"Here I Come!", number 138 of 200 from Robert Aitken's book Miniatures of a Zen Master.

In this miniature, Robert Aitken expresses some of the emotion that he felt during the early stages of his repatriation after being held for almost four years of internment by the Japanese.

One can not make light of this yet it seems odd that an internee would come to embrace his captors culture and religion. This is coming from me, someone who has not had these formative experiences. I guess it could go either way, love or hate. It all depends on how much joriki we have developed.

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I'm work on a way to include more woodworking into this site. I took yesterday off work and participated in a "Advance Forest Products Evaluation Field Trip" (technical jargon for a trip to the sawmill). Not any sawmill but Jensen Hardwoods in Walla Walla Washington. Owner/operator, Mark Jensen was very helpful and stayed through his lunch time to help us out-of-towners. This was mostly a scouting expedition.

We'll see what I can produce with the Curly Mango I got. Pictures coming on the newest segmented piece I've finished.

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