Happy New Year, true believers! This week marks the start of the lunar new year, which also happens to be the Year of the Ox...my birth year. Each year, I get a personalized card from a colleague in China to commemorate the beginning of a new year on the Chinese calendar. In this year's letter, she mentioned that this year, the Ox year, my year, is destined to be special for me. While this message is likely just a Chinese tradition and does not carry any real meaning, calendar year 2009 has already included moments and occasions that have been so life-altering and cause for deep reflection, that I now believe Pei Bin was right.
On 1/7/09 at 10:15pm, my cousin gave birth to her first child, a healthy baby boy. This birth was probably the closest thing to me having my own child born. In essence, my cousin might as well be my sister. We grew up together, spent summers at our family's country home in Placerville with each other's families, celebrated every major holiday together with our enormous family, and have enough shared memories and stories to last a lifetime. Now in adulthood, we remain close and continue to create memories, whether it was my participation in her wedding, their visit to New York while I was living there, or a Dave Chappelle comedy show. For these reasons, 1/7/09 will always hold a special place in my heart.
The following day my email inbox was buzzing with baby pictures and updates from the new grandparents and responses from friends and family welcoming the new addition to the world. Among the emails, my cousin's husband, Toby, sent a cute picture along with the revelation of the little boy's name. I vividly remember scrolling down the email message to see a cute picture of the newborn with the caption, Quincy Kye Ludwick.
Recalling this moment continues to fill me with warmth and awe and other emotions that I believe cannot be qualified with words. I don't remember a time that I have felt more honored and appr
eciative of my life, my family, and the future. Quincy's birth was more than enough of a reason to smile, but for us to be uniquely linked with the same middle name for the rest of our lives could not be more exciting. For the rest of the week, I was wrapped up in my emotions over this gesture and used this time to try to better understand myself and my feelings. Kudos to Natalia for listening to endless ramblings over this issue and my reflections over it, which likely did not make much sense at the time.The one thing I take away from Quincy's birth and the tremendous honor of the shared name is that throughout one's life, you just hope that the decisions you make will lead to something bigger and better and always move you on an upward trajectory towards a fulfilling life. Like most people, I find myself questioning whether I am making the right decisions, or doing enough, or maximizing my potential. While I think that this is probably normal, what is frustrating is that there are rarely opportunities to have something tangible to gauge one's progress. The one prevailing thought that I take away from the honor of sharing middle names with Quincy is that on some level, I now know I must have done something right to earn this flattering gesture. I look forward to spending the rest of my years watching and participating actively in Quincy Kye's life. I hope that I can play a part in ensuring that his childhood is as satisfying and fulfilling as his mom's and mine was.
As I consider the events of 1/7/09 as a micro-level life altering moment for me, merely two weeks later, I participated in an event that affected the world on a macro-level and holds significant feelings in me as well. As I mentioned in a previous post, I was in Beijing during the US presidential election on November 4. Though it was interesting to have the Chinese perspective and an immediate global reaction to a Barack Obama presidency, I felt like I missed out on one of the most historic days in American history, and did not have a true sense for what this day meant at home. For this reason, Natalia and I decided that heading to DC for the inauguration would give us the chance to celebrate the dawning of a new era together along with the throngs of excit
ed Americans expected to attend.In short, I am glad that we went. Although I've been fortunate enough to witness history on several occasions, nothing matched the palpable energy and momentous air that filled the nation's capital. (sidenote: the other historic moments that I have attended live that immediately come to mind are all sports-related: two no-hitters live- (Jerry Reuss v. SF 6/27/80 and Kent Mercker v. LA 4/8/94); 2 World Cups (02 Korea/Japan, 06 GErmany); 2008 Beijing Olympics; UCLA's 1995 basketball title; and 2000 Game 7 Lakers v. Portland Western Conference Finals).
Living in San Francisco, the "hype" over Obama's election has been significant. Window signs all over town, stylized t-shirts, and continuous media coverage over every moment of Barack's day. While this coverage is unlike anything I've ever seen for a presidential candidate, believe me when I tell you that this was nothing compared to what was going on in Washington D.C. We arrived into DC
on Monday evening and were immediately struck by how Obamamania had impacted the city. Virtually every store window, whether a liquor store, bar, restaurant, clothing boutique, or bookstore had some sort of tribute to the 44th President of the United States. Since this was only my second time there (and my first welcoming a president whose approval rating was greater than 30%), maybe this wasn't all that outrageous, but it was clear that something special and unique was happening when we woke up on inauguration day.Waking up at the absurd hour of 6:30am on the recommendation of every local Washingtonian in order to secure a spot near the Washington monument nearly a mile away from the Capitol steps was the first indication this was not a typical inauguration. Then turning on the tv to get an early gauge of the weather (20 degrees) and seeing mobs of people already on the mall and long lines at local transit station was surreal, as if we were extras in a movie.
What ultimately transpired is unlike anything I have ever participated in or will ever happen again I believe. Two million people gathered together as witnesses and celebrants of history. All freezing, but all smiling, laughing, dancing, cheering and perhaps most notably, completely on the same page--not a bad apple in the bunch. As we waited, they replayed the concert on the Mall from the Sunday before, which helped pass the time. I vividly remember us all jumping around and dancing in tune to Garth Brooks' version of Otis Redding's Shout. One of the purest, most fun, euphoric moments I can remember.
As the oath was taken, tears were streaming down faces of fellow supporters, strangers were hugging one another, and shouts of support resonated all along the Mall. Truly a once in a lifetime experience.
The atmosphere was absolutely electric and before this becomes a laundry list of cliches, I will close by saying, historic moments often occur in our memories and reflections after the fact. Both of these events mentioned above hit me on a very personal level and have changed me to some degree. Though one never knows what the future will bring, I am excited to see what the remainder of this Ox year has in store, because this first Act could not be more intriguing.
