New York, N.Y. There is one person in my life who is incredibly grateful forever. Yuko Ito who raised my only daughter, Reiko. My mother sent Yuko to America for expecting date of July 4, 1969. Yuko graduated from the Department of Japanese Literature at Japan Women’s University and My Mother arranged for me for […]
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Gentle Mugi’s Vet said, “He Can Only Live a Few More Days”
New York, N.Y. There is a dog called Mugi that Keiko Aoki really loves very much. The first Mugi-chan died when Rocky Aoki was still alive. So the next day, Rocky said to Keiko, “I’ll bring you the same one.” The second Mugi-chan was a Wheaton Terrier male, and it wasn’t a female like Mugi-chan before. […]
Lara Jabbour: 2020 Luce 24 Under 24 Award Recipient
By Lara Jabbour, 2020 Luce 24 Under 24 Award Recipient University of Virginia New York, N.Y. My hands quiver. I wait for some sort of cue, a sign, a voice that will tell me exactly what to do and how to feel. Instead, “America is scarier – you have tornados there,” offers my cousin. He […]
The Difference Between Compassion and Pity
The Difference Between Compassion and Pity: Volunteering after Japan’s Earthquake & Tsunami (Part 2) New York, N.Y. During my stay in the disaster area, I had been praying for the Dalai Lama to come to Japan. To my surprise, when I returned to Tokyo, he arrived to Japan on April 29th, the most important day […]
Volunteering after Japan’s Earthquake & Tsunami (Part A)
New York, N.Y. I volunteered in the Great Northeastern Japan Earthquake disaster area through April 2011. The area was far more devastated than what could be seen on TV. Although I had volunteered in other disasters, nothing prepared me for the enormity of this: it seemed as if Japan was reliving World War II. Whenever […]
Pandemic First Person: Already One Week (Part B)
New York, N.Y. I stayed home for another week. Now I have a lot of reading time and I am spending at least four hours a day meditating as if I was at the meditation dojo. I also go for walks in the park, moving in the sun. My life is luxurious, thanks to the […]
With Wonderful Tibetan Orphans, Reflecting on How I Got Here
Tawang, India. Twenty-five years ago, I stumbled upon a ten-month old infant in Indonesia who would change the direction of my life: my son, Mathew James Tendean Luce. With incredible Tibetan orphans, high up in the Himalayas on the Bhutan/China border at Manjushree. Photo: Stewardship Report. My mother, a child psychologist in Boston, encouraged me to […]
Shock of a Lifetime – My Dream Fulfilled Under the Buddha Tree
Bihar, India. I began working ‘in the field,’ out of New York in developing countries, in 1999. Never in two decades of helping humanity have I been more shocked that I was this week. On a tour of an important site, I was directed to notice a sign on the side of the road. It […]
