Well-traveled Words

Last April, a news story on NPR caught my ear: debris from the tsunami that devastated Japan in March 2011 had navigated to North American coasts. Soon, more wreckage from the storm: a Harley-Davidson motorcycle found off the shoreline of British Columbia, Canada; and a 66-foot, 160-ton concrete and metal dock that lumbered onto the beach in Newport, Oregon.

But this one piqued my interest the most: the soccer ball that traveled more than 3,100 miles to the shores of Alaska.  It was retrieved by a radar technician, who recognized the language of the handwriting on the ball and brought it home... to his Japanese wife, Yumi.  She discerned that the ball belonged to a student named Misaki Murakami - the writing reflected his classmates’ signatures and the name of his school. Through Yumi’s efforts, the now 16-year-old Misaki, who had lost all of his possessions in the devastating storm, was found. The ball was the only personal item he could reclaim.

Even in our connected world, even with the loss and sadness that the tsunami recalls, stories like this one about a boy's returned keepsake inspire awe and a sense of balance. The words on that soccer ball made it special, solved the mystery of its origin and owner, and brought joy - again - to a young man who needed to know that sometimes what we lose comes back again. And it showed all of us how very small the world is after all, no matter what language we speak.

©2013 A Bit of Brie/Anitabrie   
Reprinted from my editor's letter in Mobility Magazine,  August 2012.