Good Story

So, I’ve been carpooling to work with a Chinese woman from my lab. Her english is broken, but we have a good time, and the language barrier is mostly fun to play with, actually. I teach her some english words, phrases and she tells me about China. We discuss culture and art and love and the differences between the worlds we know. It has been a great learning experience for me and I love to get to know people that are different than me. We listen to music and the radio, and I’ll help her understand the words.

So here’s where my story begins… The other day we were on our way to work and ‘Lake Charles’ comes on. First of all, I love that song. So I told Ling what I think it’s about. I said ‘I think this song is about a friend of Lucinda’s that died, but he had a favorite place in the world that they used to travel to together. After he died, she feels very sad of course, but it makes her happy to know that he had a special place, where his soul can live on. When she goes there, she feels that his spirit is there and they can be together again.’ Pretty simple explanation… But I think that those feelings are universal. That song does an incredible job of transmitting that message, and even without being able to understand the words, Ling cried! I was touched and I feel that that experience helped us become closer as friends and I just wanted to share that with all of you. The power of music, art, emotion, and the human experience of not knowing what happens when we die… It reaches across all boundaries. We are all one, we’re all in this together. Thanks Lucinda! You are beautiful and a true artist and humanist.