This is an English translation of an article to appear in Nikkan San on July 18, 2021, as a part of my bi-weekly column, “The Way of the Pianist.”
I went to Catalina Island for the first time over the three-day holiday weekend. An entirely different world welcomes you after an hour-plus on the ferry out of Long Beach. You hear nothing but the winds, the birds and the waves in distance. You are embraced by the wilderness. The everyday lives in LA feels so distant on the island. The ocean waves wash your soul.
To Wrigley Memorial! 
Ocean breeze from both sides! 
That blue!!
I came back refreshed, ready to start with a renewed resolved, when I was overcome by chill and high fever. I could not keep even a mouthful of liquid down for about 24 hours. How I felt reminded me of the time when I was twenty, when I stayed a month at the hospital, when the doctors gave me a fifty percent survival chance. Curled up, holding my stomach in my bed, I imagined the worst case scenario. Fortunately, on the second day, my fever subsided. I started keeping some liquids in, and I knew I was on my way to recovery. I lost four pounds in a few days, but yesterday for the first time in four days, I played the piano. The tingling sensation of my hands resonating to the sound of the piano was so refreshing, it moved me.
I read a lot in bed, as I recovered. I was able to catch up on a lot of the readings on my list. Right now, my topic of interest is climate change. Experts have been warning that the world as we know it is coming to an end. Habitable land, food, water, energy…all these resources will become increasingly scarce, while climate migrations will dislocate millions. I am reading up on all of this, because I received an invitation to join a coalition. Led by a disaster scientist, three groups of experts will cooperate on this project: physical scientists – who understand what actions are needed to mitigate the crisis; social scientists – who know which emotions encourage action; and musicians/creatives – who know how to invoke emotions. Our goal is to guide and mobilize the critical mass of world citizens to the right actions to mitigate and combat damages from climate change.
Just as our time on this earth is limited, the mother nature, and even our planet are finite and precious, in need of care and protection. Let’s appreciate them by treating them as we’d like to be treated.