Presidents Message Dec 2009

The Midas Gift � President�s Message

The week after Thanksgiving, Lynda and I received a frantic late night call from our daughter. On the way to her college class, she had said that her car was making a terrible sound every time that she drove it. Not knowing what was wrong and since she was at school which is over 90 miles away, we instructed her to not drive the car and that I would go up to check it out the very next weekend. By her description, I was hoping that the problem was the car�s muffler. Checking online, I found a local muffler shop and took the car to have it checked out. It turned out to be only the muffler, but the total cost ended up to be a significant amount. After paying the bill, Lynda jokingly said to our daughter, �I guess you just got your Christmas present." Her response was �OK, that�s fine, I am just happy to have a car to drive, since it has been so cold lately." She got in her car, started it up and had a big grin on her face as she silently left the parking lot.

Although there were other presents from us, our daughter�s response did not surprise us. After all, she is the result of the mentoring by teachers from Lotus, Dharma School, Junior Choir, Girl Scouts and YBA. I have many answers and reasons why I am a Betsuin member; this is just one of mine.

Happy New Years

Steve Ichinaga