Ffolkes,
As has been said before, all will be well, and all will be well. Serendipity is alive and well in the world! I’ve just reestablished contact with a young man from Beijing, whom I met when I was there in 2004. He was student working part time for the company that helped me to get there and apply for teaching jobs in the Chinese schools, and he assumed the position as my personal translator and guide. Our meeting was one of those fortuitous moments in life when two people meet, two whose souls were already joined, possibly from another life. I was in the apartment where he stayed with the director of the company, working on the computer they let us use. He was on the couch, asleep, but woke up, turned to look at me, and said without thinking, “Good morning, godfather.” I grinned at him, he grinned at me, and a fast friendship was begun. He took it upon himself to act as would a ‘godson’, walking around with me to help me communicate with the people we met, showing me how to get around in Beijing, and generally looking out for my welfare as a stranger in a strange land. He was, and is, an open, caring, intelligent young man, and for a time we continued to converse via email, after I had returned to the USA. We lost contact after about a year, and I misplaced his email address, so I had to forgo further communication with him…..until today. Last night I received a friend request on Facebook, and it turned out to be him, so this morning I will have the very great pleasure of resuming our talks via email. As the Colonel said every week, “I love it when a plan comes together!”……it’s amazing what a little good news and a full night’s sleep will do for the attitude one brings to the day.
Today’s Pearls are another eclectic group, gathered in a series of dives over the last couple of days. They each would stand alone, and still be strong; together they make a nice little bit of food for thought to go along with whatever comestibles pass for breakfast at your house. Enjoy them as you would a good cup of coffee with your bagel…..
Hear twice before you speak once.
“Belief is the death of intelligence.” — Robert Anton Wilson
‘It is not a fish until it is on the bank.” — Irish Proverb
The keenest pangs the wretched find
Are rapture to the dreary void,
The leafless desert of the mind,
The waste of feelings unemployed.
— Lord Byron (1788-1824) — The Giaour, Line 957
“…I am opposed to all attempts to license or restrict the arming of individuals…I consider such laws a violation of civil liberty, subversive of democratic political institutions, and self-defeating in their purpose.” — Robert A. Heinlein, in a 1949 letter concerning “Red Planet”
“It is good to have an end to journey toward, but it is the journey that matters in the end.” — Ursula K. LeGuin
One can always depend on Ursula LeGuin to cut to the heart of a concept….. go then, and pun no more….. y’all take care out there….
Kowabunga!
Sometimes I sits and thinks,
and sometimes
I just sits.
gigoid
gigoid 
Ned I am a day late but it doesn’t make your article any less exciting and enticing! I am so glad you have met back up with a man who considers you his godfather. You are a good mentor for anyone and good for a man or woman’s soul! I know that you have been through a lot in the last 72 hours. Much pain, isolation, despair and longing. But my friend, I may just be a little wet behind the ears to most writers but I am full of love and compassion for my friends and family! You are not alone! Never give up fight til the end then begin again! You are a brilliant man that I am honored to have as and to call friend!
Oh and by the way! As Paul Harvey would say Good Day!
Love Lori
Thanks Lori….you really are a sweetiepie….
So happy a new day has brought such great news! Hope you have been able to reconnect with your friend. And I am so so sorry to hear about your dog.
Thanks Anne….My friend sent me a big batch of pictures from my time in Beijing. It’s been great; I spent an hour last night looking at them, and remembering….it has also helped in easing my heart; RIP Noah, old friend….