AS A FORMER UNIVERSITY PROFESSOR of Intercultural Communication, I've engaged in numerous interfaith dialogues in places I've lived or traveled within the United States, and regions such as the Middle East, as well as in Japan, my home country.
While many such encounters have been very memorable and have enriched my life and my views of the world, one particular conversation has stood out to me for its beautiful simplicity. It was a conversation that I had several years ago with my father. Every time I recall the episode, I feel God's closeness to each one of us.
My father and I had just returned home after spending a long but beautiful summer day at my youngest sister's wedding. As we were winding down in my parents' living room in Tokyo, my father switched on the TV and began watching a baseball game involving his favorite team. My father is a simple man, but a great thinker. He and my mom gave their three daughters names that signify "Betterment of Humanity" (me), "Dawning of Age," and "Awakening of Age." Neither of my parents, however, is religious at all. One Sunday morning before I headed out to church, my mother asked me, "So ... what exactly do you do at church? Do you say, 'Amen'?" (When I returned to Japan in 2003 after living several years in the US, I began attending the Christian Science branch church in Tokyo.) Growing up, I knew that my mom had associated the Bible with a certain denomination of which she did not think too fondly.
