Memory - a gift...

“If you tell the truth, you don’t

have to remember anything.”

– Mark Twain

It takes a fair amount of time to get to this place.  I’ve come to speak at a professional meeting, one for which I have been preparing for a while.  None of that is on my mind at the moment, however, none of it… 

I am thinking of my late friend Cheong Wing Lee.

Another day…

I got in the evening before the flight.  This had been planned for several months, but it was hard to believe the day had actually arrived.

I left Missouri early in the day and connected through Chicago.  I had probably worn my clinic staff out with a stream of chatter about the upcoming trip.  When the date arrived and I was out of their hair, I suspect there was some mild delight at my absence. 

Vancouver is one of the most visually pleasing airports I know, in what I consider the most beautiful city in North America.  When international flights arrive, passengers are funneled past lovely ‘Canada centric’ displays of the British Columbia outdoors.  These ‘eye catchers’ almost make the weary traveler perk up a bit, in appreciation, as they head toward Customs.

Incoming voyagers come down a multiple escalator/staircase into the large custom hall, behind which is a broad waterfall bringing both a refreshing feel as well as the welcoming sound of water rippling down the wall…a nice touch.

Wing picked me up for the first of what would be more than a dozen visits over the coming years.  That would be in the future, but the ‘now’ of that moment, was the most unreal, dare I say surreal of trips.

We were going to China and Singapore – exotic places I had only dreamed about – and I could NOT believe it was really happening.  The next morning it would be a China Air flight, first to Taiwan and then an Asian circuit of Singapore and China.

My friend…

Cheong WingLee had captured my heart a year or two earlier during some business encounters.  We became friends. In our time together he showed me the mysterious East and did so with an enthusiasm I would learn to appreciate was one of his consistently endearing characteristics.  Seeing countries with people who have lived in them and know them is much different than taking a tour of a foreign land.  Wing was the best.

On that trip, I learned many things, but it was even before we landed in Taipei that I got my first lesson.  On the flight, sometime before landing, we were served hot breakfasts.  There was a choice between Eastern and Western style meals.  On the Asian menu was something called Congee and I think it was sausage and egg as the alternative. 

“Congee,” now that sounded worth a try, I mean, why not.  I was pretty sure I could handle this…this foreign foodstuff.  It turned out to be a kind of not too thick rice porridge.  It came on a tray with a hardboiled egg sliced in half, a little meat, some cut onion and small chopped vegetables.  Hmmm.

The only thing I actually recognized was the sliced egg.  I thought it would be a good place to start with something I knew and popped one of the halves in my mouth.  I am uncertain how best to describe the next milliseconds, but I felt like I had just inserted a tablespoon of salt!  It was, in fact, a ‘salt egg’ that had been soaked in brine and was supposed to be broken into small pieces; put into the Congee and eaten a spoonful at a time.  

Congee would become one of my favorite Asian foods, but that morning, on that flight, my ignorance was on full display, much to the amusement and entertainment of Wing – lesson learned.  One of his methods of teaching, during those travels, was to let me make small and some not so small mistakes…in his mind, the best way to learn.

Back to the now…

The second leg of the flight – Tucson to Los Angeles the first – was 14 hours from LA to Hong Kong, where I transferred for the final three and a half hours to Singapore.  I got to the hotel – bed sheets up (in the morning) to bed sheets down (at the hotel) – after nearly 30 hours.

I am certain the week here will be interesting.  While I am always a little nervous when I’m going to speak somewhere, I am certain it will go well.

BUT on the last leg of the flight…as I landed and felt the warm humid air of this island city-state…as I headed to the hotel…as I tucked in to bed and when I awoke this morning, the one thing on mind was my friend Wing Lee Cheong and I was grateful.

I was grateful for this generous and brilliant man…I was grateful for the moments of his life he chose to share with me…I was grateful we have been given minds with which we can remember…remember those souls who have so generously touched our lives…he was surely one…

- ted