Musings 1

Recently I've been really pensive. I don't know why exactly, but I've tried to capture some of my musings and write them down occasionally. The trouble is that usually by the time I can write them down, I forget what I was going to say. But here's a sample....

Everyone should try living in China. Everyone should try living in standards that are lower than they originally thought they could bear. Everyone should experience riding a bus, taking a train, taking a taxi, and trying to communicate with someone who has no understanding of English at all. Everyone should endure being stared at, should learn to stare back, spit, squat, and ignore cries of "helloooooo!" and "foreigner!" Everyone should have to learn to wait. Everyone should experience being cold when you step outside and even colder when you step inside, enduring the cold of winter and heat of summer. Everyone should climb Mt. Tai to watch the sunrise, should go as far south in the city as you can, where the city lights are so scarce you can have proof of the stars you thought you remembered, should walk late at night to a park alone (or with a few friends) to just appreciate stillness, quiet, aloneness, and the fact that no one is staring at you, the foreigner, like so much meat, because no one else is around -- just you and God, living alone together in a foreign country.