The Longbow Papers

Faye Sander, my incredible mother-in-law, and I were chatting about American literature and somehow F. Scott Fitzgerald came up along with the term he perhaps coined, "Flapper," and after she corrected me on some fine point about Gatsby she concluded with the stopper: "I was a Flapper!" And so she was.

And so she still is, at 96, among so many other distinctive and distinguished personas of the inimitable Faye Sander, artist, author, psychologist, activist, mother, grandmother...



Where did Mom want to celebrate her 96th birthday, the birthday that Ellen and I managed to attend all the way from Beijing? In New York City's Chinatown! What did she want to eat? Peking Duck!

While it was an important trip to the States for us, it was also, as always, a killer physically. It is just too long of a flight and too large of a time differential for me to handle any longer. The next time I leave China, it will be on a slow boat!



But even though it took all of three days after arriving in New York to overcome the almost 20 hours in flight and the 12-hour time warp (after passing through one of 15 hours), it was a bell-weather trip for us in many ways, therefore one not to be regretted.



One thing of great import was a stroll we took to the United Nations one brilliantly crisp spring morning in Manhattan, and our time spent viewing the current exhibits. Particularly powerful was the UN Flag that was flying that terrible day in Iraq when the UN suffered such a personal loss, the shrapnel tears and rips are so visible, so stark, so "local"...



But we are now home.

Yes, I got hit with a bad case of bronchitis the last three days in New York and ended up in Roosevelt - St. Luke's Hospital emergency room. But the several doctors who attended me prescribed some great new meds for the bronchitis I've been losing a running battle with for years.

And yes, the jet lag hurts like hell on the return end too--the flight is considerably longer, for one thing, and flying with bronchitis period is STUPID, but unavoidable not being a rich man.

But, it is home. It is good. It is spring in Beijing.

 

6:39 PM / Editor / permalink    2 comments

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2 Comments:

Welcome back. It has been a beautiful spring so far. I hope you get well soon.

By  chriswaugh_bj, at 9:50 AM  

Dear Chris,

Thank you. I've been through a couple of bad months of late; but I am feeling much better now.

Joseph

By  Joseph, at 6:19 PM  

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