It is Thursday. The time in Choujou is 8:55am. My location is the English Village office in the corner of Nan Jung Junior High school, at a computer in front of a window facing eastward towards America and towards home and towards New York City.
Memory is a tremendous blessing from God: not completely tame; often taken for granted until it is lost. I am very grateful for some time this morning to remember. Several on the team have relatives in the military and it’s good to remember them. It is good to remember President Bush and his life message of resolve. I also remember, last year, talking to an English Teacher from Kentucky who taught in a classroom next to us. This September eleventh I am thankful for the chance I have to reflect on the country and Creator that I am representing to Taiwan, a younger repulic. Americans overseas can have a lot of influence on students who hear about but rarely see who we actually are. I represent America to them. That is a serious position. I hope that they will see in me that life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are found in being a giver, not a taker; battling for the right, not settling for what is normal.
It is nearing 9:15, our first class period for today, and I’ll be teaching in the shopping center classroom. The American ideal will have to take on simple words and a feeble human frame! Nevertheless, I am grateful for the opportunities that come in many small ways to represent a free country. May we all resolve to remember what it has taken to build a foundation for greatness. And freedom is similar to memory by the way: easy to take for granted until it is lost, not tamed to individual definition, and a special and wonderful gift from God.