Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Peace Messenger

Haiwa is a happy little boy from Indiana. Recently, he thinks that he’s grown up. Even his father, the Great Chief of the village had allowed him to head out to the sea for fish with the rest of the warriors.

Along the journey, his father told him “The biggest Salmon in the world swims beneath this gigantic aquarium! But it takes a long journey to reach. But remember, do not leave the group anywhere you go. We’re about to get into the realm of the Red Feets (a group of wicked people)!”

Before the trip, Haiwa’s heard so many rumours and stories about the Red Feets, of course he’d listen to his father on this. All along they’ve passed by the great rivers, valleys and hills. Finally, they’ve reached the ‘gigantic aquarium’! The scenery of the lake was breath-taking. Every now and then, there are fishes jumping out of the surface as if they were dancing!

As they landed, Haiwa looked for a large piece of rock and rested himself. He carefully threw the fishing net into the lake and waited for a response. However, as time goes by, there isn’t a single movement or sound. The rest of his people had none of any fishes either. Then Haiwa thought in his mind “This is a wasting of time…” The sun is getting hotter and Haiwa began to feel hunger. He took a look at his father, and saw him napping under the hot sun. Without being noticed, Haiwa put his nets and fishing rods down and set out to look for a meal.

Surprisingly, he found lots of fruit trees somewhere beside the lake. These trees were full of ripened, juicy fruits without a single thorn on it. Haiwa quickly grabbed a few of them and plunged them into his mouth, thinking “Mmm! These fruits are way more delicious than the fishes. Why fish when I can get fruits like these so easily?”

At this very moment, Haiwa heard some noise from ahead. It seemed like someone, or worse, something was enjoying the fruits either! So he gave a question “Hello? Is anyone there?”
Just before he could finish the question, a furry, gigantic bear with his mouth full of fruit juice emerged from the trees! Haiwa wasn’t alone! The bear was alarmed by Haiwa’s existence and it began chasing over him! Off they went into the trees, Haiwa was yelling for help as he ran as fast as he could. Unfortunately, they went deeper into the woods where his father wasn’t able to hear his call.

Without a second thought, Haiwa climbed onto an ancient, large tree once noticing it. Nevertheless, he wasn’t aware that bears could climb trees!

Just when the bear was about to grab Haiwa’s foot, the bear howled loudly out of pain and fell off from the tree. Not knowing who or what have made an attack, the terrified bear quickly ran back to the forest. Haiwa was relieved. But when he looked down, it was an Indiana boy who saved him. That boy who was holding a bow was the one who saved Haiwan from that bear. However, he appeared to look a little odd.

“Thank you very much!” yelled Haiwa. “Hi, I’m Haiwa, what’s your name?”
“Call me Hawk!”

Haiwa thought the boy sounded strangely, so he laughed and said “You have a weird accent!”
Hawk then scowled and replied “The Red Foots speak like this all the time. You Black Foots should be the weird ones who dressed yourselves oddly.

Haiwa was astonished, “Red Foots? But… but my dad told me that Red Foots are stubborn since you’re all wearing red deerskin shoes… And you guys are lazy, dishonest and you don’t bath everyday!”

Hawk was amazed by these words, then he replied “What? My dad says you Black Foots are cunning and crafty! And… and… who bath everyday anyway?”

Haiwa paused for a while after that, then burst into laughter “Haha, I guess you’re right on the bathing part.

Haiwa and Hawk then began to share each other’s stories. They’ve found out so much about each other. They might have been growing up from different places, but they share similarities too. Both of them enjoy having apples on the tree, when the day is hot and steamy, they’d head into the lake. Not only that, even their parents share similarities! For example, they’d tell their kids to sleep on time, to finish up their meals, and so on!

Hawk: “I have the worst sister ever!”
Haiwa: “No way! Mine is the worst! Haha!!”

They’ve spent all the afternoon talking about each other’s life, wandering around the woods. When they’ve discovered a bunch of beavers by the river, they’ve even begun to chase over them like happy kids.

Out of a sudden, they could hear a loud noise that seemed to have come from the lake. It’s the Red Foots and the Black Foots! It seemed that both of these people have all came to the same place! Coincidentally, both Hawk and Haiwa’s fathers were there, and they were about  to catch the same fish as they hooked the same aim. It was that gigantic fish that they’ve been talking about! Hawa’s father yelled “Hey! Let go! This belongs to me!” Then Hawk’s father shouted too “No! This is mine!”

Both of them wouldn’t let go as they struggle to the hardest. Then, the warriors of the Red Foots and the Black Foots stood by their leaders and began shouting out loud. The chiefs pulled their fishing rod as strong as they could. However, the fishing rods couldn’t bear the force and broke into two. Both of the chiefs ended up falling into the icy water which then became a matter of laughter for the warriors of both sides.

To stop being laughed at, both the chiefs stood up as fast as they could and ran towards each other with the gaze of anger in their eyes. “It’s all your fault!” yelled Haiwa’s father. “No, it’s you! If it wasn’t for you, I would have caught that fish!” yelled Hawk’s father.

Meanwhile, in the middle of this chaos, Haiwa ran towards the fish and called Hawk upon. He had an idea to stop this war between the groups! Combining both their effort and forces, they’ve took the broken rods and pulled hard. After a few moments of struggling, the gigantic fish finally gave up. At the right moment, Haiwa and Hawk tied the rods and the string on the rocks and pulled the fish up onto the shores.

“Look what we’ve got!” yelled both of the boys. “We worked together and caught the big fish!”
At this very moment, nobody gave a move, as they were all astonished and amazed by the boys.

Hawk said to this father “Father, if we could start to collaborate with the Black Foots, I’m sure that we could have all the fishes we want!”

Haiwa, on the other hand, told his father “If the Red and Black Foots persisted on this war, we wouldn’t be getting anything in the end!”

Both the chiefs paused for a few moments and they’ve begun to think about what their children have said. It does make sense. It is till then they realized the importance of peace and collaboration between people. Finally, they’ve shook hands and agreed to stay peaceful between their people.

For the first time in history, the Red Foots and the Black Foots are working together! They’ve got all the fish they wanted in no time as they join forces. This way, the Indiana citizens would never have to worry about their meals!

When they were about to head home, they waved to each other with a smile on their faces. They’ve constructed a bridge of friendship between them, and promised to pay a visit to each other’s place more frequent.
As they leave, both the boys began telling stories about the other people to their fathers.

Soon, all the people knew more about each other, stopped from fearing and hating each other, began to care and understand more about the people on the other side. Then, they’ve all lived happily ever after.



Words for the children:

What Haiwa and Hawk has done in the story is to combine their forces together for the fish, which ended up reminding their fathers of the importance of team work.

Haiwa and Hawk may still be kids, but they possess the power to awaken and enlighten their fathers. In comparison, most of the people would have not discovered what we could do. When there are challenges, we often keep it low and act like nothing has happened.

Ikeda Sensei once said “we must become ‘courageous sons of a lion’, ‘courageous challenger’, ‘justice victor’. Ikeda Sensei is giving his hope on us, treating us as the world’s treasure, sons of a lion, sons of the sun. Ikeda Sensei has always been expecting us to courageously voice out and take a move.

Hawk and Haiwa had courageously voice out what they think and make it into action to bring the people of both sides together! These are the true warriors that lead the people of both sides to live in a harmony and peaceful land. Come to think of it, when our friends or family members were quarreling, have we ever make a move to pull them back together?

The story brings the message of Peace. If the hatred and misunderstanding between the Red Foots and the Black Foots were never to be resolved, it could lead to a saddening war. In the Human Revolution, Ikeda Sensei stated –

Nothing is more barbarous than war!
Nothing is more cruel than war!

Ikeda Sensei’s childhood wasn’t as comfortable or easy as what we’re having. It was a period of war during his childhood. No one could live without fear or worries. Not to mention his eldest brother’s lost his life in the war. This had brought a lot of pain for the family. Since then, Ikeda Sensei strongly disagrees on war, and had vowed to not let war happen again.

Ikeda Sensei is still striving forward for the sake of our happiness and world peace until this age. War exists when there is misunderstanding and lost of trust. To stop war, we must have peaceful dialogues to eliminate doubts and distrust.

Thus, we have a very crucial mission, to be the courageous Peace Messenger! The origin of courage is faith. We must have Daimoku like a lion’s roar!

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Written at 2:29 PM by Paper Pilot.