My 1st personal goal has long been to make better the lives of people I meet; But Takahashi-san did that for me, instead.  

Respect!

1974. A San Francisco art house on Fillmore St. Leased from Carlos Santana by Billy Roberts, the old print factory had been converted to a recording studio and dojo.

Billy's kindhearted bass player Jon Bessarian fed a little white stray cat on our roof. They called her Sorry, her little face was so sad.
In order to get to the roof Jon had to go out my window. He climbed on the desk, opened the French windows and stepped over the ledge.

One day Takahashi san, Steve and I were relaxing in the room when Jon came with her food. He explained it to Takahashi san, who asked if anybody went out to pet her.

Jon replied that it was impossible, she was wild. Takahashi san smiled. "You don't know anything about cats." He waited until she had eaten and left. and then instructed us, "You can watch through the opening in the curtain. Don't move, don't make a sound, and don't move the curtain." He went barefoot out onto the gravelly roof, sat down and folded his legs into a lotus and went perfectly still. Jon, Steve and I stacked ourselves at the opening and waited.

To our surprise Sorry peeked over the rooftop almost immediately. She stared at the motionless black figure. Unafraid, she came to investigate. She walked all around him in a circle and sniffed him. She looked very tiny. She climbed into his lap and lay down. She looked up at his face. He didn't move. She snuggled in and relaxed. Very carefully, he opened one eye slightly and looked down to see which end was which. He closed his eye and gently stroked her. She looked sweet and happy. She looked at him with love.

Suddenly there was a loud noise in the street and she jumped up and went away over the roof.

He came back in the window. "Cats are number one sensitive. That is all you need to know."



Beautiful sunny morning at Kirby Cove on Wacky Jacky
Thursday, September 20th

We look before and after
　　　　And pine for what is not:
　　Our sincerest laughter
　　　　With some pain is fraught;
　　Our sweetest songs are those 
　　　　that tell of saddest thought.

前をみては、後(しり)えを見ては、物欲(ものほ)しと、
あこがるるかな　われ。
腹からの、笑といえど、苦しみの、そこにあるべし。
うつくしき、極(きわ)みの歌に、悲しさの、極みの想(おもい)、
籠(こも)るとぞ知れ

Percy Bysshe Shelley - To a Skylark/夏目漱石　草枕


この間あったばかりなのに
本当にビックリしています
今はベッドの上ではなく 
自由に動けて好きなタバコを吸ったり、刀を振ったり出来てますか？
そうだったら嬉しいです。
いままで本当にお世話になりありがとうございました
どうぞゆっくり休んでください
そして私達を見守っていてください

I was truly taken by surprise since we visited so recently
Out of your the bed, are you now freely moving about, smoking your cigarettes, swinging your sword?  I hope so.
Thank you so much for everything.  Please rest in peace, and continue to watch over us.

OBITUARY

Eiichi Takahashi

November 19, 1926 – September 4, 2018

San Francisco Columbarium & Funeral Home

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