Baseball in Hiroshima
A memory of my maternal grandmother, who used expressive words and expressive gestures to carry everyday conversations so well:
Mama Liz often worked in references to music in her stories. She would say something like “Dah dah dah dah dah” in a particular rhythm, and her hands and arms would sweep back and forth … keeping time in the air like a conductor.
Her daughter — my mom — accompanies phrases like “careening onward” with a rolling hand over hand motion, keeping time with some great story symphony.
It’s interesting that I remember HOW these stories were told — and are told — more than I remember the stories themselves.
In the same way, this is largely how I remember our time today in Hiroshima, Japan. How else do you connect a visit to the blast site of the world’s first wartime atomic bomb … with a visit to a raucous Mazda Zoom Zoom Stadium cheering on the home team Hiroshima Carps … and everything else in between?
For me, it’s all connected by a memorable collection of words. Gestures. Emotions. Moments. Even sounds, like these:
In this clip, Japanese school children sing songs of peace, in formation, facing Hiroshima’s Children’s Peace Monument.
Hours later, a Hiroshima Carps batter belts a home run over the left field fence — about 20 seconds after the beginning of the clip.
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