Stories from East and West to Save the World

Lessinger, Leon; Redmond, Brian; Yoshinaga, Naomi

ISBN 10: 1499692994 / ISBN 13: 9781499692990

Published by CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2014

About this Item

Print on Demand.

Seller Inventory # I-9781499692990

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Stories from East and West to Save the World
• Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
• Publication Date: 2014
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1499692994
• ISBN 13: 9781499692990
• Binding: Soft cover
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

Stories from East and West to Save the World is Leon Lessinger’s tribute to his son Steve, who was an educator in Japan and died in that country at too early an age. It is the fruit of conversations Leon had with son, based on what Steve’s wife, Naomi, had told Steve about Japan. Leon sees some parallels here with what he observed during his own career as an educator in the United States. He has been assisted in the formulation of his ideas by Brian Redmond, a retired teacher of English to Japanese people. Leon, Brian and Naomi are all convinced that education is not a matter if stuffing facts into a person as letters into a mail box, but is a precious chance to give guidance and courage to those seeking knowledge, and thus shape a better world for all.

About the Author

Leon Lessinger Leon witnessed the testing of atomic bombs, as an army engineer, shortly before the end of World War II. This experience left him saddened and shocked at what humans could do to each other. He went on to have an illustrious career as a U.S. government official in various fields, including 50 years in supervisory positions in the education field. Now retired, he ponders his life and what he would like to leave to future generations. The biggest gift he sees, and the one most needed at present, is a sense of morality and compassion. The stories he writes here are chosen with that aim in view. Brian Redmond Brian is a former Catholic monk who went to Japan as a very young man with the aim of converting Japan to Christianity. This did not happen. The Japanese converted Brian to a wider, more relaxed view of religion, and enabled him to see that every form of religious belief shares a common core: the desire to transcend what we find undesirable in human life. He shares Leon's view that people can be more than greedy animals, that all our religious traditions share this aspiration, and that it is up to educators to teach this. Naomi Yoshinaga Naomi was Steve's wife. She inspired him to love Japan and its traditions. Many of the stories here are the fruit of Naomi's conversations with both Steve and Leon.