A Good Beginning Makes a Good Ending

A Yin/Yang Door at the Tombs of Gyeongju, South Korea

"A good beginning makes a good ending" is a traditional Japanese Proverb.

I'm reminded of this saying today as I work with my learning team at University of Phoenix. Our team is writing a paper and presentation this week. We had to agree on a thesis statement for the paper, which will also drive the presentation.

As we kicked ideas around (virtually - this is an online program), we all got a little impatient, I think. It took us two days of posting in the forum, and that's two days that we could have been writing.
At the same time, we all knew that we weren't happy yet.
Tonight, we aligned around our thesis. I now know exactly what I need to do on my part of the paper. In retrospect, it's obvious that it was worth the wait. It would have been a disaster to start any earlier.
Yet, it was very tempting to just dig in.

Despite my 10 years in Asia, the swoosh gene ('just do it') dominates me.
At least I'm aware enough now to not let impulse win.

As another Asian proverb says, "When in a hurry, take the roundabout route".

Monkeys and Typewriters, Airplanes and Seatmates

You've probably heard the saying - put enough monkeys in a room with typewriters, and one day you'll come out with a novel.

I feel the same way about airplane travel - throw me in enough economy seats, and eventually I'll be lucky enough to meet someone interesting.

That's not usually the case. On my flight home yesterday, for example, I had a fat Chinese man overflowing next to me. He was snoring like three simultaneous Starbucks expresso machines, and constantly jostling me.
His wife, sitting in the window seat, asks if I'd like to swap seats with her.

Right.... the only thing worse than sitting next to this guy would be getting trapped against the plane wall by him. I passed on her generous offer.

One very selfish reason I like to take Angie traveling with me, is that she provides a buffer (literally) against this possibility.

Anyway, I can't complain too much since I had a fantastic seating partner on the flight to Taiwan.

Hsiu Shih (pictured above) and I started a conversation almost immediately, because I was finishing my reading of a book on Chinese Proverbs - the very thorough "ABC Dictionary of Chinese Proverbs".

During the flight, Hsiu Shih, an English Major, helped me understand many of the proverbs by explaining where she first heard them (school, home, etc). It was very helpful for the project I'm working on.

Besides the book, we discussed her time in the US, the lack of good Chinese food in Massachusetts, my experiences in Japan, (mis)perceptions of Asian females in the US, the usual pressure Taiwanese women feel to get married and have children, and the glory that is Hsinchu.

12 hours on a plane never really goes fast, but she sure made it enjoyable.
If I can meet someone like Hsiu Shih once in every ten flights, it even makes up for the monkeys!