Reflection I See

The reflection I see glances my way.

I think he’s the same guy I saw yesterday.

He usually bikes past at this time, around 10:32.

Today he’s riding that dinky little zoom zoom.

But I’m sure that’s him, he usually passes this way.

He’s different from the boyish man on that August day.

He looked like a Golden Retriever that lost his way.

But his December self looks wiser and tired too.

The reflection I see.

He used to bike past in just a polo on those September days.

Now he’s bundled up and hasn’t shaved since Monday.

I can’t tell if he looks older or not, but lonely to be true.

The reflection I see.

The reflected man makes eye contact almost every day.

He usually smiles, but he had a glazed look today.

It looks like he found out something we already knew.

The reflection I see.

As the black-haired cloud rushes by as they may

The lone biker pedals by and glances my way.

Then I realize the reflection is someone I hardly knew.

The reflection of me.

Seabiscuit

So the other day here was my Wal-Mart shopping list:

1. shoe laces

I was playing ball a weekish ago and couldn't figure out why whenever I jumped I came down shoeless...

2. yoghurt

(here in China there is a rather obnoxious "h", kind of like a literary zit)

3. a fish

Johnny Yuma (my loyal turtle) needs two things: companionship and a tank cleaning mechanism, so I thought I could kill two birds with one fish. He's a little black fella I named Seabiscuit. He cost 3 qui (40 cents).

Probably the first and last time in my life that I scribble out a shopping list like this...

- m -

4:10 to Llama Temple

We almost didn't make the 4:10 to Llama Temple.

We received a text message telling us that we had 2.8 hours to renew our visa or else we would be fined, deported, and castrated (in that order).

Mission Impossible, Beijing style, but not a movie with Tom Cruise pretending to be cool, this is reality.

So we were sprinting from our rusting bikes (yes, the DeLorean is still humming like an aged hummingbird) to the subway hoping to catch the 4:10 train to Llama Temple. We hopped from subway to subway. I think I aged 14 months on that subway ride. I was freaking out. I don't want to be fined or deported (or castrated for that matter...).

Sprinting from the subway stop to some building we had no clue where it was, other than we knew it had police cars in front of it. Well, the visa office closed at 5:00 and we walked out of those glass doors at 4:50. I was sweaty, flustered, relieved, and thankfully amazed that we caught the 4:10 subway to Llama Temple.

Sweet Potato Succotash

I'm so glad that Sunday's Thanksgiving didn't hinge on my sweet potato succotash.

We had an amazing Thanksgiving at the Cloister. Ted rented a car and we transported a bunch of tables and chairs so that we could make a classically long table that began to groan with food. All 21 of our guests brought something to share. My mission was to make a sweet potato dish - that's like telling a person with no arms to squeeze a zit in the dark, but I obliged. I guess if you toss in enough butter and sugar you could make anything edible ... that was my cooking philosophy.

It was an amazing day, Tedwick and Jon prepped the turkey and tossed the bird in the oven. It was the first time I've ever heard uncertainty and questions from the turkey cook. Usually Mom, Nonna, and Grandma go about the turkey business with a veteran no-questions approach - they know what to do because they've done it before. But this was our first time cooking a turkey, so with no Moms, Grandma's, or Auntie's to help us in our crusade we were always checking to see if it was ready, wondering if we were doing it the right way. It was kind of cool to be a culinary pioneer.

The turkey turned out to be perfect and the day also. We ate till we could no more, played the pass-around game (a Jeske tradition) for 2ish hours, lounged, talked, and watched Good Will Hunting as the sun set on an unforgettable day.

- m -

P.S. - To see more Thanksgiving photos, click on the orange link to the right entitled, Micah's Online Albums.

Rebirth

What a beautiful mystery: being born again.

I b-ptized my friend Diana tonight!

It was amazing, humbling, refreshing, uplifting, and mind-boggling how He can use a bum like me to actually wash someone with water and the Word. The H.S. is truly the coach / gardener of the Trinity. He pumps us up at halftime with a stirring speech and strengthens our faith in our Coach, team, and cause; and he is the quiet planter - burrowing a hole in the soil with his fingers and then gently placing that precious seed within and covering it with a smile.

And so the H.S. came to hug Diana with a wet embrace and promises to never let her go.

I was a little nervous beforehand, but she and I talked last night (over the most scrumptious Peking Duck I've ever had in probably the classiest Chinese restaurant I've ever been to) last night and we talked about b-ptism for 2ish hours and it hit me that my second birth is so much more magnificent and miraculous than my first.

I had the priceless privilege to be a part of that rebirth tonight.

- m -

28

So last Saturday, 28 people came to study.

Its amazing that The Author of Life can use a bum like me to be a witness.

A little taste of heaven - people crowding and craning their necks to hear a liberating message.

- m -

Lonely Emperors

Where are all the brothers and sisters?

I can't imagine going one day without my two brothers and my sister, but in China there is only one child, only one hope for every family. All this pressure, placed on the shoulders of one "little emperor" (the name given to China's only children because how their parents and grandparents treat them like royalty).

I can't explain this social and cultural atrocity quite like NPR:

http://www.npr.org/2010/11/23/131539839/china-s-little-emperors-lucky-yet-lonely-in-life?ft=1&f=1001

On this Thanksgiving I'm thanking my Father for my family - for brothers and a sister, for cousins, for people that shape me and fill me up when I'm running on empty. Without them I'd just be a bland limp noodle of a boyish man.

- m -

Lazarus the Chicken Wrap Woman

She's back folks...

My chicken wrap lady is back. Just like Lazarus, she dead and now is alive. For 16 days (yes, I've been counting) I've walked by her empty stand on the street and shed a tear in silent tribute. But now she's back to feed two hungry gringos her scrum-diddly-upmtious chicken wraps every weekday at 11:51 AM.

She's back in her greasy glory.

Lazarus the Chicken Wrap Woman, how I've missed you.

- m -

27

27 people came to study tonight.

The doorbell didn't stop ringing.

I only made 15 copies.

We talked about Esther.

What an amazing night.

27 people.

54 eyes.

54 ears.

27 brains.

27 souls.

1 liberating message.

Tea with Mao

Its not every day that you get to have tea with Mao.

We didn’t have school this week because the kiddies are taking exams (I can’t stand the emphasis that China puts on tests – my kids in middle school and my friends at the university study and live in holy fear of tests. Intelligence is not confined to a number). So on Monday my three teacher friends: Mei, Shelly, and Brita invited me to go to Fragrant Hills Park and walk around inhaling the Fall beauty, then sip tea and study the Word.

We were sipping jasmine tea in Mao’s “Camp David.” It was his secluded retreat where he could sip tea and plot his revolution. So we sipped tea where Mao did and studied something he never did. There is nothing better than breaking down the Good News into its most basic and beautiful forms: the disease, the cure, and the treatment.

So let’s raise our tea cups to Mao – the man who wiped out all religious belief then so that people have this empty cross-shaped void in their hearts that they desperately long to fill. Filling this hollow-ness is the greatest job I’ve ever had.

- m -