If A Few Minutes Of

We Lead Our Lives Like Water Flowing Down A Hill, Going More Or Less In One Direction Until We Splash Into Something That Forces Us To Find A New Course.

When We Fight Upstream Against A Rocky Undercurrent, Every Foothold Takes On A Kind Of Urgency.

We Human Beings Have A Remarkable Way Of Growing Accustomed To Things.

For A Flicker Of A Moment I Imagined A World Completely Different From The One I'd Always Known, A World In Which I Was Treated With Fairness, Even Kindness-- A World In Which Fathers Didn't Sell Their Daughters.

I Studied Japanese Language And Culture In College And Graduate School, And Afterward Went To Work In Tokyo, Where I Met A Young Man Whose Father Was A Famous Businessman And Whose Mother Was A Geisha. He And I Never Discussed His Parentage, Which Was An Open Secret, But It Fascinated Me.