“Do you hate me?”

Yesterday, Yvan and I went to the club to work out in the pool and I like to cook in the steam room for about 20 or 30 minutes, depending how much the bones are complaining. Then I sit and meditate as the body cools down and then into a shower and then the hot tub and then off to the shower room.

Shower rooms are a place where everything is literally laid bare. The facade of clothing is not there to protect you and neither are there any other ornaments. All your battle scars are there for all to see as are all your physical imperfections.

So it was here where 4 old veterans were filling the shower rooms with the aromas of various types of body washes and soaps. It was here where I was confronted by three Japanese men of another generation still haunted by the specter of a war long over. Between the three they mustered the courage to ask me if I hated them.

I told them about an encounter I had at a coffee shop with a man who had once fought with an army against the United States and how we became friends through the power of forgiveness and the blood of Christ since we had both become Christians later on in life.I then said that hate breeds bitterness and bitterness kills the one bearing it not the one we hate.

“So, no, I do not hate you, and I thank you for asking.” I told them that it was my hope we could become better friends.

One of the drawbacks of showers is that they do hide tears, but they do not hide smiles of relief when an old darkness has been dispelled by the light.