Human Experience

Yesterday, in English class, I had the opportunity to sit and listen to one of my students give me her thoughts and feelings about people and life:

Time goes too quickly.

Everyone is simply doing what they can in the best way they can.

When it comes down to it, what we wish most for our families is their well-being and their happiness.

You know what? I couldn't agree more.

Her life is ordinary - nothing special.  She got married to a good man in China and has followed him wherever his work has taken him.  She is raising their daughter.  And she only rarely gets a chance to go back and visit family.

Now she wants to write a book about her life and her life's experiences.  I hope she does write it because I want to read it...in Chinese or English.

Anne Morrow Lindbergh once explained why she decided to write a book about her courtship, first year of marriage and then the kidnapping and murder of her first son (called Hour of Gold, Hour of Lead - excellent read)  I have to summarize her words because I don't have a copy of her book in front of me nor do I readily know where to get one.  But essentially, she said that she was not claiming that her life was unique; she was not saying that no one else had suffered anything like the tragedy she had.  However, she wrote because she wanted to join her experiences with that of others - to claim that like others she had hard times.  We all suffer and we all rejoice.  And it is that, that makes us more than anything else, human and a part of the large family of the human race.



On a side note,  research has been taking over my life lately.  It's teaching me a lot of things - both about my field and my work and mostly about myself.  I want to learn how to love.  I want to have a family.  I want to finish my PhD.