It has been over a year since I put virtual ink to virtual paper, or is it blogged on this blog?
What a year that has been! The last blog was about the virus that shall not be named, arriving on our shores. Since then, we have recovered. As we always do. The resilience of the people of these islands never ceases to amaze me. I don't know if it is our superpower or our weakness to simply adapt and make what seemed so hard, so easy. Either way, we are here.
As I start to write this blog, it is August 31, 2023. A normal day. Last day of August. Save for one personal detail. Today is the day my late Father was born, in 1942 on the island of Pingelap. I remember him, not just because he raised me and took care of me, but because his life in so many ways was a reflection of the resilience and hardiness of the people during his times. He was born under the flag of the Empire of Japan, grew up under the flag of the United States of America, and when he passed away, had worked and lived under the flag of his own country, his own people, the Federated States of Micronesia.
What my father had, that not so many of us have now, was perspective. The perspective of living under one administration to another, Japan to the USA to the FSM. The perspective of living on an outer island atoll, then living on a bigger island, and yet another bigger island, and visiting places worldwide like China, Japan, and various parts of the USA. The perspective of living a life catching and growing your own food to one where food was delivered to your doorstep. A perspective of wearing loincloths, known as funtosi, as everyday wear and even to school, to attending and graduating from the University of Hawaii at Manoa, with a bachelor's degree in political science wearing a cap and gown.
Today, as I see it, we lack that sort of perspective. We lack perspective and so we take for granted the blessings bestowed upon us by those who had that perspective. Even worse, those remaining few who grew up under the same or similar circumstances in our islands, have lost that perspective, and live as though everything was just given to us. From having perspective to living in apathy.
My Father, in his time on this earth, never lost that perspective. He would always gently smile and speak of the conditions he grew up in as a necessity that created a better present and hope for the future. Growing up, we were reminded every day of how blessed we were. Our parents spoke to us often of the life they had growing up in post-World War II Micronesia, from the lean times during and after the war, to the blessings in the form of USDA foods that were distributed by the Americans in abundance.
My father spoke of fishing with his grandfather, who was born in 1865 and would pass away in the 1960s at the ripe old age of 102 or 103 when my Father was attending the University of Hawaii at Manoa. That man had an even greater perspective than my father. My great-grandfather, Isaac also known as Serakapw, was born in Kosrae, abducted on the beaches of Lelu while still a child, and ended up living out the rest of his life on the tiny atoll of Pingelap. He lived under the German, Japanese, and American flags. He grew up away from his family and had to adapt at a young age (5-7 years old) to a new life, where he did not speak the language or know anyone.
Maybe that was why my father had a perspective like he did. Spending time fishing with his grandfather undoubtedly brought up conversations about his abduction and adjustment to life in Pingelap that no doubt impressed my father's young mind.
Again, on the birthday of my father who passed away in 2018, these things run across my mind. As I live in this day and age, where the Federated States of Micronesia is entering its third iteration of a compact of free association with the USA and the effects of out-migration are visible to the eye, I try to find the perspective my father had. One that appreciates the present, no matter how it looks, as a result of a past full of challenges while looking to a future full of opportunities.
Since 1986, most of the population has had the privilege to be born and raised under the flag of their own country. Not many can remember when the U.S. Administered these islands under a strategic trusteeship, the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands. With a High Commissioner in Saipan, now the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and District Administrators running the island groups of Palau, Yap, Chuuk, Pohnpei, and the Marshall Islands. These places districts no longer, but sovereign island nations of the Republic of Palau, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, and the Federated States of Micronesia. Immigration to Guam, Hawaii, and the United States was only limited to those seeking higher education, and living under our nation's flag was just a pipe dream.
Today, as sovereign island nations in a unique treaty with the United States of America, I wonder how we view our lives? Do we look upon this country that our Fathers built with disdain? Do we blame the Americans for enticing us to leave our islands in droves? Or do we appreciate the privilege of having a nation, being a citizen of our own country, and having as a partner, the greatest power in the world, the United States of America?
What can we do for our country? This is the perspective we must all have. Not, the other way around. Get some perspective, people. See what it does.
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