June 29 - On My Way (Part 1)

The flight from Detroit is in its 12th hour - cabin service time it is somewhere between midnight snack and breakfast -- and I think we are about four hours from Tokyo.

My first event on this China adventure was to open the envelopes given to me by my younger daughters, Annelise and Allegra. I think their original intent was to have me wait until I arrived in Bijie, my teaching site - where I am fully certain that I will learn far more than I will teach.

Annelise's letter was filled with questions and drawings, wanting to know how I like the food and what new animals I'll see in China. The questions are surrounded by the "I'll miss you declarations" that come from a place inside her that is completely pure. Allegra's letter was a colorful panda surrounded by x's and o's - a border full of hugs and kisses. Each one sent a love letter, really, in her own voice and own hand.

The 2nd film on this long flight was The Bucket List, my second time viewing this very poignant film starring Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman. I could listen to Freeman's voice forever. As these two men attempt to check off desires on their "bucket list" once they discover they have cancer, they take in something "truly majestic" - the pyramids in Egypt. Freeman's character, Carter, is faith-filled and is moved over and over again by the creator behind the stars in the sky. He talks of the two questions the ancient Egyptians believed they would be asked along their journey to "Egypt Heaven":

1. Have you found joy in your life?
2. Has your life given joy to others?

I believe, as Carter does, that the answers to these questions are profoundly important - to ourselves as individual entities in this world, and to ourselves as a part of humanity that connects us. I've never created a bucket list, but I know my dear friend Therese has -and I hope she will share the contents with me someday. As always, she inspires me to live my life in a "carpe diem" spirit, the essence of which is the reality of how each of us answers those two questions about joy.

In some ways, facing these questions with an honest heart is very much like the traditional "examination of conscience" which is an integral part of many faith traditions. But the "joy" questions are simpler somehow, scratching at the essence of who we are and how we live our days. To "find" joy is it necessary to "seek" it out, or are we wiser to patiently wait for joy to find us - like an unexpected butterfly landing gently on our shoulder? I am much more of a "seeker" than a patient wait-er. This is why I find myself, at this moment, on a plane to Shanghai. The journey entices me more than the actual destination.

The two young women sitting next to me on the plane are from China, returning home after studying linguistics in the States as part of an exchange program. They find it wonderful that the U.S. and China have developed so many cooperative programs.

They tell me how Shanghai is China's New York -and how "prosperous" the city is. They tell me, too, that I will enjoy the many ethnic minority groups in Guizhou Province -- and that I must see the famous waterfall when I am there.