Skip to main content

Farewell Party

The Taiwanese students hosted a farewell party for graduating members today. There was basically some free food, a slide show presentation, some parting words, and a genuine good time. It's nice to have a community of people with similar backgrounds in a place far from home. I have to admit, though I am not Taiwanese, I do relate to them more than with any other group. I spent a large amount of my teen years in Taiwan, and I think that has a lot to do with who I am today. Still, compared to a lot of my friends now, I've had a rather unique upbringing, and I feel rather blessed by that. Certainly, everyone's life is unique. We all have a story to live, and eventually tell.

Anyways, it's funny how sometimes you feel like you are just about to get to know someone, and then they leave. Think of it this way, at least you got to know them. I believe very much in the Chinese idea of "yuan fen." I like to think of each one of us as strands, let's make 'em golden strands. Some strands are interwoven more closely, almost tightly with others. Some cross once or twice. Others never meet at all. Life is just like that. You have family, lovers, close friends and friends not so close. There are people you see on the streets only once in your life, and others you will never meet. So think of every encounter, even a brief glance while stopping at a busy intersection waiting for the light to change (New Yorkers!), the person next to you and you have a little "yuan fen." Having "yuan" isn't necessarily always a positive thing. Sometimes this person brings you trouble. If we take the global perspective, and think, well, our lives somehow are interwoven, even if its not the most beneficial to me...this helps to make us be more forgiving and understanding. Think holistically!

Enough philosophy for tonight.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Goodbyes

It's hard saying goodbye. A good friend of mine is leaving Duke to return to Paris. He was fed up with the physics program here, and after securing a position in France, decided to return home. It's unfortunate that the department here could not do more to help, as he was genuinely bright; unfortunately he was suffering from depression, probably induced by the stresses of the PhD program as well as the dull boring city of Durham. In general how does one say goodbye? You don't really, especially if you're good friends. You just end up saying hello less often. At least that's my take. Unfortunately, more on goodbyes, it's goodbye to Duke's NCAA hopes for this year. We were outplayed by LSU. Sure the refs were really not entirely fair (from our point of view of course), but they closed our top scorer down. It was a fun run, and I enjoyed watching them play, especially since I thought they played such great team basketball, but it's over. Such a somber posti...

FAO Schwarz!

Found this on Funny Times: What New Toys Did You Get? (compiled by Phil Proctor) Capitalism: He who dies with the most toys, wins. Hari Krishna: He who plays with the most toys, wins. Judaism: He who buys toys at the lowest price, wins. Catholicism: He who denis himself the most toys, wins. Anglican: They were our toys first. Greek Orthodox: No, they were ours first. Branch Davidians: He who dies playing with the biggest toys, wins. Atheism: There is no toy maker. Polytheism: There are many toy makers. Evolutionism: The toys made themselves. Church of Christ, Scientist: We are the toys. Communism: Everyone gets the same number of toys, and you go straight to the opposite of heaven if we catch you selling yours. B'Hai: All toys are just fine with us. Amish: Toys with batteries are surely a sin. Buddhism: Wanting toys causes suffering. They either break, or you outgrow them. Taoism: The doll is as important as the dump truck. Mormonism: Every boy may have as many toys as he wants. Vo...