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<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 18px; "><b><span style="font-family:">Chicago's
Ebert</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 18px; "><b><span style="font-family:"> </span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 18px; "><span style="font-family:">We are not preoccupied with death, our paean to yesterday's
Iron Lady notwithstanding. This year, we move into that last phase of our
existence we previously labeled as the "celebration of our
finitude". We turn 68 on our
gracious journey unto death, and on a chosen timeline until 2031 when we make
86, we shall allow the eulogy in our <i>Requiem
</i>and the singing of a final <i>Te Deum </i>when
our cremated remains is cast to the wind and water currents of the terrestrial
realm.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 18px; "><b><span style="font-family:"> </span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 18px; "><span style="font-family:">In the 70-80s, we lived off and on
in Chicago' Uptown where American film making started before it headed to
smoggy Los Angeles, so we became familiar with</span><span style="font-family: "> the lively film critiquing of
Siskel and Ebert. In 1999, Gene Siskel
at 53 succumbed to a fatal surgery in his fight against cancer. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 18px; "><span style="font-family:"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 18px; "><span style="font-family:">This week, at 70, Roger Ebert followed after struggling with thyroid
cancer, and a few days before his death, he had his thumbs up on existence (as
quoted in John Cock's <i>Journey Reflection </i>dialogue):
… “While not without its flaws, life, from birth to death, is a masterwork, and
an uplifting journey that both touches the heart and challenges the mind… At
times brutally sad, yet surprisingly funny, and always completely honest, I
wholeheartedly recommend existence. If you haven’t experienced it yet, then
what are you waiting for? It is not to be missed.”</span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 18px; "><span style="font-family:">Ross Mason, M.S., wrote of cancer awareness and prevention in yesterday's
ST, and we certainly would not discourage any gains in knowledge and wisdom
over one of human's thoroughly debilitating conditions. But it is in the doing that passes the test
of 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 two
ASD-diagnosed kids in another awareness focus this month, we can also stay
focused on the forest and miss paying attention to the individual trees. (To remind myself not to be captive solely
within the conceptual periphery, I light four candles on my ledge to lift into
consciousness the journey of four specific individuals of my acquaintance
living graciously with their condition.)</span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 18px; "><span style="font-family:">This is where Ebert's quote came to fore. And it has to do with paying attention to the
limits and possibilities of life, metaphors I picked up while hanging out with
the folks associated with the Institute of Cultural Affairs in Chicago. (Not to
worry, this is not a theological discourse!)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 18px; "><span style="font-family:"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 18px; "><span style="font-family:">But first, words on the "PA¥ing" attention metaphor, so
heavily laden with commercial overtones.
I teach business oral English to Chinese University students and since
"listening" is an encouraged skill, thoroughly forgotten by a
generation who grew up with the cell phone and are merrily yakking away, I use
"paying attention" as another code term to heeding "human
consciousness" 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 our
consciousness," advising that the L should not be read as the British
Pound!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 18px; "><span style="font-family:"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 18px; "><span style="font-family:">Playing attention is then focused on real limits and possibilities. But first, we leave our <i>mianzi, </i>face, outside the classroom door. The subject of oral English discourse is on <i>real </i>life, not the facade we build to
manipulate social relationships. This is
easier said than done with the Chinese culturally inured to disdain talking
about 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 <i>lao shi, </i>teacher, with all the status
and expected demeanor appertaining to the role.
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 18px; "><span style="font-family:"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 18px; "><span style="font-family:">"But I leave that face outside the door," I add, "and
inside, I become Hemingwei (the name students started calling when the school
wrote 'Hemi' for 'Jaime') <i>shen jing ping </i>(literally,
'crazy', both in its laughable and vile sense)." That's when I get both the giggles and the
bewildered looks. It also opens up a
level of honesty in the room.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 18px; "><span style="font-family:"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 18px; "><span style="font-family:">National Geographic posters grace my walls, from Chinese images to the far-flung
edge of the Universe. I then draw the <i>taiji </i>of the old <i>pugua </i>(yin-yang within the 8 trigrams) on the board and focus first
on the two dots on the swirling teardrops.
On the empty one, I point to a Hubble image of a huge expanse and say
that before the universe, "I am not even a pixel in the HDTV of life." On the solid dot, I point to images of 56
ethnic groups and artifacts like those in the Forbidden City, and add: "but
at conception, you were the 200-millionth sperm that made it, your parents gave
you a name that grounds you in geography, and in 2013, you are Chinese, one of
every five creatures in today's planet earth.
You are somebody, with power and immense possibilities, if you so choose."</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 18px; "><span style="font-family:"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 18px; "><span style="font-family:">I then end with three Cs (you can tell, I play with words) that I use to
relate life's story. CAUSE is the common
one, a determined existence, either by genetics, history, and/or
geography. Then there is CHANCE at
either the <i>mahjong </i>tables, the stock
market, and/or with the incense at the altar.
The last is CHOICE, which is what they have holding in their hands when
they come to class as they encounter the several decades they have chosen to
live Ebert's recommended existence. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 18px; "><span style="font-family:"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 18px; ">Cancer is not a foe. It is </span><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif" size="4">in our time a human condition,</font><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 18px; "> the occasion when we can play attention to living the reality of our lives.</span></div>
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<div style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 18px; clear: both; "><a style="font:lighter 10px Verdana, Arial;color:#000000;"><img align="absmiddle" border="0" src="http://presence.mail.aol.com/mailsig/?sn=jrvergarajr2031"></a> <font color="black" size="2" face="arial">j'aime la vie
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<div><i><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#ff0000"><b>Yesterday, appreciate; tomorrow, anticipate; today, participate. In all, </b></font></i></div>
<div><i><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#ff0000"><b>Celebrate!</b></font></i></div>
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