No Man Is An Isle - Man as an Individual

Man as an individual*

In the whole world, a vast population indeed, no two people are exactly alike. Even fingerprints are different. It requires an expert to detect the differences. Even look-alike twins are not exactly alike.

Without a doubt, the human being created by God is composed of body, soul (which never dies) and spirit. The body is formed of dust, and after death will return to dust, whether by decay or cremation. That cannot be said of the soul (which returns to God who gave it), or the spirit, which involves several elements to be discussed later.

The study of anthropology includes the idea that we are descended from apes. I’m sure the apes would be embarrassed if they could understand this claim. A brief visit to a zoo is quite convincing. A mother ape holds her baby close both day and night. She does not trust the raising of her baby to some other ape. She climbs trees, swings from branch to branch, while her baby clings to her. Very early apes learn what is good food for health and growth. We humans do not learn so easily what foods are necessary for a balanced diet.

A long time ago, or so I heard, the Japanese thought we foreigners had tails. The communal bath disproved that theory. There are, however, some differences in bodily construction amongst the various races of people on the earth. Some are tall, some are short; there are differences in skin color caused by differences in climatic conditions.

Facial features vary amongst the races, too. But, we are all alike in that we are composed of body, soul and spirit.

The spirit is quite difficult to define. Greek mythology has nine muses that preside over poetry, arts and the sciences. From the Bible we learn about the fruits of the Holy Spirit and the gifts of the Spirit, prophesy, interpretation and so on. The Bible has an account of the prophets, Elijah and Elisha. Apparently Elijah had charge of a school of prophets. Elisha was a faithful student and servant. The day came that Elijah was to be taken away. Elisha followed him so closely that Elijah asked him what he wanted.

Elisha’s response was that he wanted a double portion of Elijah’s spirit. 2.

What was Elijah’s spirit? It was the power to work miracles one after another, never for a selfish purpose. Elijah told Elisha that he had asked for a difficult thing. Still, the student was promised that if he witnessed the master’s ascension, the desire of his heart would be granted. The promise was fulfilled as Elijah’s cloak floated down from the fiery chariot. Elisha was indeed granted special power to perform many miracles.

We can include in our discussion some of those gifts we inherit from our ancestors. It seems to be a factor connected with our genes, whatever those are. Talents and abilities can be considered gifts. Whether these things can be passed down from generation to generation, I am not prepared to say, but sometimes it appears to be the case. Not all are given the same gifts. One sings like a canary; another like a crow, unable to carry a tune even in a bucket. Some are musically inclined and can make music with just a saw, a fiddle and a bow. I was a complete flop at playing the violin. I had an excellent teacher and took private lessons. He tried to teach me without success. Finally, he told me I was wasting my money. It was for me to remain in the church and to try to harmonize with the orchestra playing second fiddle. I did better with a deep - throated cello. Perhaps the problem was that I could not manage to hold an instrument with my chin. The cello could be held well with one leg.

My artistic abilities are practically nil. I can draw a stick man with a circle for a head, slanted lines for eyes, a nose similar to a button, a line for a mouth, curved upwards or downwards, depending on the mood. My preschool Sunday School class loved my drawings because they drew in the same fashion.

Like most women, I have the ‘gift of the gab’. I enjoy studying languages and have studied them over the years in order to enhance my ability in that area. Starting with the basics, I spent two high school years studying Latin, a dead language. In those days Catholic priests still read liturgies in Latin. I attended a midnight mass just to check on my progress. I could not understand even one word. For all I know he could have been speaking Greek, for it surely was that to me. The next language I tackled was French, in college. Since my ancestors were French, I thought it might come a bit more naturally. My teacher was not a French lady, and she urged us not to copy her pronunciation. I did not learn to speak French. 3.

Be that as it may, my love for languages has been helpful. How did I forget my Spanish? My study of Spanish was such a short stint that I almost forgot to mention it. Though my Spanish course was very short, I enjoyed it. In the city where I lived there were many Spanish people. My desire to communicate took me to a Spanish mission and into the homes of Spanish people. They loved to sing and I loved doing it with them. They are indeed a warm-hearted, loving race of people.

Although I mastered none of the languages I studied, the efforts prepared me for my future work, missionary work in Japan. There is not one thing simple about the Japanese language. There are at least four ways of writing. Japanese consists of Chinese characters called ‘Kanji’, English letters called ‘Romaji’ and two other systems. It can really be confusing. Some of the words are so similar we foreigners not only get confused, we confuse others. For instance the word for carrots and people are so similar one minister declared that Jesus Christ came to the world to save all the carrots.

I had my own ‘slip of the lip’. The words for grace and rats are very similar. After attending a special meeting in Tokyo conducted by a famous minister from the U.S., I was asked by the young people of our church in Kawasaki about the topic of the message. I declared that the message was from Acts, and that the text was “great rats” were upon all those diligent people.

Some people think I have a gift for writing. It takes a lot of encouragement, inspiration, spelling checks, patience, time, and you are always worried if you bore or bless your readers.

*This not only refers to the male of the species, but mankind as a whole.