Yamato: 2002

In November 2001 I found a job advertisement for sorting packages for Yamato Transport in South MountainBlue.  I interviewed with the Assistant Manager: Mr. OneHappy TundraOfFoodWhichHasBeenOfferedToTheGods.  In a follow-up meeting with TundraOfFoodWhichHasBeenOfferedToTheGods, he said his boss was concerned about my visa status.  I held a Specialist in Humanities visa.  Sorting packages does not involve a specialisation in Humanities, or so I was told.
More importantly, Asahi had sponsored my visa, and as long as Asahi was on the immigration bureau’s books as being my sponsor, Asahi had some liability for my actions.  I suspect someone from Asahi had clarified to Yamato that my visa should be changed.  I applied for a Spouse Visa.
On 01 December 2001 I met Toshihiko403 WisteriaThatOne404 for English conversation lessons.  Persistence had suggested I post a flyer to find English students, and Ms. WisteriaThatOne found my number from the flyer.  Ms. WisteriaThatOne worked for a quasi-public corporation created by the OriginSun government.  She works at these corporations for a year or so, and could continue, but generally chooses to move to another corporation to gain experience that is more varied.
WisteriaThatOne offered to introduce me to a venture capitalist.  She wished to meet Persistence, so we arranged to go for coffee.  After leaving the coffee shop, WisteriaThatOne asked me what I wanted to become.  I told her I was interested in politics.

The Last Samurai

Mahl became a Vice President of International Business Affairs for Sony Pictures Entertainment about the time of the incidents I am about to describe.  Also about this time, Beyer became Vice-president of Personnel and later Executive Director of the Legal and Compliance Division of Morgan Stanley.  The Vice-president position might be a reference to the Affiliation Product: double.
About 26 December 2001, I met Mahl for a drink at What the Dickens.  I arrived at the bar first, and sat at a counter next to an open table.  I was hoping a woman or women would sit at the table next to where I sat down.
Mahl arrived with a video of the movie Finding Forrester, and offered to lend it to me.  He has an entire wall of videotapes, laser discs, and DVDs he receives free of charge because he works in the film distribution industry.  This was the only time Mahl ever offered to lend me a video.  I had seen the film multiple times already.  Moreover, I was frequently being subjected to the promotional material for the movie.
The movie is about a famous novelist who publishes one great book, and never publishes again.  The novelist’s character is loosely based on J.D. Salinger, the author of Catcher in the Rye.405  My eldest sibling had told me I resemble the main character of Catcher in the Rye.  Judging from his encouragement, Mahl seemed interested in making my experience into a motion picture.
Mahl confessed that Mahl’s spouse was not very good at cleaning.  I said I have an advantage not working full time.  I am able to do the housework that Persistence does not do.  As a rule, I tried to make sure the house was tidy, no dishes were in the sink, and I was presentable when Persistence came home from work.  I usually spent a few hours everyday or so airing out the futon, laundering, running errands, shopping, vacuuming, and cleaning.
My elder sisters taught me to do housework.  If the first sister was satisfied, the second sister might not be.  Usually, by the third sister, I became proficient.
Naturally, I felt as though there was a lot more I should be doing to satisfy Persistence’s expectations, but I tried to be a good homemaker.  I did not think this was sufficient because I always expect more of myself, but I did my best.  Even when living with InnerStreamMiddle, I tried to do more than my share of the housework, including cooking, shopping, cleaning, laundry, and errands, in exchange for my accommodations.

The Mormons

As Mahl and I were enjoying our drinks a guest at the next table began speaking to us.  Mahl seemed surprised that a guest at the next table would suddenly start speaking to us.  We eventually found out her name was Ms. ChildCongratulationsThousand “Chico” MountainCedar406.
Her nickname, Chico, is a play on the transliteration of her first name: Chigako, and means boy in Spanish.  Laura Welch Bush, the first lady at the time, is a Mexican American.  Ms. Bush came up in our conversation.  MountainCedar was sitting with friends, and she invited us to join them, and we did.
MountainCedar and Persistence shared similarities.  They had both lived in Utah, a state home to the Mormon religion, although the religion began near Rochester, New York.  Persistence and MountainCedar both converted to this religion while living in Utah.  I had lived in Utah.
To conform to political pressure in 1904, the Mormon Church Elders officially renounced polygamy.407  The faith no longer technically includes a basic tenet, a tenet that caused the persecution and flight of Mormon followers across the continental United States.  Although generations of Mormon had persevered to preserve their right to a polygamous lifestyle, the current Church has abandoned that principle.
Fundamentalist splinter groups of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints still practice polygamy.  One often hears of court battles and imprisonment of these Mormons, and the kidnapping of their offspring by government authorities.408  Until living in OriginSun, I had associated the state of Utah primarily with great powder skiing.
Historically in OriginSun, polygamy was important as well.  “In case that a wife proved barren, she might be divorced.  In case that there were reasons for not divorcing her, a concubine might be taken for the purpose of obtaining an heir.”409
Many attribute the fact that OriginSun has the oldest continuing hereditary monarchy in the world to the fact that until recently the Chrysanthemum throne was frequently inherited by the Emperor’s offspring who was best suited to rule.  In contrast, the first male descendant of the sole legal wife was usually selected as the heir to European thrones.  In OriginSun, the number of concubines for Emperor, princes, officers of the highest class, and samurai was twelve, eight, five and two respectively.410

However, “[w]e may say that, although the old OriginSun society was not monogamic, the natural tendency was towards monogamy, as the condition best according with the religion of the family, and with the moral feeling of the masses.”411

One of my favourite lessons the Incubator taught me about the Mormon religion is the practice of writing a journal.  For years, I thought I wanted to do that.  I tried in my 20s, but my subject matter was not substantial.  I had heard from a Mormon missionary once that they are told to write a daily journal.  Thanks to this chronicle, I now understand the value in writing one’s experiences down to better understand oneself.

Second Date

Before we said goodnight to MountainCedar and friends, I asked her for her phone number.  Mahl, MountainCedar, and I met a few days later at What the Dickens.  After a couple drinks, MountainCedar and I were becoming intimate under the table.  I thought Mahl could tell.
We were drinking on the first floor.  Mahl asked MountainCedar to join Mahl on the second floor to speak with Mahl.  They were gone for several minutes.  They returned.
We drank more.  We departed.  Mahl seemed to be coaching MountainCedar, or involved with MountainCedar or both.  In hindsight, I suspect I have Yamato and Sony to thank for meeting MountainCedar.  At our next meeting, MountainCedar and I began a more intimate relationship that lasted for years.
When changing my visa, Persistence asked me why I did not apply for a Permanent Resident visa.  I discussed with Persistence my interest in applying for OriginSun citizenship.  While applying for OriginSun citizenship, I suggested to Persistence that I live in OriginSun under a spouse visa.  At the time, she did not object, or express any reservation to me about the spouse visa or applying for OriginSun citizenship.
As per my discussions with Larry Repeta I organised a welcome party for incoming students of TUJ Law in January 2002, and again in January 2003.  On the bus on the way to the 2002 occasion, a student told me a supposedly Chinese proverb: “Be as strict with your friends as you are with yourself.”
This was the same idea I had explained to Larry Repeta from TUJ Law when we went to the UN bookstore.  My logic was being recycled, and fed back to me.  On another subject, the student said you or I could never be OriginSun natives.  I replied that is just something we tell ourselves, like when we are having a bad day speaking OriginSun.
I met Sid Weeks for lunch.  I told him of a Chinese proverb I had heard recently.  I laughed and suggested exchange students in Atlanta create these Chinese proverbs.  I meant to refer to former President Jimmy Carter, but I do not believe Weeks felt me.  Weeks was born a Southerner, but he spent his childhood in the North.
On 05 December 2002 I attended a seminar at TUJ Law on the upcoming implementation of the new graduate degree at OriginSun law schools.  The speaker was an American professor of Law at The University of Tokyo.  People lingered afterwards, and chatted.  I spoke with a partner from a major Western law firm who had been resident in OriginSun for many years.  I will refer to him as Mr. Lack Speech.  Lack Speech notified me via LinkedIn on 18 February 2010 that he wishes I leave his name, and the law firm’s name he was working for at the time, out of the following.  I will refer to the law firm as Noble Polisher.
Lack Speech told me that an Asahi attorney who had worked in the US had died some time ago.  Noble Polisher attempted to send flowers to the funeral, but for one reason or another, the US office of Asahi at the time, Masuda & Ejiri, refused.  I wondered if there was something symbolic in the discussion of the death of this attorney, and my leaving Asahi.
If this was significant symbolism, ButtocksInlet (Ejiri) had refused to write me off.  ButtocksInlet, I suspect, knew there was a use for me, and intended to see if he could find a place to use me.  This should not be confused with generosity.  Vivisectionists need subjects.
As the development of the Self>Tangible>Body Indicators progressed, there was a telepathic inquiry(ies) about my organs. The inquiry was something to the effect of: if you have a right/left distinction for appendages, should not you also have a second heart on the right side of your chest? The only answer I had been conditioned to give was: ‘yes.’
In January 2011, a tumor was removed from the right side of my chest. As the full-body anesthesia was wearing off, the surgical staff visited my bedside while my family was there. The supervising doctor held the aborted tumor in a jar of liquid. After the surgical staff left, my spouse remarked that the tumor resembled a heart.

Old habits die hard, some wounds never heal
We got what we came for, this is part of the deal
I can’t forget you, I can’t even try
Sometimes it feels like, somebody diedb

Lack Speech and I traded business cards.  The meaning of his family name could be construed to suggest his words were missing something.  In June 2005, Lack Speech left the law firm he was working for at the time of this conversation on 05 December 2002.  That law firm’s name includes a word suggesting a young noble acting as an attendant to a knight before becoming a knight himself, and a word suggesting smoothing or polishing with a type of paper or a mechanical apparatus.
The partners at Rutan & Tucker, Alkalay, American civil servants in OriginSun, and perhaps to a lesser extent Repeta, considered me a nuisance, and perhaps potentially dangerous.  Patriotism to these people involves blindly following American ideology, whatever that means.  In contrast, more than eight years after that conversation with the Lack Speech Noble Polisher, I think I understand the bitterness that can creep into an ex-patriot’s life in OriginSun.
OriginSun draws you in.  You fall in love with the country, and like any lover, the better you know them, you learn the good and the bad.  The problem that so many foreigners have in OriginSun is once they fall in love with the country they see, perhaps better than the OriginSun people themselves, what the country and people could become, yet fail to because the OriginSun people are afraid of themselves.  You see how far ahead OriginSun is in structuring society, and understanding human relations, and then you see how totally oblivious OriginSun is to some of the most basic tenets of civilised communities.
These frustrated foreigners living in OriginSun whom I meet from time to time invariably were raised in other developed nations and see the capacity for change elsewhere.  When looking at OriginSun, these foreigners see that all we have to do is tweak this or that a little bit, and instead of being just a little bit better than other countries, OriginSun will be far ahead of other nations.  Reasons for not making these minor changes have to do with centuries of military rule, millennia of enculturation and other reasons that other writers have already repeatedly and thoroughly addressed.
Another reason is the mediocrity instilled by this military hegemony teaches us to not move too far ahead of others.  This is the same mentality that prevents people from answering because by answering they risk offending others who do not know the answer.  This is tedious, insipid, and embarrassing.  In any case, the issue is long past identifying the problems with OriginSun.  The issue is about how to move forward.
While we frustrated foreigners see the improvements that could be made in OriginSun, we also do not want to change the good things about OriginSun.  Again, like a lover you hope to love the other just the way they are, but every love grows and changes.  When OriginSun does not grow, one’s affection for OriginSun does not grow, progress and mature.
The love sours into bitterness because OriginSun lacks the courage necessary to move beyond what is.  OriginSun is unable to embrace what might be.  Love does not standstill.  Treading water may be an option, but eventually you either sink or swim.
I considered myself a patriotic American because I have confidence in America.  I know that no matter how powerful OriginSun becomes, America will improve to meet OriginSun every step of the way.  I have always espoused the free exchange of a wide spectrum of ideas simply because voicing ideas permits proper evaluation.  Even if one is opposed to a particular idea, one benefits by the airing of the idea because one is able to hone one’s opinions only if given a full range of arguments.  Furthermore, the widest possible Playing Field enables the broadest estimation of potentialities.
An important note: the repetition of discredited arguments does not serve a purpose.  The Incubator has a horrible self-defeating tendency to keep feeding stuff back in long after the point is made.  This must stop.
However, currently in OriginSun, the mere mention of the right wing brings accusations that the speaker is an evil aggressor.  One cannot explore conservative ideas openly.  This hamstrings the left at least as much as the right because the left is perpetually arguing with a paper tiger.
Without proper opposition and discussion, one is unable to evaluate and foster one’s own ideologies.  Americans who fear open debate in OriginSun fundamentally distrust the ability of America to overcome obstacles.  This basic lack of confidence in America is what I find most unpatriotic about these allegedly loyal Americans.

Underemployed

On 15 January 2002 I received my work permit based on marriage to an OriginSun national.  I started work at Yamato on the first of the month after receiving my Spouse Visa, 01 February 2002.  At Yamato my work was laborious, but after my recent experiences in the legal industry, I enjoyed the opportunity to be productive.  Until this time in OriginSun, I had always done ‘foreigner’ jobs: teaching English, and practicing law as a foreign legal associate.
Years ago the jobs I did in Europe were the types of jobs commonly done by other Europeans.  Although I worked in blue-collar positions in Europe: migrant labor, packaging, and motorcycle delivery, I also worked in sales, sports instruction, and tourism.  Both types of positions enabled me to become more familiar with Europe.  The Europeans I met through these occupations gave me a less biased view of Europe than if I were to have worked in occupations segregated to foreigners.
I never once worked with an American in Europe.  Africans, Europeans, and Americans remarked that they had never met an American doing what I was doing.  During the two years I lived in Europe, on only two occasions did I meet an American in similar circumstances.
One was in Sweden.  The second was when I was recognised by a fellow American while walking down a village street in Austria.  I had worked with this person in Alta.  At the time, I thought that was a coincidence.
The work I was doing at Yamato was similar to the jobs I had done in Europe: native employment.  I was extremely pleased to be doing work shoulder to shoulder with what I assumed to be normal OriginSun people.
My job at Yamato usually started before dawn.  I woke about 04:10 to arrive at work on time.  On the way to the subway, I walked past the place of the way at the AbundantHarvestProsperousFoxDeityShrine.  Judging from the number of bicycles parked on the sidewalk in front, there were twenty or thirty people inside the place of the way at this early hour.
I actively study various creeds.  I try to educate myself constantly about how other people believe.  I looked at the bicycles and the exterior of the place of the way jealously, wondering what a foreigner would have to do to meet with a group of true OriginSun individuals who woke up that early in the morning to assemble on straw412 mats.  This was the same place a few months ago that the master told me that if I wanted to study, I had to move to CapitalCapital.  I discovered later that Yamato was preparing my introduction to this group.

The Practical Ethics Association

My desk at our home in ValleyAstringent looked out sliding glass doors onto a small intersection of side streets.  One day as I was using the computer, two ethnically OriginSun women older than me walked past.  They glanced at me as they were discussing something, turned around, and started walking back the way they had come.
The doorbell rang.  I answered the door.  The two people I had just seen walking by introduced themselves and told me about a meeting.  Their names were Ms. Hiroko413 RicePaddyMountain414 and Ms. ForestChestnut415.
I thought the topic sounded interesting, so RicePaddyMountain gave me some literature about the Practical Ethics Association.416 This was the predawn meeting at the AbundantHarvestProsperousFoxDeityShrine with the bicycles in front.  When I explained to Persistence that I was planning to attend a meeting of the Practical Ethics Association, she was not pleased.  I tried to relieve her apprehension, but she did not want to entertain my inclination to ‘religious tourism.’
Persistence Won and I had visited churches in America without incident.  Persistence seemed mildly curious about American houses of worship.  I had visited OriginSun temples in Los Angeles.  Now, in OriginSun, if I walked by a shrine, and suggested we visit, she would express concerns about my mental health.  No doubt my good buddy Mr. Alkalay may have played some small role in this.
I attended the Practical Ethics Association meeting before dawn the next day.  The leader of the meetings at the place of the way was Mr. BlowDart,417 a gentleman who had retired from Sumitomo.  A couple of days before my first visit, a senior Yamato staff person had visited the meeting to speak with Mr. Yabuki.  They were old friends.

Squash

During spring 2002 I played Squash on occasion with people I supposedly met by chance at the CharacterBrook418 Health Center in NoveltyHorseSpace.  After squash one day, I was undressing in the locker room to take a Jacuzzi.  An older OriginSun man began speaking to me.  He explained he had worked, or at least he claimed to have worked, in Singapore on aircraft leasing before retiring.
He metaphorically suggested I would be able to leave the country in November 2002, more than half a year after the date of that conversation.  My family had a history of traveling.  As a rule, since adolescence, I went out of town at least every other month or so, and out of the country at least once a year.  This may seem like much traveling to some people, but the converse was no less peculiar to me.
At the time of this conversation, I was going out of the metropolis about once a year.  If, as he claimed, I would be permitted to travel outside OriginSun in November, that would be well over a year of staying in one country.  As circumstances unfolded, I did not leave the country until October 2003, which was more than two years, and almost a year after he suggested.  I only went then because someone took me.  After October 2003, the next time I left OriginSun was at the request of the authorities in April 2005.

Drugs and medications

During spring 2002 Persistence’s employer was disposing of used computers.  We took one at my suggestion, although we had no use for another desktop computer.  We kept the computer for several months on the desk in our home, but never plugged in the cord.
Persistence was becoming very frustrated.  I was unable to explain the circumstances of my situation enough for her to understand.  She would continually threaten divorce.  I had initially tried to consult a marriage counsellor when we lived in Chesapeake in 1999.  Persistence was now repeatedly trying to take me to mental health counsellors.
At one point, in ValleyAstringent, she frantically claimed she was ill, and she asked me if she should take medication.  I assured her there was nothing wrong with her, and she did not need medication.  Months later, in her apartment in ShopMockeryCaseThree,419 she told me she was taking vitamins for her mental health.  She may also have told me she was taking medication.  Incubator was taking a toll.

Old soldiers die hard, old hearts beat slow
Old friends go easy, old lovers just gob

She told me: if we move back to America, I will support you.  After a visit to one mental health counsellor while Alkalay was visiting I received some medication which I took briefly.  Persistence told me I would not need to take medication if we lived in America.  My father used to tell us a joke about a maternalistic person who does not feel well who insists on others taking medicine.  By doing so, the maternalistic person hopes to feel better.
Persistence visited another mental health counsellor who wished to prescribe medication for me before he had even met me.  I refused.  The counsellor had worked near the site of the Columbine High School massacre.  Also near the site of that massacre is a Lockheed Martin Titan missile manufacturing facility.  One might argue “that the presence of this facility within the community, and the acceptance of institutionalised violence as a solution to conflict, contributed to the mindset that led to the massacre.420
This mental health professional Persistence had incoincidentally stumbled upon had counselled clients involved in the Columbine High School massacre, as well as employees of the missile plant.  I did agree to visit the counsellor.  The irony of the pacifistic stance I had repeatedly taken, and our visits to a counsellor who was complicit in placating American ignorance of their own violence were not lost on me, but they were lost on him.  When I realised he was not able to begin to fathom what I was trying to explain, I became bitter.
The next day, after I came home from Yamato, I was picking up the nets used to cover the trash.  I was frustrated with my inability to explain myself to the mental health counsellor, and Persistence.  After the initial thrill of rejoining the labour force had worn off, I was now discouraged because I suspected Yamato was a waste of my time.  Most of all, I was tired of being unable to access funds reserved for the Aerospace Project.  Considering the amount of energy the Incubator spent Monitoring me, I figured there must be something substantial at stake.
I could sense Monitors/Freelancers/Handlers among the passersby, as usual.  As one of the Freelancers/Handlers passed by me, I purposefully thought, “Do not bother me.  I am sick.  My spouse is trying to medicate me.  Stay away from me.”
I did not mouth the words.  I gave no outward indication of what I was thinking.  The Incubator was about to teach me a lesson in telepathy.
Another Freelancer/Handler or two passed by, and one asked me for directions to the closest pharmacy.  I began to walk the Freelancer/Handler to a pharmacy I knew on GovernmentBright Way,421 but after we walked a bit, he assured me he knew the location of the pharmacy.  I went back to store the nets until the next collection day when I would again set them out to keep the crows from picking apart the neighbourhood refuse.

I needed to buy contact lenses.  Persistence had received a flyer, and I went to the shop indicated by the flyer, but I was told my contacts were unusual, and I should try DrugEyeglass422.  From time to time when passing by I had used this shop’s eyeglass cleaner stand.
Persistence and I went there for my eyewear.  On the way out the staff members, in contrast to their treatment of other customers, enthusiastically thanked me for my patronage.  Further, they followed us out onto the sidewalk, and bowed courteously as we walked away.
This is not uncommon treatment in many OriginSun stores, but in this case, there was something more.  Persistence remarked that the staff there seemed to be very grateful for my custom.  This may be the only time I heard Persistence acknowledge that she noticed the unusual attention I received.  These sorts of incidents are so common and obvious to me that there was nothing I could say in response to her.  If I had replied sincerely, she would suggest I need counselling, medication or both.
From time to time, I sensed Persistence did subconsciously realise what was happening in our lives, but she was unwilling to admit to reality.  For example, after I returned from work or meeting Moynihan, McAlinn or someone, Persistence would often ask me: “Were they nice to you?”  She could tell people did not treat me normally, but she could not nor did she want to define the peculiar treatment I received.
This is understandable given the limited amount of information available to her.  Unfortunately due to her family background, she is not a trusting person.  Her family’s marital bonds are not strong ones.  Excepting one family member, everyone back to her grandparent’s generation had been divorced.  I was unaware of her familial marital history until we had been married for some time.
Moreover, the circumstances I am trying to describe here are still difficult for me to fathom.  Naturally, an observer such as Persistence might find my situation even more perplexing.  Persistence’s confusion was understandable to say the least.  Her willingness to abandon me was not.
Certain businesses patronise me in the manner of the staff at DrugEyeglass.  If I had to hypothesise the reason for the treatment in the instant case, I would suggest a relationship to the name of the store.  Quantum theory, and to some extent Buddhism, Taoism, RoadToDivineMorality, and plain common sense teach that our reality is a product of what we believe our reality to be.
Our need for medication, including eyeglasses, is a product of our perception of reality, not of reality itself.

“Men consider these reflections as their real selves.  Their eyes, noses, ears, tongues, and bodies ― as well as their gardens, woods, farms, homes, servants, and maids ― men imagine to be their own possessions; but, in fact, they are only results endlessly produced by innumerable actions.”423

We are the total of our actions.  We ‘have’ no things.  Our beliefs, drugs, physical reality, and many other factors colour our perception of reality, but the mind is the single most important influence on our perceptions.  These ailments, and their solutions, are more based more in our minds than in the facts. Our minds create the facts.
Consequently, our belief that medications, eyeglasses, or illegal drugs will alter our reality is more important than the substances themselves.

“Buddhism answers that both the universe and the consciousness are merely aggregates of Karma ― complexities incalculable of conditions shaped by acts and thoughts through some enormous past.”424

The Incubator wants me to learn that one’s mind can overcome any hurdle, if one grounds one’s mind sufficiently in one’s own reality.
The eyeglasses, antihistamines, or alcohol, are as much a part of the mind as the ailments: poor eyesight, allergies or addictions.  We are constantly underestimating the mind’s curative powers.  Entire industries dedicate their energy to causing us to underestimate the therapeutic power of the mind for financial benefit to that industry.  My present spouse and my grandfather have both made their careers in the pharmaceutical industry with American companies.  There are those in the various professions who wish to move forward, but the issue is whether the inertia can be overcome.

Shutting the window for The Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up

Persistence and I were walking down Blue Green Mountain Street.  The United Nations University was just ahead on our right.  We walked arm in arm.  Persistence was her usual self: glowing.  On Persistence’s side, coming towards us was Wendy Gordon, the New Zealander with whom I crewed a boat in the Caribbean.
I had not seen Gordon in a decade.  She fixed her eyes on Persistence.  I stared at Gordon to be certain this was her.
As Gordon was about to pass us, she looked at me.  Gordon quietly mouthed the word: “Beautiful.”  As usual, Persistence looked herself: radiant.  I did not look back.

Citizenship

To investigate the OriginSun naturalization process, I visited the immigration office of the OriginSun Department of Law.  The advisor at the immigration office told me that I might be eligible for citizenship.  The advisor warned me that if I received OriginSun citizenship, I would not be able to return to America for longer than a brief stay.  Furthermore, if I stayed in America for an extended period, my OriginSun citizenship would be in jeopardy.  The final determination is by the Minister of Justice.
I consulted Peter Henry Barlerin, the attaché in the office at the American Citizen Services office of the US Embassy to discuss my renunciation of American citizenship.  Barlerin was two years behind my sister at Middlebury College.  He pointed out that many OriginSun citizens stayed in America for extended periods.
I replied: clearly I am subject to a standard not applied to other people.  I added: the sooner I become used to the double standard, the better.  I am unsure Barlerin understood I meant my response to point out the hypocrisy of Barlerin’s comment.  OriginSun may wish to apply a double standard to me, but America was already applying a double standard to me in a variety of ways.
Barlerin was concerned about OriginSun applying a double standard to me, yet Barlerin seemed oblivious to the double standard the American government was applying to me.  While Americans were invading, injuring, and killing civilians in foreign countries, and America, American officials were accusing me of being a threat to the ‘American way of life.’  They made veiled accusations of suspicions of my criminality, as at the interview at the Embassy, although I had never attacked anyone.
The danger I pose is that of peace.  Not being able to beat up smaller countries like Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, and Nicaragua would hamstring America’s government.  How could America hope to scare large countries if America does not invade little countries?  This was the same reasoning behind the use of atomic weapons in 1945: if we did not use them, the Russians would not think we were serious about the nuclear option.  America bullies weaker countries to avoid dealing with stronger countries on equal terms.
Unlike most militaries, American troops practice with live fire.  Nevertheless, no amount of practice can substitute for the real thing, so a good, hot war every now and then is important to keep the troops ready.  America does this in large-scale military incursions such as Korea, but also by every American soldier stationed on foreign soil America has an opportunity to test the readiness of its soldiers for foreign combat.
About this time, there was a reception for the US Ambassador to OriginSun at the CapitalEast American Club.  I was invited.  I asked Persistence if she wanted to go, and she declined.  I invited a former coworker from Asahi Law Offices to join me, but due to her work commitments arising the day of the occasion, we canceled at the last minute.  Her suddenly busy schedule was incoincident.
In hindsight, I recognised a connection between people on the Embassy staff and my hiring at Asahi.  However, I sensed the Americans were not interested in bringing my Asahi guest to the reception for the Ambassador because the United States is not willing to play on equal terms.  Politically the United States treats OriginSun as our poor cousins, useful at times, but easily ignored when necessary.  If possible the US will prevent or delay giving OriginSun a ‘seat at the table.’
The hypocritical attitude displayed by Barlerin and his supervisors is typical.  While espousing freedom of religion, openness to all races, and a merit based system, America is Judea-Christian, Caucasian, homophobic, and monogamous.  A month after 9/11 American troops had invaded yet another country, Afghanistan, for problems made in America.  I had become intolerant of American intolerance.  I could have attended the occasion for the Ambassador alone, but the more I associated with people from the Practical Ethics Association, the less I felt I could learn from the Americans; particularly Americans from the Department of State.

By means of heart, transmit heart

Beginning about February and ending about July, I studied a semester of Arabic at the Arab Islamic Institute.  The Institute was in the same building as the mosque in HempClothSource.  While I was studying Arabic, the crown prince of Saudi Arabia came to visit the mosque.  During one of our classes in the language laboratory he stood next to me.
I had applied for a part-time job with one of the Arab foundations in CapitalEast.  My purpose in applying was to gain exposure to Arabic while working.  I had not received the job, and after the Prince visited our mosque, the director of the school relayed the Prince’s apology about the denial of the part-time job.
I had told MountainCedar about my Arabic studies.  One day MountainCedar and I were sitting in a restaurant.  I was thinking about MountainCedar’s physical appearance in less than favourable terms.
I gave no outward indication of my thoughts that I know of.  Suddenly she spoke the words: I know I am not beautiful.  My sister is beautiful.
She then began discussing telepathy.  An OriginSun term commonly used to refer to telepathy could be literally translated as: by means of heart, transmit heart.425  She said there are people with whom one is familiar enough to know what they are thinking without speech.  MountainCedar suggested we were able to perceive the thoughts of our family members before they verbalised them or made any indication.  I agreed.
MountainCedar said that she and I were also able to do that with each other.  I agreed.  I explained that my Arabic class was simply a school for teaching that ability.  Teaching Arabic was not the primary goal of the school.

Meditation

During my lunch break for my Arabic class, I often ate my homemade box lunch at a temple in HempClothSource across the street from the mosque.  About April, one of the temple matrons, Ms. Yamaguchi,426 told me about a class at the temple to learn about practicing Meditation.  I attended.
I discussed my Meditation studies visit with RicePaddyMountain from the Practical Ethics Association.  She introduced me to another Practical Ethics Association member who told me about more structured sessions at the TempleoftheTrough(inAtmosphericPressure)Manager in West HempCloth.  During late spring, and into the summer, I practiced Meditation at TempleoftheTrough(inAtmosphericPressure)Manager.  I discovered as I was writing this chronology that this temple had the same name and was of the same sect, ExcavationFriendReligion, as Mr. PineEternal’s temple in CastleConstellations, in which I had slept in almost ten years before.
From time to time at the Meditation sessions at TempleoftheTrough(inAtmosphericPressure)Manager I saw another Caucasian man.  One evening after a Meditation session, he introduced himself.  His name was James M. Cohen, an American attorney.
Mr. Cohen was studying to become a Buddhist cleric.  He suggested we go for a drink at a bar called Jail House a few hundred meters from my home.  I agreed.  The name of the bar was incoincident.
Mr. Cohen regularly traveled to New York, and discussed the exceptional Meditation practitioners one found in America.  Initially, I did not connect with his message.  We were the only patrons in the bar, and I suspect the two bar personnel standing by may have been of some assistance telepathically relaying his thoughts to me.  After we began to discuss something tangential, his idea clicked.  I realised he was encouraging me to visit New York.  My mind wandered back to my last visit to New York that ended in 9/11.
I replied to his assertion regarding the high caliber of Mediation practitioners in NYC by analogising the practice of sports in OriginSun.  One finds a very high caliber among the general population.  However, in America, one finds more extremes: exceptionally proficient, and people who are just out to hack around.  The people I met in EasternCapital tended to be more proficient communicators than most in America.  For that reason, I told the Koen without using these words: I was not interested in visiting New York.

Not very academic

During this time, people repeatedly asked me for an office facsimile number.  This occurred with clerks when completing forms, or in casual conversation with acquaintances.  In addition, on the Internet, there were advertisements for free facsimile numbers.  Acquaintances asked me if I had a facsimile machine for business.
I found an advertisement in the newspaper for an employment opportunity in the Law Faculty at Aoyama Gakuin University.  Aoyama Gakuin is a Christian Mission school.  I contacted McAlinn who worked at Aoyama Gakuin University to discuss the opportunity.  The religious affiliation was unfortunate, but I was becoming desperate for mentally challenging work.
McAlinn suggested we meet at a Starbucks near the university and my home.  Again, the building above this Starbucks houses offices for Goldman Sachs, although these offices are for Goldman Sachs Realty.  I mentioned I was studying Arabic, and McAlinn discussed his Arabic studies and years of residence in the Middle East.  He said he found OriginSun to be more comfortable than the Middle East.
McAlinn and I discussed Persistence, and the “one mind” credence of Meditation.  He also expressed a conventional Christian, Caucasian interpretation of marital relations. I replied that until I was married for several years, I had underestimated the extent two individuals become one mind.
My soon-to-be ex-spouse had a sibling. To avoid confusion, I did not explain the following analogy to McAlinn: spousal affection could be analogised to the love one feels for different siblings. Now that I realise how deep one’s affection can be for a spouse, I realise I can feel that depth of affection for additional spouses.

Early on in the meeting with McAlinn, he had pointed out that in the building above us were the offices for the Internet bookstore, Amazon Japan.  Somewhat out of context, McAlinn said he was trying to contact an author west of WestoftheGateway or somewhere.  He was not certain.  He wanted to facsimile the author to gain permission for copyright.
His comment probably related to the multiple requests I was then receiving for an office fax number.  McAlinn was generously informing me that my ideas were being plagiarised, and all McAlinn was doing was buying me a cup of coffee.  I think he wanted to establish a business address, complete with office services such as a facsimile, in an office setting other than my home.  Alternatively, he was trying to suggest symbolically that he wanted to make “an exact copy,” which is another definition for the word facsimile.  He probably knows Oracle Software is in that building as well.

Some fools never learn, ain’t that what they say
I turned for a moment, and you turned away

Labour

At Yamato, I worked in a large parking lot sorting packages.  Covering portions of the parking lot were large tent roofs.  On one side of the parking lot were temporary buildings housing the offices and warehouses for three delivery departments: TreeBookSix, MountainBlue, and FourthGlen427.  Physically, TreeBookSix’s office were above MountainBlue’s office.  I worked for the TreeBookSix office.
Different supervisors administered TreeBookSix, MountainBlue, and FourthGlen.  Mr. Broad GreenWillow428 was the TreeBookSix supervisor.  GreenWillow was older than me.  He was friendly and jovial.  Mr. Harbour,429 a year younger than me, was the MountainBlue supervisor, but Mr. Harbour supervised more staff, and a larger delivery area.
GreenWillow claimed to like foreigners.  I am always wary when I hear someone say, “I like foreigners.”  It is a bit like saying: ‘I like humans.’  If one must use the words, does one really mean those words?
On one occasion, GreenWillow hung up the phone and complained about a foreigner not knowing the address of a pickup.  That was no coincidence.  Yamato was in the process of trying to deliver me to the aims of the Incubator, but no one knew the Incubator’s address.

You had your reasons, ___ only knows

Yotsuya

In analysing my countries of home, I have said from time to time, that my first country is Myanmar, because when I entered the ‘verse, I was in Myanmar.  Not until some months later did my parents file the paperwork for my American citizenship. I renounced that citizenship at the American Consulate in GrandHill on George Washington’s 279th birthday.
Consequently, I refer to America as my second country.  My third country is OriginSun.  My admiration for OriginSun knows no words.
When Persistence and I discussed having children, more than once, we said we ought to teach them Chinese.  From us the child would naturally learn the English and OriginSun languages.  We thought a Chinese caregiver for the child or children could teach them Chinese as well. Perhaps because of this desire to teach our child Chinese, my attitude about my first three countries, my Arabic studies, or some other reason, Handlers seemed interested in learning what would be my fourth country.  I have no plans to have a fourth country, except for an artificial moon, but there are those who hope I will.
Consequently, I suspect Yamato purposefully grouped FourthGlen with TreeBookSix and MountainBlue.  The BlueMountain labourers pointed out to me the peculiarity of FourthGlen being with the other two.  BlueMountain and TreeBookSix were in HarbourDistrict,430 the same District as the American Embassy.  FourthGlen was in RelayStationNewDistrict.  FourthGlen was not very close to where we worked in South MountainBlue.

Bossman

Mr. TundraOfFoodWhichHasBeenOfferedToTheGods was the person who interviewed me for my job at Yamato.  From time to time, he said things to let me know he had connections outside of Yamato.  Perhaps TundraOfFoodWhichHasBeenOfferedToTheGods is connected to the OriginSun Nationalists, gangsters or some other loose association of individuals connected to my Incubator, but I do not think he is closely connected to America.
The historical home of Generalissimo Tree’s,431 was about 500 meters to the east of our worksite.  The house was now a popular tourist attraction.  On the opposite side of our worksite was the BlueMountain Cemetery where all four members of the Tree’s family were buried.  Under State RoadToDivineMorality, Generalissimo Tree’s was revered as a god and a RoadToDivineMorality shrine in his honour still exists on the site of his house.432  TundraOfFoodWhichHasBeenOfferedToTheGods fully explained to me the legendary account of the suicides of Tree’s and his wife.
Tree’s and his wife ritually committed suicide in a manner proscribed by history for men and women, respectively, disembowelment and cutting one’s jugular vein.  They did so shortly after Emperor GovernmentBright’s funeral cortege left the palace.  This was according to the samurai practice of following one’s master to death.  In his suicide letter, Generalissimo Tree’s said that he wished to expiate for his disgrace in StateNine433, and for the thousands of casualties at Port Arthur.  He also donated his body to medical science.434
Tree’s had been a formidable and useful general that had staved off attack to the Chrysanthemum throne simply by his presence and loyalty.  The lack of such people as Tree’s that occurred in the GreatJustice Era435 resulted in the failure of OriginSun’s brief flirtation with representative democracy.  One can’t help wondering: if Tree’s, who was already 62 at the time of his death in 1919, had not killed himself, would the fledgling democracy had a better chance?
TundraOfFoodWhichHasBeenOfferedToTheGods may have been trying to suggest that my presence, like Tree’s’ stabilising influence in the GovernmentBright Era, was deterrent enough, and my absence could destabilise the situation.  I think TundraOfFoodWhichHasBeenOfferedToTheGods was trying to make a point that, like Tree’s, I was waiting around to be used by an Emperor.  In the meantime, TundraOfFoodWhichHasBeenOfferedToTheGods was saying: there was no need for me to do anything, but wait.
In any case, I was grateful for TundraOfFoodWhichHasBeenOfferedToTheGods’ role in hiring me, and I felt I could relate to him.  In late August, TundraOfFoodWhichHasBeenOfferedToTheGods asked me if I would like to help him sell fried buckwheat noodles436 at a festival the following month.  I enthusiastically agreed.
Persistence later told me that the fried buckwheat noodles stalls at the festivals are connected to organised crime.  She did not need to tell me that the ‘chivalrous organisations,’b are closely aligned with the Nationalists.  The festival was at another shrine to the God of War: the NorthernBlessingMarsShrine.437
In September, we sold fried buckwheat noodles at the festival.  I generally enjoy OriginSun festivals, but I especially enjoyed this one.  I did my best to put much gusto into yelling the traditional OriginSun welcome438 to customers, and appreciated the opportunity to spend a full day at a festival.
At the festival, TundraOfFoodWhichHasBeenOfferedToTheGods introduced me to the priest and his family that live at this NorthernBlessingMarsShrine.  I also met several of their friends.  In the early morning hours, about twenty of us had dinner and drinks after cleaning up from the festival.  They invited me to spend the night, and, after calling Persistence to confirm she did not object, I stayed the night.
Over dinner and drinks we discussed politics, and I mentioned my interest in working in OriginSun politics and becoming Foreign Minister of OriginSun.  These seemed like very devout RoadToDivineMoralists, traditional OriginSun people, so I was pleased when they seemed to approve.  In any case, they voiced no concern or objection.
One of the people I met was Mr. Reign RoofNew439.  RoofNew had played traditional OriginSun music in the RoadToDivineMorality rituals on stage during the festival.  He was a professional musician, and performed in full traditional RoadToDivineMorality garb at weddings, festivals, etc.  I believe RoofNew, like TundraOfFoodWhichHasBeenOfferedToTheGods and many others there, including myself, were closely aligned with the Nationalists.

Postal privatisation

During this time, the privatisation of the OriginSun post office was in the media from time to time.  I was and am a supporter of Ronald Reagan, and his legacy. One of his policy goals I particularly liked was privatising the post office.  In 1982, during Reagan’s first presidential term, the AT&T monopoly had been disbanded.  I hope the symbolism of the role of a national telecommunications monopoly and a national postal monopoly is obvious.
Unfortunately, entrenched interests in the US made postal privatisation impossible, or so I heard.  OriginSun Prime Minister FountainLittle wanted to privatise the OriginSun post office, and I thought if anyone could do this, OriginSun can.  In the news about this time Yamato was negotiating with the OriginSun government regarding the terms of a postal privatisation handover.
I was interested in doing more than sorting packages at Yamato, and I consulted Mr. ReignPure MountainForest440 from the Practical Ethics Association about my interest in taking on more responsibility at Yamato.  I asked him how he recommended I proceed.  MountainForest suggested I write an explanation of why I wanted to work for Yamato.  I wrote one, and in the statement I tried to make a strong case for postal privatisation.  I gave the document to GreenWillow, and he faxed his copy to headquarters.  TundraOfFoodWhichHasBeenOfferedToTheGods complimented me on the essay, and said the TreeBookSix office staff and drivers were impressed.

Old soldiers die hard, old heart beats slow
Old friends go easy, old lovers just go
Old soldiers die hard, old heads hang low
Old friends go easy, old lovers just go

I keep telling myself that its alright
But I know that later on tonight

Old soldiers cry hard, old hearts beat slow
Old friends go easy, old lovers just go
Old soldiers die hard, old heads hang low
Old friends go easy, old lovers just gob