Be like water: Today So Far

• New Bruce Lee exhibit opens in Seattle, exploring his life and philosophy.
• Monkeypox spreads further in Western Washington as vaccines arrive.
• Lori Matsukawa awarded with the Order of the Rising Sun.

This post originally appeared in KUOW's Today So Far newsletter for July 11, 2022.

Have you ever watched "Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story?" If you're like me, you had ample opportunity to watch it on cable TV throughout the 1990s (it felt like it was always on some channel). And also, if you're like me, you loved it and got sucked in every time.

As an adult, however, I was a little disappointed to find out that a lot of Lee's story was, let's say "stretched" for dramatic effect by the director. And some was left out, like Seattle. Watching the film, you wouldn't know that Lee came to Seattle, lived here, worked at Ruby Chow's restaurant, went to school here, and met his wife here. And he was laid to rest here.

I still love "Dragon." But if you want to dive deeper into who Bruce Lee was, and his philosophy, you can find it at the Wing Luke Museum.

A new interactive exhibit, "Be Water, My Friend: The Teachings of Bruce Lee," just opened in Seattle. Part of this exhibit is more than 1,200 books he studied. “We're trying to express through his book collection, his sentiments on his philosophical idea around being like water," Shannon Lee, Bruce Lee's daughter, told KUOW. "So, this exhibit explores that idea, tells you the origin story of his philosophy on water, and how it came to be.”

KUOW's Mike Davis has the full story here.

The monkeypox situation continues to grow in Western Washington. Last week, the Today So Far Blog reported that monkeypox was spreading throughout the King County community. In other words, it wasn't just showing up because someone travelled into town from a place with an outbreak. It's now spreading from person-to-person (nine people in King County as of last week). That spread has now reached Pierce County where health officials are reporting that a man in his 30s has a presumptive case of monkeypox. The CDC still has to confirm it. The man reportedly doesn't have a severe case and is recovering at home. Just like the situation in King County, the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department is reporting that the new case is not related to travel, meaning the man got the infection from someone else in the community.

Some good monkeypox news is that the Washington state Department of Health just received a shipment of monkeypox vaccine — enough to inoculate 398 people. The vaccine comes in two doses. Nationally, health officials want to get one million doses distributed.

“The risk to the public is low at this time," said state epidemiologist Dr. Scott Lindquist. "Transmission generally requires close, skin-to-skin contact with someone who has symptoms of the disease. For people who have had recent contact with someone who tested positive for monkeypox, the vaccine can reduce the chance of developing a monkeypox infection.”

Personally, I'm hoping that the monkeypox story fades away soon — mainly because KUOW only has one file photo for monkeypox from the Associated Press, and it's pretty boring. We can't keep that up for too long on KUOW.org. So fingers crossed.

I love stories like this next one — Lori Matsukawa has been honored with the Order of the Rising Sun. Within three generations, her family went from coming to the United States to becoming one of the most influential figures in Seattle media, and being awarded one of Japan's highest honors.

The Order of the Rising Sun was established in 1875 by Japanese Emperor Meiji to honor a range of accomplishments, from international relations to promoting Japanese culture. When Matsukawa's family came to the United States in the early 1900s, it was forbidden to even look at the Japanese emperor. As she grew up in Hawaii and then built a TV news career in Seattle through the 1980s and 1990s, the medal was still not given to women.

Now, the Order of the Rising Sun has been presented to Lori Matsukawa.

"Here I am getting an award from the imperial family, recognizing my efforts to bring the Japanese and Japanese-Americans together," Matsukawa told KUOW. Matsukawa briefly spent time reporting at KOMO before moving to KING 5 in the early 1980s. That's where she spent her career delivering the news to the Seattle-area, while including an awareness of Japanese events, such as the the Great Hanshin earthquake in 1995, or the tragic tsunami turned nuclear disaster in 2011. But she did a lot more. Read the full story here.

AS SEEN ON KUOW

Washington state has one of the country’s largest populations of Japanese Americans. Many were shaken by the news of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s assassination Friday in western Japan. "It was just shock," said Megumi Ijiri, shortly after returning from a trip to Japan. (Associated Press)

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