Chapter 19, Verse 3: Why "Hero?"

Happy Friday Space Travelers. I'm getting off a 7 day long work bender which had me waking up at 4:15AM everyday. I am not a morning person, and if you know me, then you can validate this claim. I manage every morning to wake up and make it to work on time. Some people are surprised that I can do it (because they know how much I love sleep and how goddamn lazy I can be). I'm not disciplined, but I am dedicated; I won't let my team down.

So I've been doing some internal reflection lately, and some thinking about the title of this blog.

There Goes Our Hero.

Maybe I never explained fully why I named it that. Perhaps some just assumed I thought very highly of myself. The truth is that I wanted to name the blog something thematic for my huge road trip over the last summer. I think I was listening to the Foo Fighters too that day.

I was severely down on myself around April 2007 after failing to get a internship. I felt somewhat hopeless and I decided that I I needed to rescue myself. Before I left on my trip I realized that in planning my trip I had captivated the interest of many of my friends or school associates. Many of them had similar disappointments in trying to find work. When I became aware of this, I concluded that the adventure was not just about me. I represented to many the ability to take charge of the their own life and make it as exciting as they want. '

As an engineering student, it was too easy to become over concerned with career goals, and not about life goals outside of the job. I had become so obsessed with finding a job, that I didn't even realize that I had stopped doing my art, stopped doing dance, and stopped trying new things. Somehow, I had let myself be convinced that these things weren't important.

They are.

I drew for while the other day. I felt good. I sang the other night. I heard my voice. I played my music loud and danced around in my hall, I felt free. I'll never have those kinds of feelings from any job in my life no matter how much I enjoy it or find it important. It's important to be wild and free.

However, there is another reason. My dear friend Jon Leek, a man I consider a brother, told me that I was one of his heroes. I had heard this once before when I was younger from another friend Eric. Being told something like this moves something in your heart. It's an incredible responsibility.

You can be a hero too. Perhaps you already are. It doesn't necessarily come from great acts of bravery, we can be heroes for many reasons. Think of...

Great acts of Love
Great acts of Compassion
Great acts of Integrity
Great acts of Generosity
Great acts of Forgiveness

What acts will you be remembered for Space Travelers?

Chapter 4, Verse 8: Who is Alias Tanoue?

Space Travelers, the answers is without a doubt I. Yes, I am Alias Tanoue, pronounced (taw-no-way). What do I mean by this? Well in a recent discussion with my grandfather about our lineage, I learned that the foriegn consolate effed up my great grandfather's name upon entry into the states. How you ask? Well, if you are familiar with your own lineage, you might also know that this kind of thing is not that uncommon for immigrants. In the case of my great grandfather, he only knew his surname as two characters.

The first meaning field, more specifically a rice field or cultivated field. It's most common pronunciation being "ta"

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The second character meaning up, above, or top. This character is most commonly pronounced "ue" or "kami."

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The basic meaning of my name is "top of the rice field" both Tanoue and Tagami are pronunciations of the combination of the above characters.

At first I was kind of angry and then as I watched my grandfather's response I saw that it didn't bother him at all; that it was the pronunciation and not the meaning that had been lost. More importantly and returning to the question at hand Space Travelers, "Who is Alias Tanoue?"

Leave your answer as to who is Alias Tanoue in a bumper sticker below!

Chapter 4, Verse 1: Bloodlines

Yesterday I went to see my grandfather in his residence. He currently is staying at the Villa la Mesa, a small home for about 20 residents. It's a nice place and they even have a cat running around. The cat's name is Felix.
Yes, my Grandpa has a black eye. This is because my aunt threw a ball at him. No it didn't hit his face, but in some spectacular display my Grandfather jumped out of his Wheel chair and tried to catch the ball. This ultimately resulted in him falling down.
When we arrived at the home, Qui Qui was there. Qui Qui is my older brother; a body piercer in Springfield, MO. As you can tell by his look, Qui Qui is thrilled to have his photo taken.
Meet Irene, see lives in suite 11. My Grandfather lives in suite 12. She is a sweet woman, and she told my mother that she would be his friend. It was very kind of her.

Above is picture of my Grandfather's dresser. On the left there is a photo of my grandparents wedding, and on the right, a picture from their 65th anniversary. This summer would have been their 70th together, but after a long few months after injury, my grandmother passed recently.

It may be of importance to some space travelers to know a little more about my family. I as many of you know am half Japanese. I may have also told you I am half Scot, which in recent history, I learned is not completely accurate. With My grandmother's passing, many details about my family have arose.

The first that I find most interesting is that I have had family on this continent since circa 1630. apparently I have a bloodline to the Bakers, and early colonial family that helped establish the Massachusetts Colony, and build it's fort. Apparently my grandmother never threw anything away and one of the items in her possession was letters from and old relative trying to investigate if our family had inherited land. The letters were some 50 years old, and the end result was that, no, we did not. The investigation did however discover the said connection to the Bakers.

The next interesting thing is that many of the artifacts suggested that perhaps three of the four original immigrants on my mother's side were indentured servants. I learned that I have a lot of British blood, as well as French too.

I did not know my Grandmother well. I have lived in Missouri my entire life and for the time we had together it may not have equaled an entire year over the 24 years we shared on this planet. It is hard to learn so much about a person after death, because you can never ask questions. What I do know is this, had we known each other better, I think we would have both shared a great passion for family history.

This photo is from my grandmother's High school graduation, circa 1935. She was very beautiful.

Madeline Kerr, 1918 - 2007