[Oe List ...] Fwd: ST OpEd Thursday

Tue Apr 9 20:09:46 PDT 2013

Chicago'sEbert

We are not preoccupied with death, our paean to yesterday'sIron Lady notwithstanding. This year, we move into that last phase of ourexistence we previously labeled as the "celebration of ourfinitude".  We turn 68 on ourgracious journey unto death, and on a chosen timeline until 2031 when we make86, we shall allow the eulogy in our Requiemand the singing of a final Te Deum whenour cremated remains is cast to the wind and water currents of the terrestrialrealm.

In the 70-80s, we lived off and onin Chicago' Uptown where American film making started before it headed tosmoggy Los Angeles, so we became familiar with the lively film critiquing ofSiskel and Ebert.  In 1999, Gene Siskelat 53 succumbed to a fatal surgery in his fight against cancer.  

This week, at 70, Roger Ebert followed after struggling with thyroidcancer, and a few days before his death, he had his thumbs up on existence (asquoted in John Cock's Journey Reflection dialogue):… “While not without its flaws, life, from birth to death, is a masterwork, andan uplifting journey that both touches the heart and challenges the mind… Attimes brutally sad, yet surprisingly funny, and always completely honest, Iwholeheartedly recommend existence. If you haven’t experienced it yet, thenwhat are you waiting for? It is not to be missed.”

Ross Mason, M.S., wrote of cancer awareness and prevention in yesterday'sST, and we certainly would not discourage any gains in knowledge and wisdomover one of human's thoroughly debilitating conditions.  But it is in the doing that passes the testof the pudding, and Mason weighs in heavily on the area of prevention,particularly in paying attention to fructose intake.  Not unlike our comments over our twoASD-diagnosed kids in another awareness focus this month, we can also stayfocused on the forest and miss paying attention to the individual trees.  (To remind myself not to be captive solelywithin the conceptual periphery, I light four candles on my ledge to lift intoconsciousness the journey of four specific individuals of my acquaintanceliving graciously with their condition.)

This is where Ebert's quote came to fore.  And it has to do with paying attention to thelimits and possibilities of life, metaphors I picked up while hanging out withthe folks associated with the Institute of Cultural Affairs in Chicago. (Not toworry, this is not a theological discourse!)

But first, words on the "PA¥ing" attention metaphor, soheavily laden with commercial overtones. I teach business oral English to Chinese University students and since"listening" is an encouraged skill, thoroughly forgotten by ageneration who grew up with the cell phone and are merrily yakking away, I use"paying attention" as another code term to heeding "humanconsciousness" with the four levels of awareness of sense experience,expressed feelings, articulated thoughts, and formulated plans.  Skewing the monetary allusion of 'pay',  I say, "we shall pLay attention with ourconsciousness," advising that the L should not be read as the BritishPound!

Playing attention is then focused on real limits and possibilities.  But first, we leave our mianzi, face, outside the classroom door.  The subject of oral English discourse is on real life, not the facade we build tomanipulate social relationships.  This iseasier said than done with the Chinese culturally inured to disdain talkingabout one's self, more so, at being brutally honest about it.  So I make fun of it.  My face in the University is to be a lao shi, teacher, with all the statusand expected demeanor appertaining to the role. 

"But I leave that face outside the door," I add, "andinside, I become Hemingwei (the name students started calling when the schoolwrote 'Hemi' for 'Jaime') shen jing ping (literally,'crazy', both in its laughable and vile sense)."  That's when I get both the giggles and thebewildered looks.  It also opens up alevel of honesty in the room.

National Geographic posters grace my walls, from Chinese images to the far-flungedge of the Universe.  I then draw the taiji of the old pugua (yin-yang within the 8 trigrams) on the board and focus firston the two dots on the swirling teardrops. On the empty one, I point to a Hubble image of a huge expanse and saythat before the universe, "I am not even a pixel in the HDTV of life."  On the solid dot, I point to images of 56ethnic groups and artifacts like those in the Forbidden City, and add: "butat conception, you were the 200-millionth sperm that made it, your parents gaveyou a name that grounds you in geography, and in 2013, you are Chinese, one ofevery five creatures in today's planet earth. You are somebody, with power and immense possibilities, if you so choose."

I then end with three Cs (you can tell, I play with words) that I use torelate life's story.  CAUSE is the commonone, a determined existence, either by genetics, history, and/orgeography.  Then there is CHANCE ateither the mahjong tables, the stockmarket, and/or with the incense at the altar. The last is CHOICE, which is what they have holding in their hands whenthey come to class as they encounter the several decades they have chosen tolive Ebert's recommended existence. 

Cancer is not a foe.  It is in our time a human condition, the occasion when we can play attention to living the reality of our lives.

 j'aime la vie

Yesterday, appreciate; tomorrow, anticipate; today, participate.  In all, 
Celebrate!

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