Just got back from my brother’s wedding. Congratulations again Jenn and Kev. I was the best man, so I thought I’d post my toast:

I want to dispel some rumors. First, I did not drop Kevin on his head when he was a baby. HE, rolled off the changing table. And yes, I was involved in him getting the scar on the brige of his nose, but how was I to know that he would go “over” me when we were playing goal-line stand. Kev, my daughters thank you for letting me experiment on you. Jenn, my family would like to thank you for taking damaged goods.

Weddings remind me of one of my favorite Bible passages, no not the 1st Corinthians cliche. I’m talking about Ephesians 5:22. For all you non-Biblical scholars it goes “Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord.” Good stuff, right? I mean every married man knows this works like a charm, right? Verses 23 – 24 continue “For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, His body, of which He is the Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.” Paul would have made some marriage conselor.

But in all sincerity you have to continue to verse 25 which says, “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her…” See as husbands we are to sacrifice everything, even our lives, for our wives and if we are loving our wives to that extent then our wives should be submitting to us knowing we only act out of love for them. Of course we husbands never sacrifice everything even if we should and wives don’t always submit even when they should, but we have Christ who sacrificed everything on the Cross for us as a picture of what marriage should be.

My blogging has gotten a little lax and I forgot to post something very exciting. On August 19th, my 3 girls were baptized into the body of Christ. A good number of our family and friend were there to witness God’s work of Holy Baptism.

Not really, but I was play with scrapblog.com.

Do your parents love you because of what you’ve done or because you are their child? For most, your parents love you because you are their child. If you ever wonder why God loves you and sent His Son to die on the cross for your sins, it’s the same reason.

Some things are with you so much that you forget about them. But when they’re gone, you really feel a void. I lost my wedding ring yesterday while running with my daughter (If you’re near Frankie, Johnnie, & Luigi’s in San Jose, look out for it). Now I feel so weird without it. The weight on my hand. The slight pressure it put on the adjoining fingers. Really subtle stuff. So, HB, I just want to say that I love you. You mean more to me than that symbol could ever relate.

[Update]
HB found my wedding ring in the washer. Woo hoo! I’ve been putting a band-aid on it to prevent it from falling off.

Being a Japanese-American, I’ve grown up with Buddhism. Mostly around funerals but also other traditions like the Obon festival. Being a firm Christian, I’ve never been attracted to Buddhism, but it has always raised some internal conflicts.

Let me start by saying that I’ve never researched exactly what Buddhists teach although it seems like there are different types of Buddhists and you can end up at different places. What I do understand is fundamentally you must do something like find wisdom or reach enlightenment to get to that place. How you know if you reach enlightenment is beyond me. This differs from Christianity that say that you can’t do anything to reach Heaven, except to have faith in Jesus Christ who died on the cross for our sins. And even that faith is a gift from God. (For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. – Ephesians 2:8-9)

So this leads to that big conflict that nobody, including myself, wants to examine. What happens to our Buddhist and other non-Christian family members and friends when they die? If I’m true to my Christian faith, then I can’t honestly say they are with God. Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.” (John 14:6) See, that’s just not something I want to think about. So what am I to do? Start evangelizing all my friends and family. Sounds good until I start alienating everyone, which might be okay with friends but not really practical for family. So, I just pray that God will send the Holy Spirit into their hearts. Maybe my using me and my family or by some other divine means.

With friends like these, you know that God has blessed your life. Last night Erin and I went on our second “quad” date with this group of friends. They are all strong Christians who have influenced my walk with the Lord. One of my struggles is my over reliance on myself and forgetting to trust God. I know He has brought these people into my life to remind me that He will provide all that I need and that I need the company and support of other believers to grow in my faith.

I just read a News.com article where the author shares his experience in selecting an elementary school for his child and he also opines about the state of education as he sees it.

He talks about children being interviewed and being asked to solve problems. About children being observed during these evaluations. All in the name of getting into the “right” school… AT AGE 4! Don’t get me wrong, I believe in getting a great education, in achievement, in excellence, but when do kids get to be kids.

I don’t know where the author lives, but I’ll make a guess that it is in Silicon Valley. I might further guess that it’s Cupertino because of the reference to the Japanese-language immersion school. But the Silicon Valley generalization is close enough. In the Valley, everyone has first hand knowledge that a great education is on the general path to success. We have two of the best schools in the country in Berkeley (fine it’s in the East Bay, but close enough) and Stanford. We also attract people from the other fine institutions in the country. And we have one of the higher standards of living in the country (and cost of living). Most people would agree that there is some correlation between the two.

Living in this environment puts a certain lense on education, namely that you can’t be successful without one and that the better the education the more successful you will be. So, if you want your children to be successful than they must have a good education and if you want them to be the most successful they must have the best education. Who doesn’t want their child to be super successful? Thus the competition to get into the best schools and the tightening of admissions requirements as the demand increases for those schools.

My brother experienced this and I think it’s part of the reason that he is no longer teaching. I experience this on a regular basis with co-workers and others talking about the outside language and study classes and comparisons of schools and school districts. Is the world really that different? Have the laws of success changed? Has the meaning of success changed?

Hey, I’m a product of Lowell High School one of the top high schools in California if not the nation. I also went to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute one of the top schools in engineering. I do place a high value on a quality education, but do I believe I would be less successful if I had gone to Lincoln or San Jose State? Heck no. My parents instilled in me the values of a good education and hard work. These are what have made me successful. I hardly remember anything from either high school or college except for the people and I use almost none of what I learned in my career. But by continuing to learn and working hard, I’m proud of what I’ve accomplished. Am I successful? By my definition, yes! Can I be more successful? Yes! Is it going to take getting additional education from Stanford? Heck no! It’s going to take hard work, desire, self exploration, and learning that no school, other than the school of life/hard knocks can teach.

Here’s a picture of us at my junior high graduation.

I started scanning some pictures from a “biiiiig box,” as Emi would say. Here’s one of Mom and Karen on vacation before I was born.