THE JAPANESE FIFTY

One of the few messages humanity applauds in common is "be all you can be!" Crafty little shibboleth that seems to fit everything from Army recruitments to camp revivals. Trouble is, the message gets so garbled among so many of its listeners. What actually does it mean to-be-all-we-can-be?

Seems it has something to do with drawing deep from within ourselves for what is most important in there. Our knowledge, our skills, our devotions, our willingness to put everything on the line for a worthy cause. For the impossible dream. However, this is where the message gets translated differently. From the Spartans to the Nazis, war is what brings out the best in us. From the ancient prophets to today's new agers, self-discovery is the answer. From Wall Street bankers to used car dealers, closing the sale is the name of the game. From poets to psychologists, finding a fulfilling love. For the terminally ill, finding a reconciling death.

For anyone absorbed in their own everyday toil and troubles, they can look across the Pacific to the Japanese Fifty. Fifty first-responders who have apparently volunteered to enter the nuclear danger zones and try taming the beast. Whatever comes from this extraordinary commitment, anyone who is safe in their own comfort zone is obliged to pause here. Is this not one of those exceptional moments when we are witness to what our artists strive to report to us what is best about us?

Michelangelo's "David," DaVinci's "Last Supper," Beethoven's "Eroica," Wilder's "Our Town," Chicago Mayor Daley's "Millennium Park," Mom's family dinner every Thanksgiving.

For billions of us over the centuries, the Book of Genesis has been a touchstone. It has been studied -- as the word of God or at least the words of inspired seekers -- for its explanation of why there is so much good in humanity side by bloody side with so much that is evil. The answers layered inside its strange passages seem to be looking for a connection between what is best and worst about us.

The Japanese Fifty did not likely ever read Genesis. And if they did, they may not see any connection. But, by finding within themselves what is best, they may be telling the rest of us that what is worst need not prevail after all...!