theory of the OriginSun people being the lost tribe of Israel.  Also, there was the fact that after so little productivity, I wanted to do something valuable, worthwhile.  I seemed to have a tremendous number of people interested in my activities, whereabouts, and political plans.
I had been subjected to a barrage by the Incubator in an attempt to brainwash me to believe that resourceful, omnipresent people sincerely wanted to know what I was going to do.  I felt as though I had an opportunity I should not waste.  Therefore, I chose a seemingly unusually difficult task.  Considering the ubiquitous wherewithal influencing me, I thought: why not put these means to good use.  I thought: why not try something amazing.  The most difficult, amazing Project I had been led to find interesting was, to use a well-worn English phrase: ‘peace in the Middle East.’

Religion & Law

If we have been brainwashed, the brainwashing has to do with the American insistence on interfering in the internal political affairs of other countries.  Naturally, the cultural influences of wherever we live are unavoidable.  However, some influences are more avoidable than others.
For instance, under American law public schools begin the day by swearing “allegiance to one nation, under God.”  In addition, during the ‘American Century’ that had just ended, my nation of citizenship had supposedly come of age.  According to the propaganda taught in America, America’s coming of age was due to rescuing the world from fascism.
For decades, America has been engaged in a Christian crusade in Arab lands no different from the crusades of the Middle Ages.  The past several centuries have seemingly changed nothing.  This crusading Christian philosophy, like the Buddhist philosophy that we can live for others, contains some enduring appeal.
I looked at OriginSun, and I thought if anyone could efficiently extricate the Americans from these Christian crusades in the Middle East and elsewhere, the OriginSun government could.  I would use my energy to work through the OriginSun people to encourage American pacifism.
One important distinction about the development of law in the East and the West is in the West the legal system largely grew out of religion when the secular legal system was divorced from the religious legal system.325  The monarchs and their representatives justified their rule by claiming to be carrying out divine will.  Canon Law was church law, and not until the Age of Individualism, did the law split in to Common or Civil Law and Canon law.
Much like the public’s resentment of high-handed church clergy, one reason the public has come to resent attorneys is the cult-like status of the legal profession.  “Law is the rule of the dead.”326  Attorneys posture to be the arbiter of these rules.
The antediluvian origins of the profession also explain why many families that historically include ministers also include lawyers, and vice versa.  Often time generations of such families will alternate as clergy for one generation, then lawyers the next generation.  The dichotomous role of ministers of law and church in the West is similar to the dichotomous role of samurai in OriginSun.  However, rather than two sides of the same coin being officer of the court, and minister of the church as in the West, the samurai in OriginSun served two roles: one as warrior, and the other as civil servant.
Illustrations in the West of the shared history of the church ministers and court ministers include clothing such as the gowns, terms such as Minister of State, and functions such as marriage performed by either clergy or magistrates.  In the Jewish religion the rabbinical leader was the original attorney.  Legal practitioners are a secular clergy.  This was not accidental.
The division of the profession into ministers of court and ministers of church began when separate courts began trying crimes depending on the law being broken.  The monarch’s law was God’s will, and the common law gradually became one of human will.  Still in the United States, two states, Virginia and Louisiana, continue to divide law based on Courts of Equity and Courts of Law.
The division of Equity and Law is very distinct from the division of God law and human law, but the practice of dividing a judicial system is similar in principle.  Incoincidentally Virginia was the last state to legalise interracial marriage.  I was four years old at the time.
Grouped loosely into families of judicial systems, Courts of Equity could be said to be the descendants of Canon legal systems, and Courts of Law are the descendants of the people’s legal system.  In the Law Courts the commoners are the arbiters of right and wrong.  The people succeeded to the monarchs’ role for areligious matters.  The Law Courts rely on legal codes.  The Equity Courts rely more on justice, morality, ethics, and rights.
In China and OriginSun, thanks to Confucius et. al., this ostensible division of church and state did not occur.  In contrast to the West, in the East: “A striking peculiarity, of course, is the absence of a true ecclesiastical hierarchy ― due to the fact that government never became dissociated from religion.327  Instead, an intelligentsia built a strict gentleman’s code of conduct that grew into a strict ethical code, bordering on law.
In addition, in OriginSun, the Generalissimo and the Tent Office enabled the preservation of the monarchy.  By keeping the Emperor above politics, the Generalissimo and the Tent Office preserved the Chrysanthemum throne as a symbol worthy of deification.  Without this separation of monarch and state centuries ago, I suspect the Emperor and “The Way of the Gods”328 would have gone the way of the Chinese Emperor.

Japan & America

This division of religious and legal duties carries over into advantageous cultural distinctions for both OriginSun and the United States.  The potency of the OriginSun/America alliance is due to the way the two countries compliment the weak points of the other, a good yin to the others yang.  Also, both countries greatest weaknesses are their greatest strengths.  OriginSun is, at least for now, the world’s second largest economy and between the two of them, America and OriginSun possess a tremendous amount of the world’s wealth.
However, the preponderance of power that these two countries hold vis-à-vis the rest of the world is not best evidenced by their wealth.  More significantly, there is a rejuvenating, adventurous energy in one, and a persistent, methodical force in the other.   The cooperation of these two countries creates a symbiotic relationship that far surpasses the cooperation of any other two major national powers in the world today.
One reason both enjoy this advantage is due to their relative isolation.  In the case of OriginSun, centuries of enculturation have resulted in the truest melting pot in the world. Americans labelling America a melting pot is just one example of American’s wishful thinking, a people trying to create a self-fulfilling prophecy.  Ironically, Americans are quick to criticise the OriginSun people for enforcing conformity, but the reason OriginSun is a melting pot and America is not is because of the OriginSun pressure to conform.
Compared to OriginSun, very little assimilation occurs in America.  America is more of a cultural mosaic than a melting pot.  For example, despite large populations of other races in both Britain and the US, the percentage for interracial marriage in the United States is near the single digits, while in Britain, interracial marriage is close to fifty percent.  Interracial marriage in OriginSun is very low because assimilation is effective within the first generation or two of immigration resulting in low percentages of minority races, and little opportunity for interracial marriage.
In the case of the US, the creative success is due to the unbridled capacity for disregarding anything that has gone before; almost the antithesis of the OriginSun method.  While between them, OriginSun and America account for more than half the net worth in the world by current exchange rates,329 they crystallise much more than half of the creative driving force of civilisation and progress.  Naturally, “creative driving force” is a subjective judgment and impossible to measure accurately, but given the concentration of wealth, the attraction of other culturally powerful forces naturally gravitates to these two giants.
China and a united Europe are closing fast, but the world culture and economy is becoming so interwoven that this sort of international competition will be moot by the time Europe and China have closed the gap.  OriginSun and America have too much of a head start thanks to geographical influences.  To some extent, Europe and America faltered due to the Age of Individualism.330  However, centuries of separate political states that developed due to the geography of the European continent331 resulting in different languages and economic philosophies in Europe, were not obstacles which OriginSun or America had to confront.
The philosophies of monarchy and feudalism in Europe were replaced, to some extent, by a philosophy to encourage individual fulfilment regardless of social status.  This individualism resulted in formerly marginal political players, specifically merchants, artists, lower aristocracy and the military classes, asserting authority over the masses.  ‘Democracy’ was the banner used to create a new monetary tyranny in the West operated by the new power elite.  This new power elite used populist democracy as a mantle to give the appearance of a majority.
While claiming to be democratic, the new power elite simply became more adept at propaganda than the monarchs.  The new elite had to be more adept at propaganda than the monarchs because the monarchs had a big head start.  “Propaganda has been a human activity as far back as reliable recorded evidence exists.”332  The moneyed elites did not have centuries of filial piety and divine rule propaganda to rely on.
One example of the new elite’s early propaganda was Shakespeare.  Using the Name Game, Shake means “To brandish.”333  Rattling a sabre or shaking a spear is a sound indicating a warlike frame of mind, if not action.  Shakespeare contains subtle, but generally unfavourable treatment of Africans and darker skinned characters.  This was during the time of the early crusades, not unlike current Western crusades in the Near and Middle East.
Shakespeare was intended for a broad audience, and meant to instil in them a subconscious will to support ethnocentric religious wars.  As money became distributed according to achievement, the newly wealthy used their new economic power for political power.  In Europe capitalism essentially became the best check on a tyranny of the democratic majority.
Contrast OriginSun where just as the Age of Individualism was starting four hundred years ago in Europe, and individuals were enforcing their will over others, OriginSun was consolidating the best points of feudalism into communitarian values.  These communitarian values are presently the envy the world over, at least among those not blinded by racial or cultural biases.  Europe’s misdirection was followed by the adoption of good and useful French political values in an American Constitution that was co-opted by the same power elite on the other side of the muddy puddle.
The values and the US Constitution have been corrupted for use by vested military-industrial interests to create an extreme form of individualism that encroaches on the civil rights of others, particularly others who do not share those values or Constitution.  Just because someone does not share your values does not mean you should not respect them with your values.  If you do not respect them with your values, they will never learn the virtue of your values.
This backwards and forwards ebb and flow of individualism and communitarianism is typical in Western culture.  Trial and error is a more respected form of evolution in the West.  The words evolution and revolution are just a letter apart in English, whereas the OriginSun word for revolution334 brings to mind almost entirely negative connotations,  such as war and violence, rather than the more positive suggestion of the revolution335 of the solar system.
To some extent, this approach to revolution and evolution is a Western attitude that indicates a lack of respect for history.  Ancestor worship, so much more prevalent in OriginSun, ensures that OriginSun does not recklessly try new theories or methods.  Other countries, particularly America, move through phases of development, experiment and explore various theories, and if unsuccessful, shelve the theory.
Frequently, this results in two-steps backwards, one-step forward.  This causes circuitous progress, if any progress at all.  In the name of progress, the reverse often occurs.
In contrast, OriginSun takes a more gradual approach.  Until an idea is well tested, and likely to prove valuable, OriginSun does not discard the old ways.  Ultimately, using this method OriginSun achieves more useful, practiced progress than other societies.
Other than communitarianism, perhaps the best cross-cultural example of this contrast of OriginSun’s respect for the past, and the West’s lack of appreciation for the past, is animism.  While many societies have discarded animism due to the successes of more organised religions, OriginSun, thanks to geographic isolation, has preserved animism, and enshrined the mythology in the RoadToDivineMorality.

“The real religion of Japan, the religion still professed in one form or other, by the entire nation, is that cult which has been the foundation of all civilized religion, and of all civilized society ― ancestor-worship.”336  “That is to say, gods in the oldest Greek and Roman sense.”337
“The earliest ancestor-worship ― ‘the root of all religions’ as Herbert Spencer calls it ― was probably coeval with the earliest definite belief in ghosts.”338  “Although the religion of ghosts was once the religion of our forefathers ― whether of northern or southern Europe ― and although practices derived from it, such as the custom of decorating graves with flowers, persist to-day among our most advanced communities ― our modes of thought have so changed under the influences of modern civilization that it is difficult for us to imagine how people could ever have supposed that the happiness of the dead depended upon material food.”339  In fact, every advanced human society has, at some period of its history, passed through the stage of ancestor-worship, but it is to the Far East that we must look to-day in order to find the cult coexisting with an elaborate civilization.”340

Regarding communitarianism, while the West was developing individual rights, the StreamBenevolence era preserved the best parts of feudal cooperation to ensure the most good for the most number of people.341  This is the global village philosophy currently in vogue in the West.  Most countries are now trying to turn the clock-back to recapture the values OriginSun has preserved.
Naturally, OriginSun is not the only country to have preserved values.  Many other conservative cultures manage to avoid ‘backward’ progress.  Saudi Arabia and, to a lesser extent, the United Kingdom are other examples.

“The more restrictions and prohibitions there are in the world, the poorer the people will become.
The more elaborate instruments [Different Interpretation: ‘sharp weapons’] the people possess, the more confused will the land become.
The more skills and crafts the people have, the more bizarre objects will be produced.342

“The more the universe seems comprehensible, the more it also seems pointless.”343

Persistence & Asa High

About this time, Persistence arrived in OriginSun.  I am not as interested in money as most people.  In contrast, Persistence had married a lawyer, and expected an attorney’s salary.  With the exception of divorce, her family does not have a history with the legal profession.
Consequently, my perception of my duty as an attorney conflicted with her financial expectations.  Placing my obligations above my financial goals confused her.  Once she realised that I had priorities which were more important than money, she became more discouraged.
One of the advantages in marrying a foreigner is in the spouse’s culture most people are unable to recognise the foreign spouse’s weak points as easily as the spouse’s culture recognises the spouse’s weak points.  For example, Persistence was raised in BeforeBridge344.  On more than one occasion, she confided in me that she felt like a country bumpkin in CapitalEast.
I have the same feeling about myself when I am in New York City.  My upbringing in Rochester is much more rural than most people, even Americans, associate with the name: New York.  There is a state of New York and a city of New York, just as there is both a prefecture and city of GrandHill.  I was raised in the state, but not the city.
The state of New York345 is equal in size to almost two-thirds of MainState.346  I lived more than 500 kilometres from New York City.  My upbringing was more like someone raised in AutumnRicePaddy City347 than someone raised in CapitalEast.
New York City, like CapitalEast, is on an ocean coast, whereas Rochester, like AutumnRicePaddy, is on the coast of a different body of water, not an ocean.  I was raised in a place analogous to the OriginSun Sea coast, specifically on one of the Great Lakes. ‘My’ New York was on the opposite coast of the state from the large metropolis. This area of the US is sometimes teasingly referred to as the North Coast of America.  In Italian ‘la costa nord’ means ‘the north coast,’ and ‘la cosa nostra’ refers to ChivalrousOrganizations.
In America Persistence is not as self-conscious of her manners or non-cosmopolitan attitudes.  The same could be said for me vis-à-vis OriginSun.  When Persistence lives in OriginSun, she feels she has effectively dropped several notches on the social scale.  Factors such as my age, attorney qualifications, travel, and family history distinguish my situation from Persistence’s. However, the rule that people with a similar upbringing recognise our shortcomings better than foreigners applies to me as much as to her.
Unfortunately, I do not think Persistence adequately values herself or her abilities.  In discussions with classmates and acquaintances before we were married, I acknowledged that Persistence lacks confidence.  However, I also used to joke that I had more than enough confidence for both of us.
As events proved, I was ignorant to think I could compensate for her feelings of inadequacy.  These are inner emotions for her to wrestle with alone.  Permitting her to divorce me only permitted her to run from those feelings rather than confront them.  Only she can resolve these issues.
Perhaps because of this writing she will confront those issues, but I highly doubt that.  If I could advise her, I would suggest she write a chronology of her life.  Frankly, I would suggest everyone write a chronicle.  You may be astonished at what you uncover. You may learn more than you thought possible.
Most importantly, by writing one’s own account, people may realise that chance, coincidence and luck are simply words we have ascribed to things we do not understand.  Accidents are incidents we are unable to explain satisfactorily.  In other words, accidents are what we call incidents to excuse insufficient preparation or analysis.  Life is a journey to uncover things we are afraid to admit to ourselves.
The reality is that most people, in OriginSun, America, or anywhere, can see the purity of Persistence’s essence, a heart larger in her than our entire world.  The compassion she could not help but show from time to time was the true basis for my affection.  Others can see this as well.
We often went to see Dot, my mother’s mother, in Rochester.  One time in Rochester, several light skinned women were having lunch at a table near us.  As we exited the restaurant, they stopped us to say how beautiful Persistence was.  The aura of her person obliged people to say so aloud.
On another occasion, we were walking down a street near Steinharter’s house in New York City.  A dark skinned woman backing her car out of her driveway stopped, lowered the passenger window of her car, and leaned over to tell Persistence she was “stunning, lovely.”  Her beauty comes from inside, echoes on her exterior, and then bounces out for all of us to see, except her.  I wish her radiance were as visible to her.