Dinner last night reminded me of how fortunate I am. I made Japanese yakisoba, Chinese pot stickers and topped it off with Thai spring roll sauce. It was pan-Asian awesomeness.
Choji, the guy who's teaching me Japanese and who speaks 4 languages, was saying he likes learning new languages because it gives him a chance to discover a different version of himself. What a great way to look at things. By learning another language I get a fuller rounder version of myself.
And maybe literally rounder (at least my waistline) because one of the tangible ways I expand my life is by tasting from the cultural cornucopia of food of offer, especially in a diverse city like Vancouver.
Even better though, my expanding life isn't limited to internal initiative, the things I learn or try, like languages or food. I'm not just myself, I am, in a real sense, the friends around me. So I am expanded externally as my friends share their lives with me.
So my friend Ed told me (gave me, offered to me, it's giving language) his mother's secret for making perfect pot stickers. Now that part of Ed is part of me. My life is expanded because of Ed's gift. I can do the same for him. I can share my recipe for yakisoba, which is a part of me because it is a part of my Japanese friends. It's the opposite of a zero sum game. By giving away we all get more.
It's a tangible visible sign of an invisible truth. My life is expanded in all kinds of invisible ways through my friendship with Ed. Just like the post stickers, some of those things happen to come from his Chinese heritage. So, fortunate for me that Ed's heritage is different from mine.
As my life is expanded by my friends around me, I realize I am so blessed to have so many friends from such diverse backgrounds. The more difference there is among us the more we all get from each other. And my yakisoba reminded me of that.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment