What did you do this week (and weekend)?

So this actually happened last weekend, but I've been busy as hell with packing and preparing to move out of Texas.

Had the, likely once in a lifetime, opportunity to watch a swordmaking demonstration from third generation master Japanese swordsmith Masaya Yoshida. Considered in the top 10 master swordsmiths in Japan (currently ranked 7th of about 150), his family has been making swords for over 900 years, he belongs to the longest unbroken lineage swordsmithing group in Japan (others have technically existed for longer, but had periods where they didn't make swords/have any swordsmiths). He and his apprentices make everything, from planting their own forest for later generations to make their own charcoal (and harvesting the previous generations' trees to make the charcoal they use), to making their own tamahagane steel from iron sand, to the swords, and scabbards and all things in between.

He and his father (now passed away) both have swords that are considered by the Japanese government to be cultural property that cannot be exported out of the country. His father has swords that still protect shinto shrines and buildings all over the country; typically a swordsmith's works are returned upon his death, but many of his remain in place as he was so revered that people kinda-sorta ignoring that he has passed. His magnum opus katana sold for closer-than-not $1M. During COVID he forged and auctioned a katana to fund PPE for a local hospital that went for about $350k.

All to say his father was a very big deal and Masaya Yoshida is already a big deal and likely to continue the upward trajectory, he has a son that is too young to be interested in continuing the tradition at the moment, but does have an older daughter that is extremely interested in doing so and likely will once she reaches adulthood unless she changes her mind before then.

Album dump of videos and photos: https://photos.app.goo.gl/Mx1XxfEZRscMTVzX9

Well, its a bit personal, but I watched my mother die.

She was 86 and has been sick for years so none of this was unexpected, but I got a call a few days ago that my dear mom was 'on her journey home'. We packed up and drove as fast as was reasonable, 1900 kms to get to her room in time.

And then, for a day and a half my siblings and I sat around her bed and talked and reminisced as we comforted our dear mom. She was an amazing woman with a very deep Christian faith, so we read her some scripture out of her Bible, played her favorite hymns softly in the background and just held her hand and let her know how much we loved her. It was quiet and almost sacred towards the end, when there was nothing left to say or do, but wait.

And slowly, very slowly, her breathing got shallower and then there were long pauses where she just stopped breathing at all. Every time I thought that it was the last time, but she would slowly start breathing again. The nurses explained that all her organs were shutting down and that was the process that happens, til eventually even the lungs quit and the heart stops. It was much slower and less dramatic than I expected but it wasnt unpleasant at the end, as they made sure she wasnt feeling any pain.

And then she was gone. My dear mom slipped away forever in the wee hours of the morning.

Because of her devout faith I sincerely hope for her sake she is where she expected to be in heaven with the God she fully believed in and trusted for her entire life. We'll never know, but if there is justice or karma or a God who rewards people for the way they lived their life, my mom deserves to be in heaven. She loved fully, compassionately and even though she spent the bulk of her life in pain, she was always encouraging, supportive and had a great sense of humor. She was very kind and sweet and even the nurses admitted that she was their favorite patient.

She will be missed but she's finally free. Love you Mom. Thank you for your lifelong example of love, kindness and perseverance. We won't forget.