Tomorrow is December 21, 2012, the day that the Mayan calendar comes to an end and, for some, when the world will come to an end. Personally, I do not believe that the world will come to an end. However, even it does, I do believe that the human spirit will endure.
On my office wall, I keep a Wikipedia biography of Tsutomu Yamaguchi. The Wikipedia biography begins:
Tsutomu Yamaguchi (山口 彊 Yamaguchi Tsutomu) (March 16, 1916 – January 4, 2010) was a Japanese national who survived both the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings during World War II. Although at least 160 people are known to have been affected by both bombings,[1] he is the only person to have been officially recognized by the government of Japan as surviving both explosions.[2]
A resident of Nagasaki, Yamaguchi was in Hiroshima on business for his employer Mitsubishi Heavy Industries when the city was bombed at 8:15 am, on August 6, 1945. The following day, he returned to Nagasaki and, despite his wounds, also returned to work on August 9, the day of the second atomic bombing. In 1957, he was recognized as a hibakusha (explosion-affected person) of the Nagasaki bombing, but it was not until March 24, 2009 that the government of Japan officially recognized his presence in Hiroshima three days earlier. He died of stomach cancer on January 4, 2010 at the age of 93.
I sometimes think about what Tsutomu Yamaguchi must have seen and experienced in August 1945. For him, it must have been like experiencing the end of the world, not just once, but twice.
And yet, he lived. Even in the face of the worst that can happen, the human spirit endures and goes on.
The message I take from Tsutomu Yamaguchi is that whatever my problems may be, I am alive and God has, for some reason, blessed me with the opportunity to see another day. Carpe diem and be thankful for it.
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