China Man....

The new year has brought, yet another, interesting person into my life. Tommy Wang. Chinese resident. Tommy is a bright, intelligent, inquisitive, and affable young man. He has brought a sense of "wonder" back into my life. He entered my life on New Year's Eve. He has been a part of my life since! Questions about society on both our parts. Simple tasks. Simple words. Extraordinary explanations. It is as if I am re-discovering St. Louis and America again for the first time. Conversations about government. Religon. Family. And America's waste! Both of our time and our resources!

Saturday, Joe and I, took Tommy to Soulard market. WOW. Within the first thirty seconds of being there we ran into some friends. It is amazing the freedom, we as Americans, take for granted. The simple gesture of kissing and hugging our friends, men-of course, would not be tolerated in China. First conversation. Second conversation was the different prices on the same items/vegetables/fruit. Free enterprise. In China, there is one set price, and that price has to be "obeyed" by all merchants. (God love the greedy Americans!) Third conversation. Tommy wanted to know why we had bought "bamboo" to eat. We explained that it was asparagus. So many things we take for granted. Asparagus? I sit here smiling at the irony of it all.

Here I sit in a great country, with "asparagus" bountiful, sharing my life with a man who grew up and was raised up not knowing the true meaning of freedom. As we continued to walk through the market, Tommy was like a sponge. Trying to soak up every little detail. More friends arrived. More hugs. More kisses. More smiles.

Uncle Edward told me that Tommy asked if being gay was acceptable in the United States. Uncle Edward's response? "Who the fuck cares. If your happy with yourself, who gives a shit what anyone else thinks!"

My point is this. Thank God for our values, our freedom, our lives. As fucked up as things might seem to me, or to America in general, WE are one lucky bunch of people on this big blue planet. Even with all the faults, civil rights unjustification, and finger pointing......I thank God I am living in this country.

Thank you Tommy Wang for showing me the way.