the kongdan foundation

Sunday, June 11 Nanjing to Chengdu/Chongching/Shanghai

I checked out of the hostel and made my way first to a taxi, then an airport shuttle for my 11:50 flight to Chengdu where I tentatively plan to stay until Wednesday or Thursday at the Flipflop Lounge Hostel. (reservations confirmed).

I arrived as hostel and contacted my student Megan I had arrived. We are to have dinner tonight. I later met her at 5:30 and we went to a Peking duck restaurant and had dinner. Megan was my student for many classes at Jining University. She graduated and I returned to USA after Spring semester 2013. She is now a kindergarten teacher here in Chengdu. I am to see two or three other students, Fay and Chrystal while I am in Chengdu.

After dinner, we walked back to the hostel, and I wondered what it was that made me so attracted to her. She is forty years younger than me and about the same age as my daughter Emily. Since we first met and learned she was from here in Chengdu, I felt something different about her. Later that night or early the next morning as I researched the places I would go on Monday; the answer came to me.

Monday, June 12

Marco Polo had been here in Chengdu more than 740 years ago. He or perhaps his father Niccolò or uncle, Maffeo, who traveled through Asia and met Kublai Khan had met a woman from Chengdu and she was one of the women who returned to Italy with them. Perhaps I am an offspring, or descendant of the relationship. I have often wondered and spoke about why this connection to China runs so deeply inside me. That as I have studied and traveled in China for twenty years, my interest seems to wane after the time of Kublai Khan. It is always as if I am traveling in my own footsteps of where I have been before. Maybe the attraction I felt for my student Megan, was not so much directed to her, but she was meant to pull me back to Chengdu where all this would eventually become clear.

This is actually my third trip to Chengdu. I was here in 2007 with friends from Atlanta. While here we visited the Wenhu Monastery. I remember giving one of by books to a monk then,  and he in turn gave me a book on Buddhism. I returned here in June 2014 for two weeks to see Megan and visit many historical sites.  The one’s that stood out the most then were the Sichuan Museum, the Wuhou Temple (Memorial Temple of Marquis Wu) that is dedicated to Zhuge Liang, the Marquis Wu (Wuhou) of Kingdom of Shu in the The Three Kingdoms Period (220 – 280).  Qingcheng Mountain and the Qingcheng Taoist Temple.  What strikes me now three years later with this revelation, is that all, even the ancestors of the nearby pandas would been seen by Marco Polo and his traveling companions.  As if all the more the thousand pictures I took were taken simply following my own footsteps from before and had been stored previously in my memories. Now here I am again and I realize that this infatuation with Megan was not with her, but it is as if her role is simply to wake me up to why I am here. The same as many people and signposts I have encountered before on this trip and others. That in reality almost everywhere I have been and things I have seen were here back in 1270 in the time of Marco Polo, except in Nanjing and a few others that add context to today’s story.

So here I am. It’s Monday morning, June 12 and as I fill my itinerary, my first stop is the Wenshu Buddhist Monastery I visited ten years ago. There is something about the quiet, peacefulness and tranquility here that I find very natural and appealing. Initially built in the Southern Dynasty (420–589), Wenshu Monastery, is one of the most eminent Buddhist temple in Sichuan Province. Cultural relics are the highlights of Wenshu Monastery. Since the Tang (618–907) and Song dynasties (960–1279), over 500 pieces of painting and calligraphy by celebrities have been stored here. In the Sutra-Preservation Pavilion, many famous handwriting exhibits, paintings, and artwork have been restored. These precious works of art were created by renowned Chinese painters and calligraphers, including Zhang Daqian, Zheng Banqiao, and Feng Zikai. Besides these, among the millions of Buddhists sutra preserved in Cangjing Tower, the Apothecary and Diamond Sutra bestowed by Kangxi Emperor of the Qing Dynasty are of extreme research value.

As I am walking through the Temple taking more pictures, I come to the monastery itself and decide to meditate inside for a while. I often do meditation and frequently visit the Buddhist Temple back home in Springfield. So, I went inside, removed my backpack and shoes and became quiet and still and tried to soak up the environment. Almost immediately a single thought came to mind…

What am I going to do with what I know now? As if the universe was making its final call and the dragons are getting impatient.

I got up, thought more about it and knew the day was meant for fasting, contemplation, and decisions.

I next went by taxi to Du Fu’s Thatched Cottage Museum and gardens. Du Fu’s Thatched Cottage is a 24-acre park and museum in honor of the Tang dynasty poet Du Fu at the western outskirts of Chengdu, adjacent to the Huanhua Xi (Flower Rinsing Creek). In 1961 the Chinese government established Du Fu Cao Tang as a National Heritage site. In 759 Du Fu moved to Chengdu, built a thatched hut near the Flower Rinsing Creek and lived there for four years. The “thatched hut” period was the peak of Du Fu’s creativity, during which he wrote two hundred and forty poems, among them “My Thatched Hut was torn apart by Autumn Wind” and “The Prime Minister of Shu”. As a writer myself, although humbled by those here I encounter, I often visit the places where writers lived and try to see their impact on their times. Writing for myself, is as much reading and contemplation, as expressing our own thoughts. After over a month of traveling in China to five provinces and almost a dozen cities by bus, train, and by air; quiet contemplation as I continue this journey to discover the “what am I going to do now”, seems to predicate my every thought.

My next stop this morning is to the Wangjiang Pavilion. Located on the south bank of Jinjiang    River here in Chengdu, Wangjiang Pavilion (Wang Jiang Lou) that literally means ‘River Watching Tower’ in English.

While Wuhou Temple mentioned above honors the legendary minister of Shu, Zhuge Liang, and Du Fu Cottage honors the Sage of Poetry, River Watching Tower (Wangjiang Tower) is dedicated to a woman, Xue Tao, a poet in the Tang Dynasty (618-907). Another writer who attained great notoriety and respect.  History records that she wrote five hundred poems. Once inside the park what gets your attention is the bamboo trees. Xue Tao loved bamboo; over 150 kinds of bamboo from China and abroad grow here in her honor.

I then went to the shopping area called the Kuan, Zhai, and Jing Alleys for lunch at Starbucks. Coffee and a couple crescent rolls. I then went by taxi to the South Train Station to buy my train ticket in advance for Wednesday’s travel to Chongqing. Afterwards I returned to the hostel to rest the rest of the day.

Except that Monday night I got a text from Yongchun, my publisher in Beijing who wants to contact me because they may want me to do some translations for them. I also made my reservations in Shanghai for Friday through next Wednesday at the Shanghai MOUSSE International Hostel. I stayed one night here and moved to Wood and Rock International Hostel. It was much larger and more centrally located to People’s Square and places I wanted to see in Shanghai.

Tuesday, June 13

I woke up at 3 AM Tuesday morning to confirm something on my computer and maybe change my flight from Shanghai to Beijing on Friday and while opening my word document of my travels, I accidentally erased everything I has just written for Sunday and Monday here in Chengdu. I had to spend until 10:30 AM and 3:30 PM adding pictures the next day redoing it… ouch. Then while trying to edit and add new content on my website, I somehow added the content to the title and blew everything up… We later attributed it to a wifi glitch, however what this meant was I could not make any entries on the website until after I returned home and contacted WordPress. This all basically consumed my whole day.  Except I had to set off to find ATM and People’s Park to commiserate.

Wednesday, June 14 leave for Chongqing until Friday then fly to Shanghai. I walked over to an area I was familiar with from my previous visit to find a Bank of China ATM. Then back to Flipflop Hostel and checked out. Today is another travel day and I took a taxi to the South Train Station. The taxi stand was on the opposite side of the building of departure area and the walk seemed like the equivalent of four football fields in length for no apparent reason. This was a fast train, so it only took a couple hours to get to Chongqing. Once there, the taxi stand had well over a hundred people in line, and few taxis… Once I got a taxi, he took me more than a mile from where I wanted to go in the pouring rain and dropped me off. I got another taxi once I had gotten directions and he took me to about four to five blocks and I had the pull my luggage, computer, etc, in the rain to my hostel on sixteenth floor of an office building.

After finally checking in I just wanted to rest. I reviewed several locations for tomorrow and then walked with a student names Aaron from Nanjing to an area nearby called the Hongya Cave, a shopping area next to the Yangtze River. We got to the riverfront by taking an elevator from eleventh floor of an adjacent building.

Thursday, June 15     I seem to be following the Yangtze River for over a week now since leaving Qufu and arriving in Nanjing last Tuesday. From there it was a hop by plane to Chengdu, now a skip by train to Chongqing, and finally a jump by plane again to Shanghai, before heading home to USA next Wednesday. All at varying points along the river.

There are five famous cities, these four plus Wuhan (where I visited in 2003 is what tells the real story of south-central China). Chongqing seems to go on forever, has a population of over thirty million and is considered the largest city in China. I only have a day to get a taste of it before heading to Shanghai tomorrow.

This morning Aaron and I headed a famous noodle restaurant called Flower Market and had bean with meat sauce and noodles soup for breakfast in a steady drizzle of rain that lasted throughout the day.

Afterwards we went to the Arhat Buddhist Temple that was undergoing serious renovation. Chongqing Arhat Temple was built in the Zhi-Ping years of North Song Dynasty (1064-1067).

Its primitive name was Zhiping Temple. In Qian-Long the 17th year of Qing Dynasty (1752), the front hall inside the temple collapsed and it was renovated into a Longshen (Dragon Deity) Shrine. During the Qing Dynasty (1885), a monk named Longfa rebuilt the temple. He built an Arhat Hall and made 500 clay sculptures of Arhat, and its name was officially changed into Arhat Temple. In 1942 during World War Two, the Arhat Temple was nearly destroyed. Fortunately, it was later repaired.

During the Cultural Revolution, these clay sculptures were destroyed totally, but later restored. Many art treasures are collected in the Main Hall of Chongqing Arhat Temple, including the statues of 16 Mahakas yapa-the 16 best students of Sakyamuni. There are also the bronze statues of the “Three Saints of the West” in Ming Dynasty, the jade statue of Sakyamuni of Burma as well as the copy of the Indian mural about the story of Sakyamuni becoming a monk. I have now been to four Buddhist Temples on this trip, in Beijing, Nanjing, Chengdu, and now here in Chongqing. (I will visit s fifth in Shanghai before heading home). All are very unique and have contributed greatly to my own understanding of Buddhist influence on the history, religion, and culture of China.

Next it was to the Three Gorges Dam Museum, also known as the Chongqing  Museum, situated opposite to the Chongqing People’s Assembly Hall, where Aaron and I were to visit next.

It is the largest museum for the preservation, education, scientific research in respect of cultural relics and the natural environment of Chongqing and the Three Gorges area. What I found most interesting was information about the ancient Ba- Yu civilization of Chongqing and origin of the more than 3,000 years of history by showcasing cultural heritages in the Stone Age and Bronze Age, and sculptures from the Han dynasty (206 BC – 220 AD).

In what reminded me of Epcot at Disney World in Orlando, Florida, was the 360 cinema for the Three Gorges that mainly shows the natural and social impacts of the Three Gorges prior to the construction of the Three Gorges Dam. It gave me an idea of places I want to come again to Chongqing to see.

We briefly stopped at the Chongqing People’s Assembly Hall, located on Renmin Road in downtown Chongqing. It is a city landmark and one of the ten cultural symbols of Chongqing. The hall complex is a cluster of attached structures including the hall and three attached buildings respectively to the east, south and north. Collectively, they cover 16.3 acres, the hall is 213 feet high, and has a capacity of more than 4,000 seats. The hall has received more than a hundred of China’s national leaders and official dignitaries from other countries.  It is mainly in the style of the Ming (1368-1644) and the Qing Dynasty (1616 – 1911), combined with western architectural style. On display was the work of local artists that I also enjoyed.

In the continuing rain, we headed by the metro to the Porcelain Village, also known as Ci Qi Kuo for lunch. What appears to be just a very long alley with hundreds of shops with what seemed like hundreds of umbrellas protecting people from the rain was a great deal more. The history of Ci Qi Kou can be traced back for more than 1,700 years. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties (1368-1911), it was famous for its production of porcelain. To date, over twenty old kiln sites have been discovered. It is because of the importance of the porcelain industry that the name has been changed from Long Yin to Ci Qi Kou which is translated as Porcelain Village.  Moreover, the village was an important supply post for shipping on the river, a fact that explains why there are so many shops lining the twelve lanes paved with their large flag stones that form the main routes. There are also many tea shops and restaurants to show something of a way of life that has existed here for so many centuries. The three notable attractions of the village are the tea bars, the artists’ studios and the Shu Embroidery workshops.

Finally, it was back to the Central Business District (CBD) and the hostel. One more historic site close by meant we had to go just a few blocks away for a picture. In 1940, the Republic of China government in Chongqing built a wooden memorial at the site to commemorate Sun Yet-Sen who was the first president of the Republic of China and was considered the “Father of China”, who I covered in Nanjing. In 1945, the Republic of China government built a monument in its place to celebrate the victory in WWII. And in 1950, the People’s Republic of China government named the monument.

In 1997, the Jiefangbei Plaza was built around the monument. At the time of construction, it was the tallest structure in the area. Now its dwarfed by skyscrapers. I am very tired this evening… Aaron leaves tonight for Nanjing where he is graduating next week with his PhD in meteorology. Good luck and thanks for your kind assistance in Chongqing.

Friday, June 16     Friday morning, I confirmed with Gloria in Shanghai the metro line I need to take to get to my hostel. (Red line #2 to People’s Square – then Green line to Huangpi Road). I re-confirmed my flight to Shanghai does not leave until 3:15 PM. I won’t leave for airport until noon. I had planned to go to the Stillwell Memorial this morning, but it is raining outside and it’s not convenient to go alone. Taxi to airport was 50 RMB. I called Gloria once I arrive at airport in Shanghai and decided to brave the dreaded Shanghai subway. What should have taken about an hour took over twice as long. It being Friday night and me not knowing Chinese was not a good mix. Once I arrived at People’s Square I got a taxi to an intersection close to the hostel, and Gloria showed me the way to the alley where it was located. Alone I would not have found it in the dark. I stayed one night and moved Saturday morning to another hostel, the Shanghai Rock and Wood Hostel Saturday morning.

Saturday, June 17 I got up and walked to Fu Xing Park to rest and plan what I would do here in Shanghai before leaving on Wednesday. The neighborhood around the park reminds me how much I like the laid back feeling you get here, versus the structure of Beijing. I am constantly amazed at how much China, and especially Shanghai, has changed since my first trip to Shanghai in October 1999, eighteen years ago. I have been here many times and seen the Bund, shopped on East Nanjing Road, and to the Yu Garden built during the Ming dynasty in Old Town, that is supposed to emulate old China. I remember a sister city trip shortly after 9/11 in 2001 and a visit to the top of the Space Needle. They had a bouquet of flowers next to the elevator commemorating the victims.

In 2005, I was there again on East Nanjing Road with my friend Mr. Zhang and his daughter Amy from Qufu. Mr. Zhang and I were partners in a joint venture shopping center in Qufu for a few years. While the Vice-Director of the Religious Affairs Department for the City of Qufu, his office coordinated my printing of the Daily Word through the Kongdan Foundation for two years. (2006-07) I was here again in October 2010 with Chris Francois and others for the Shanghai World Expo.

I am here coming to the end of a long, almost forty-day sojourn through my times here, and find as I always do my friends not asking if I am coming back, but only when. The question seems an eternal one. If only she would appear so that the decision could be made much easier. After all these years it seems if she was going to, she would have by now. Perhaps she never will, or has been here all the while… looking for me as well.

I do have to admit I am tired of lugging that heavy over-packed suitcase around. Not today, but before I leave there are three or four places I want to see before leaving Shanghai. Also, Gloria will be unavailable tomorrow and I have dinner Monday night with another of my students here in Shanghai named Sherlock.

I spent the day at the hostel proof-reading the draft of a book to be published in Beijing and just recuperating from my long trip. Tomorrow I will see some sites in Shanghai. Due to problems with website, it’s been on hold now for a couple weeks. They say others can see it, just not me. So, there has been no updates on face book since then. I am debating rather to end face book altogether and focus only on The Kongdan Foundation website when I have returned home…

Sunday, June 18

Sunday morning, I headed off to Yu Garden and Old Town where I planned to visit, plus the Bund and Space Needle again (all nearby), but had difficulties with camera (I think it’s tired as well). After fixing the camera, I returned to People’s Park where the Shanghai Museum is located and spent most of the afternoon at the museum. I liked this museum a lot. It had a great deal of pottery and bronze from the Xia dynasty forward through the Han, to the Song and Tang dynasties that were very helpful. Their collection of Buddhist artifacts from various eras was very good. The museum has a collection of over 120,000 pieces, including  and art. The Shanghai Museum houses several items of national importance, including one of three extant specimens of a “transparent” bronze mirror from the Han dynasty.

After I left the Shanghai Museum I walked through People’s Park and came across a Starbucks. I thought the juxtaposition between traveling down the centuries through pottery, jade, bronze, calligraphy, and Tang furniture, to somehow end up at Starbucks was a little strange. But, this being Shanghai where the old and new seem to flourish side by side, seems appropriate. While at Starbucks my caricature was done by a local artist. Somehow it seemed appropriate. Although, I thought he exaggerated my beard just a little.

I went back to the hostel and confirmed that I was having dinner with Patrick tomorrow night. He will let me know the place and I will meet him there. I also spoke to Gloria, and we will meet after 4:30 Tuesday evening.

Monday, June 19

It is raining today… I went out this morning to the Jade Buddhist Temple with plans to go to several other locations today and tomorrow, but returned to the hostel afterwards as the rain seems to be here all day. In 1882, an old temple was built to keep two jade Buddha statues which had been brought from Burma by a monk named Huigen. The temple was destroyed during the revolution that overthrew the Qing Dynasty. Fortunately, the statues were saved and a new temple was built on the present site in 1928.  It was named the Jade Buddha Temple.

As with many modern Chinese Buddhist temples, the current temple draws from both the Pure Land and Chan traditions of Mahayana Buddhism. It was founded in 1882 with two jade Buddha statues imported to Shanghai from Burma by sea. These were a sitting Buddha (1.95 meters tall weighing three tons), and a smaller reclining Buddha representing the Buddha’s death. The temple now also contains a much larger reclining Buddha made of marble, donated from Singapore, and visitors may mistake this larger sculpture for the original, smaller piece. It seems my focus, although unintentional, has been mostly on Buddhism this trip based on the number of Buddhist Temples and pictures I have taken in museums, plus my original intention of going to Tibet that was cancelled.

It is almost 1 PM, and the rain does not seem to be letting up. The forecast is for this to continue all week. If it does let up I hope to see the following place before leaving for the airport and home about 11 AM Wednesday morning. The Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition Center next to People’s Square, the Shanghai Confucius Temple, Xin Tian Di, and the Dajing Ge Pavilion. With it raining like this it is as much getting there by taxi and back that is the problem. I spoke to Gloria, if it is not raining too much, she will join me at Old Town tomorrow after class.

Well, after all that I decided to head for Yu Garden and Old Town. I went shopping and found something for Katie and Marie so I won’t have to worry about it tomorrow in the rain again in case Gloria can’t join me. Afterwards I met Sherlock (now Patrick) at Shanghai Times Square at the Deli and Leisure Restaurant. Patrick was a student of mine at Jining University. He is now a post-graduate student here in Shanghai.

Tuesday, June 20

I began the day in meditation and wondering why I have focused so heavily of Buddhist Temples and Buddhist images at the museums I have gone to on this trip. Even my planned, yet aborted, trip to Tibet that was later canceled. This thought kept going through my mind, as after I did my last load of laundry and hanging them to dry before heading back to USA tomorrow, I prepared to leave for People’s Square for the day. My first stop was Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition Hall. I have wanted to come here for a long time. I was a city planner for all of what would be my professional life, before coming to China in 2005, when I left the City of Boynton Beach. My planning career began in 1979 when I was on the Urban Affairs Committee in the Missouri House of Representatives. I then became a community organizer which led to a master plan for a westside neighborhood in Springfield and later my becoming the Planning Director for the City of Fall River, Massachusetts.

Then finally an urban planner and neighborhood specialist for Boynton Beach, Florida. Over that twenty-five year period, developing master plans and focusing on neighborhood revitalization was always my forte. Over the years of coming to China, seeing China with both a prospective of change in the 21^st century as an urban and regional planner, and Chinese history, has always been at the forefront as to how I see things. How to not lose who you have been, while preparing for the change that must occur. It is personal and as if the I Ching is truly in play. Shanghai is truly an incredible city. It is no accident that the Shanghai Museum and the Urban Planning Hall sit side-by-side here in People’s Square. Both deserve great credit for telling the story of the past, present, and perceived future of what many call the largest city in the world. Chongqing, my last stop may be larger, but is a combination of many municipalities combined as one urban city. Shanghai is different. In many ways Shanghai has always been China’s portal to the world.

On an earlier stop of this trip I went into great detail about the 1842 Treaty of Nanjing. No other act had greater consequences of what Shanghai was to later become. The concessions to the foreign powers that was to create the Bund here in Shanghai and bring in foreign influence changed China forever. This is depicted extremely well in the Urban Planning Hall. Pictures do tell the story and here they have portrayed Shanghai as a well-design city of the world. You can see, feel, and taste this truism everywhere at every turn. I am not in Shandong anymore… Ending in Shanghai reflects a new beginning in understanding China and my love for this country, it’s history, and its people.

Ultimately, this forty day journey around China has been about transcending time and place. Seeing things through the prism of how changes change from their beginning, while maintaining the truism of who both they, and you have always been, are now, and will be again. It is history that tell us. Not only of what lies outside us, but more importantly, what has influenced us over time, and what represents our eternal essence. Of who we have always been and our source. Looking for it outside ourselves is as if we are looking for that traveling companion that will show us the way. But they never appear., except in meditation and our mind and thoughts clear.

There are always those who appear as guideposts as we get closer, but need a gentle push. When we are on the right path, they always appear, although fleetingly. As if, once their role is done, they too move on as well. While the shaman, the Tao, Lao and Chuang Tzu, Confucius all have a role, it seems the overreaching connecting point to the universe, standing with them all, is Buddhism. All have been to the mountaintop and gazed at the stars in wonderment. All seemed to connect the dots (stars) and bring a sense of universal love and connectedness that would rise above the others. The world is a far better place because of them and others, we should feel indebted to them all.

Of the five Buddhist Temples I visited, initial thoughts from three stand out. First, in Nanjing, at the JiNing Buddhist Temple and meeting the painter and his Buddhist message to me: To Mr. Kongdan – To live a life with Dhyana (Zen Shu or “dhyana sect” teaches the short method of making truth apparent by one’s own thought, apart from your writings) and deep meditation. This from Mr. Li Tang on June 8^th. Secondly, in Chengdu at the Wenhu Temple on June 12, I went inside the monastery, became quiet and still and almost immediately a single thought came to mind…

What am I going to do with what I know now? As if the universe was making its final call and the dragons are getting impatient.

I got up, thought more about it and knew the day was meant for fasting, contemplation, and decisions. And then third, yesterday here in Shanghai after a visit to the Jade Buddhist Temple on June 19^th it became clear. (the other two being the Lama Temple in Beijing and the Chongqing Arhat Temple).

 

 Tuesday afternoon I was writing in my journal at McDonald’s on W Nanjing Road when I kept thinking about traveling alone in China and not having a traveling companion, something that seems always the case. As I wrote the words just came… Your traveling companion is not intended to be another person. You travel as if unattended through time, but rest assured that you are being upheld. Live the life you are meant to become -be natural and unafraid. Be gentle with never a harsh word and let patience be your virtue. You are in no rush because you have already arrived. Again, let patience be your virtue. Let acts of patience be illustrated by your kindness towards others through virtue. There can be no rush to the virtue found inside yourself that you already possess. Do not allow weakness within yourself to cloud your virtue. Stay totally within yourself. Find the confines of what makes you happy wholly within you. Become the companion you want to be and this person will always be present. Let your own happiness be the sunshine that brightens every day.

Stand clear of antagonism – be the first to leave when contention appears and the first to stay when love arrives. Make your own perceived weaknesses your greatest strengths. Become the person others are looking to that soothes away fear and anger. Perhaps this Buddhist inclination on the trip is a signal to let go of self and that you stay within your own higher consciousness or enlightenment. Become a Buddha. Change yourself and change the world. Change yourself first – then change the world. Become or emulate the world the universe is counting on or looking to. Surround yourself with love and be happy with what you already have. Exemplify the person that you want the world to become.

Bring others to their highest endeavors, or selves – without judgment becoming the mentor they need. Be the companion they should have knowing selflessness, not one’s ego is that survives. Live solely within the virtue that defines you. Enlightenment is the process of self-change leaving behind traits not in keeping with who you are ultimately to become.  If you come back to experience them – then use them to lose them.

Let virtue define you. It is not an either/or…You know the path you are to follow. Just do it leaving no one behind. Leave no one behind – not your family – not your students – not your friends – and not those waiting to be your friends. Become the road map for others to find the way for and within themselves. There is no choice to make. Live the choice you have become regardless of where you are. There is no paradox, only the paradigm you have chosen to follow.

If we want others to see beyond what they see as weaknesses in us – then we must first be able to see beyond what we perceive as the weakness we see in others. As we grow and mature, gaining wisdom and insight along the way – we must bring them along with us.  Remember your own virtue is tied to having patience for others while the world is catching up with you…

Wednesday, June 21 My last day in China and trip home.

 I got up early, got my laundry off the clothesline and finished packing to check out this morning. I had yogurt and fruit for breakfast and finished typing my thoughts from yesterday. Gloria came at 10:450 AM to escort me to the metro and point me in the direction of the airport.