[Originally published in Woodbury Bulletin on 12/05/2007]
“Black Friday.” The term doesn’t sound so exciting, but many people are very excited about this special Friday after Thanksgiving that launches the holiday shopping season.
Well, I still remember some of those Fridays in the past. I got up early in the morning around 5 a.m. to go shopping with my mother. I have never been a shopaholic, but I love bargains.
In the midst of the enthusiastic shoppers with carts full of stuff, the excitement carried me away. I also loaded my cart with items that were such good deals that I shouldn’t pass them by.
Today, I still have jewels I bought more than 10 years ago that I haven’t used. I bought them because they were on sale, 75 percent off.
The interesting thing is I don’t wear jewels. Why did I spend over two hundred dollars buying something just because it was a good deal? I can’t figure it out today. I have to say it was not a smart thing to do.
That’s why I didn’t go shopping on Black Friday this year. I slept in and had a very relaxed day at home. No rushing, no pushing, no running around from store to store, just relaxing peacefully at home. But I was not without temptation.
On Thanksgiving morning, the newspaper with the fat advertisement flyers awaited me with warm attractive greetings - door busters, early-bird specials, free coupons, etc.
One store gave away $10. Wow, free money! Who doesn’t like free money? I could buy something without spending money! At least it could cover the gas expense for the shopping trip.
Look at the slow cooker on sale! The old slow cooker I have at home is well over 10 years old. It has aged so much, it’s near kaput. I could really use a newer and bigger one.
How about that pressure cooker? I have always wished I had one pressure cooker. It would save me some time when I do my weekly cooking of dry beans.
Well, there were so many things that I wished I could have. Yes, it would be nice to have things that are better, bigger, more convenient, more powerful and more comfortable. But I also know that I already have what I need. That’s good enough for me. Besides, I didn’t want to do any more stupid things like I did in the past. I have learned my lessons.
I also wanted to support the "Buy Nothing Day."
Buy Nothing Day is an informal day of protest against consumerism, observed by social activists.
The first Buy Nothing Day started in Vancouver in 1992. A decade later, it spread to over 60 countries. In the U.S., Buy Nothing Day is the Friday after Thanksgiving, or Black Friday, the busiest shopping day in the U.S.
I am not trying to elevate myself to a social activist. But I really like the ideology behind the Buy Nothing Day that our society needs to examine the issues of over-consumption, compulsive spending and instant gratification.
Buy Nothing Day is not about changing buying habit for just one day, it’s about changing lifestyle and making lasting commitment to consuming less and producing less waste.
Another interesting initiative originated in California is called Compact. A group of 10 friends made a vow to not buy anything new for a whole year in 2006. The Compactors bought second-hand. They bartered, borrowed, recycled, re-used and re-gifted. Now this group has grown to include an online Compact community around the global. Their story has appeared on media outlets around the world.
I found both initiatives appealing.
Whether the day after Thanksgiving is Black Friday or Buy Nothing Day, it’s a personal preference and choice. I chose it to be Buy Nothing Day. I really enjoyed buying nothing and doing nothing. It was a rare and welcome opportunity for me to relax. I used the free time to look through all the photos taken in the year and select some for printing holiday cards.
Now I am looking forward to the next holiday. My Christmas cards are already done!
Friday, November 26, 2010
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
Make every day Thanksgiving Day
[Originally published in Woodbury Bulletin on 11/22/2006]
Tomorrow, Americans around the country will be celebrating Thanksgiving Day.
When we think about Thanksgiving, we often think about this once-a-year event with a Thanksgiving feast of stuffed turkey, yams, potatoes, green beans and pumpkin pie. It’s a holiday of family and friends gathering together.
I think Thanksgiving is more than a once-a-year event - it is a way of life.
Thanksgiving is about gratitude. It is about giving thanks to God.
When President Abraham Lincoln declared the last Thursday in November as a national day of Thanksgiving in 1863, he proclaimed it “as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens.”
In 1941, Congress introduced the legislation and established Thanksgiving Day as the fourth Thursday in November.
Thanksgiving is about appreciating the people in our lives and being thankful for what we have received in life.
We have so much in this country and so much good happens to us. Yet in the rush of daily life, we fail to notice and acknowledge it. We often take things for granted.
If we focus our attention on the good and positive, focus on what we have, not what we lack, we can experience a life with contentment and joy. We don’t need to fill our life with material stuff to make us feel good.
One year ago on Thanksgiving Day 2005, I made a conscious decision to start a gratitude journal. I was inspired by the following words Oprah wrote in one of her "O Magazine" articles.
“Keep a grateful journal. Every night, list five things that you are grateful for. What it will begin to do is change your perspective of your day and your life.”
At that time I felt my life was in need of change. I wanted to cultivate an attitude of gratitude, nurture a grateful heart and a spirit of thankfulness. I wanted to bring myself closer to my soul and to God.
I wanted to count God’s blessings in my life and to focus my attention on the positive side of life. I wanted to be mindful and more aware of even little things happening every day. I wanted to live a more authentic life.
Since last Thanksgiving, I have been writing regularly in my journal and have filled several journals. The writing itself is a tool that declutters my mind and brings out the creativity within. My journey to the inside has drawn me closer to my authentic self and God. It has transformed my life in a profound way.
I was baptized in September this year. I am thankful for being a child of God who loves me despite of my shortcomings. I am thankful for being a part of God’s family.
I am becoming a more grateful person. I write more thank-you notes to people. When people have done something nice for me, I want to show my appreciation.
When I say thank you, it not only makes the receiver feel good, it makes me feel good too.
I count my blessings every day as I write in my journal. I am more mindful of what’s happening in my life.
The more grateful I am, the more reasons I have to be grateful. I find more joy in life.
Here is something I would like you to try: Start a gratitude journal.
Every night, before you go to sleep, write down a few things that you are grateful for that day. Start to count your blessings.
Remember, Thanksgiving is not a once-a-year event, but a way of life. Learn to be thankful every day.
As the result of having a thankful heart, you life will be richer and more joyful.
I wish you all a happy and blessed Thanksgiving Day tomorrow and every day of the year.
Tomorrow, Americans around the country will be celebrating Thanksgiving Day.
When we think about Thanksgiving, we often think about this once-a-year event with a Thanksgiving feast of stuffed turkey, yams, potatoes, green beans and pumpkin pie. It’s a holiday of family and friends gathering together.
I think Thanksgiving is more than a once-a-year event - it is a way of life.
Thanksgiving is about gratitude. It is about giving thanks to God.
When President Abraham Lincoln declared the last Thursday in November as a national day of Thanksgiving in 1863, he proclaimed it “as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens.”
In 1941, Congress introduced the legislation and established Thanksgiving Day as the fourth Thursday in November.
Thanksgiving is about appreciating the people in our lives and being thankful for what we have received in life.
We have so much in this country and so much good happens to us. Yet in the rush of daily life, we fail to notice and acknowledge it. We often take things for granted.
If we focus our attention on the good and positive, focus on what we have, not what we lack, we can experience a life with contentment and joy. We don’t need to fill our life with material stuff to make us feel good.
One year ago on Thanksgiving Day 2005, I made a conscious decision to start a gratitude journal. I was inspired by the following words Oprah wrote in one of her "O Magazine" articles.
“Keep a grateful journal. Every night, list five things that you are grateful for. What it will begin to do is change your perspective of your day and your life.”
At that time I felt my life was in need of change. I wanted to cultivate an attitude of gratitude, nurture a grateful heart and a spirit of thankfulness. I wanted to bring myself closer to my soul and to God.
I wanted to count God’s blessings in my life and to focus my attention on the positive side of life. I wanted to be mindful and more aware of even little things happening every day. I wanted to live a more authentic life.
Since last Thanksgiving, I have been writing regularly in my journal and have filled several journals. The writing itself is a tool that declutters my mind and brings out the creativity within. My journey to the inside has drawn me closer to my authentic self and God. It has transformed my life in a profound way.
I was baptized in September this year. I am thankful for being a child of God who loves me despite of my shortcomings. I am thankful for being a part of God’s family.
I am becoming a more grateful person. I write more thank-you notes to people. When people have done something nice for me, I want to show my appreciation.
When I say thank you, it not only makes the receiver feel good, it makes me feel good too.
I count my blessings every day as I write in my journal. I am more mindful of what’s happening in my life.
The more grateful I am, the more reasons I have to be grateful. I find more joy in life.
Here is something I would like you to try: Start a gratitude journal.
Every night, before you go to sleep, write down a few things that you are grateful for that day. Start to count your blessings.
Remember, Thanksgiving is not a once-a-year event, but a way of life. Learn to be thankful every day.
As the result of having a thankful heart, you life will be richer and more joyful.
I wish you all a happy and blessed Thanksgiving Day tomorrow and every day of the year.
Sunday, November 7, 2010
An introduction to Chinese language
[Originally published in Woodbury Bulletin on 9/17/2007]
For this school year 2007-2008, our District 833 offers a pilot Mandarin Chinese language program at three elementary schools: Liberty Ridge, Royal Oak and Newport.
Most people here probably have heard the term “Mandarin Chinese,” but don’t really know what it means.
China has eight major dialect groups: Putonghua (Mandarin), Yue (Cantonese), Wu (Shanghainese), Minbei (Fuzhou), Minnan (Taiwanese), Xiang, Gan and Hakka.
Each major dialect sounds so differently that people speaking different dialects often cannot understand each other. In each major dialect, there are countless local variations.
The dialect used in my home town Suzhou sounds very different from the dialect used in Shanghai which is only about one hour away. Even though I don’t speak the Shanghai dialect, at least I can understand it without difficulty, because both dialects belong to same major dialect group called "Wu" dialect.
However, when people speak Cantonese, a dialect spoken in southern China and in many Chinese communities around the world, I can’t understand anything. Cantonese is like a foreign language to me.
The language spoken in Beijing (Peking), the capital of China, is referred to as Putonghua or Mandarin. Putonghua, which means "common language", is the official spoken language of China. It is also one of the four official languages of Singapore.
I learned to speak Mandarin Chinese when I went to college in Beijing. I have used Mandarin Chinese in the last 26 years. However, when I speak, some people can still notice that I have a slight accent from the South.
Even though the pronunciation of Chinese characters in the dialects can be as different from each other as foreign languages, the characters themselves don’t change. So two Chinese who can’t understand each other when they talk, can write to each other without any problem.
There are about 6300 Chinese characters. Among them, about 2500 are commonly used and are mastered by the elementary school kids. These 2500 characters make up 99% of characters used in our every day life. Once you master 2500 commonly used characters, you are considered literate and will be able to read Chinese newspapers and books. As a tourist, you can probably get by in China knowing about a couple of hundred Chinese characters.
One important part of learning Chinese is to learn to write Chinese characters.
Unlike Western languages, Chinese characters are pictographic, meaning that they are simplified pictures of the things they represent and they are independent from their sounds.
Over the last two thousands years Chinese characters have undergone transformations. Some kept this pictographic or ideographic nature while others were gradually modified or simplified so they no longer look like the original objects or ideas.
Most Chinese characters are formed by combining different and recurring components. As new words were needed for things which weren’t easy to draw, existing characters were combined to create new characters. Simpler characters often act as basic building blocks from which more complex characters were formed.
As more and more characters were introduced over the years by combining existing characters, some of them became very complicated. Writing the complicated characters requires many strokes which is very time-consuming. In the middle of the 20th century, the Chinese government created a standardized form of simplified characters to be used in China.
Today, the simplified characters are used in China and Singapore. People no longer learn the old traditional forms of characters. But the traditional forms are still used in Taiwan and in some overseas Chinese communities around the world, among the older generations.
Each Chinese character is made up of a number strokes. Strokes come in various shapes. It can be a straight line, a curve, a bent line, a line with a hook, a dot or a comma.
Traditionally, Chinese was written from top to bottom in columns beginning on the right hand side of the page and working towards the left. The cover of a Chinese book printed in the traditional way is what Westerners consider the back cover.
But along with simplifying the characters, people in China have also changed the way they write and print. Nowadays, Chinese also write from left to right in horizontal lines working from the top to the bottom of a page.
The Chinese characters are pronounced using the phonetic system called “Pinyin,” based on the letters of the alphabet.
About 1.3 billion people (one-fifth of the world population) speak some form of Chinese, making it the language with the most native speakers. Mandarin Chinese is becoming the fastest growing world language taught in schools in this country.
For this school year 2007-2008, our District 833 offers a pilot Mandarin Chinese language program at three elementary schools: Liberty Ridge, Royal Oak and Newport.
Most people here probably have heard the term “Mandarin Chinese,” but don’t really know what it means.
China has eight major dialect groups: Putonghua (Mandarin), Yue (Cantonese), Wu (Shanghainese), Minbei (Fuzhou), Minnan (Taiwanese), Xiang, Gan and Hakka.
Each major dialect sounds so differently that people speaking different dialects often cannot understand each other. In each major dialect, there are countless local variations.
The dialect used in my home town Suzhou sounds very different from the dialect used in Shanghai which is only about one hour away. Even though I don’t speak the Shanghai dialect, at least I can understand it without difficulty, because both dialects belong to same major dialect group called "Wu" dialect.
However, when people speak Cantonese, a dialect spoken in southern China and in many Chinese communities around the world, I can’t understand anything. Cantonese is like a foreign language to me.
The language spoken in Beijing (Peking), the capital of China, is referred to as Putonghua or Mandarin. Putonghua, which means "common language", is the official spoken language of China. It is also one of the four official languages of Singapore.
I learned to speak Mandarin Chinese when I went to college in Beijing. I have used Mandarin Chinese in the last 26 years. However, when I speak, some people can still notice that I have a slight accent from the South.
Even though the pronunciation of Chinese characters in the dialects can be as different from each other as foreign languages, the characters themselves don’t change. So two Chinese who can’t understand each other when they talk, can write to each other without any problem.
There are about 6300 Chinese characters. Among them, about 2500 are commonly used and are mastered by the elementary school kids. These 2500 characters make up 99% of characters used in our every day life. Once you master 2500 commonly used characters, you are considered literate and will be able to read Chinese newspapers and books. As a tourist, you can probably get by in China knowing about a couple of hundred Chinese characters.
One important part of learning Chinese is to learn to write Chinese characters.
Unlike Western languages, Chinese characters are pictographic, meaning that they are simplified pictures of the things they represent and they are independent from their sounds.
Over the last two thousands years Chinese characters have undergone transformations. Some kept this pictographic or ideographic nature while others were gradually modified or simplified so they no longer look like the original objects or ideas.
Most Chinese characters are formed by combining different and recurring components. As new words were needed for things which weren’t easy to draw, existing characters were combined to create new characters. Simpler characters often act as basic building blocks from which more complex characters were formed.
As more and more characters were introduced over the years by combining existing characters, some of them became very complicated. Writing the complicated characters requires many strokes which is very time-consuming. In the middle of the 20th century, the Chinese government created a standardized form of simplified characters to be used in China.
Today, the simplified characters are used in China and Singapore. People no longer learn the old traditional forms of characters. But the traditional forms are still used in Taiwan and in some overseas Chinese communities around the world, among the older generations.
Each Chinese character is made up of a number strokes. Strokes come in various shapes. It can be a straight line, a curve, a bent line, a line with a hook, a dot or a comma.
Traditionally, Chinese was written from top to bottom in columns beginning on the right hand side of the page and working towards the left. The cover of a Chinese book printed in the traditional way is what Westerners consider the back cover.
But along with simplifying the characters, people in China have also changed the way they write and print. Nowadays, Chinese also write from left to right in horizontal lines working from the top to the bottom of a page.
The Chinese characters are pronounced using the phonetic system called “Pinyin,” based on the letters of the alphabet.
About 1.3 billion people (one-fifth of the world population) speak some form of Chinese, making it the language with the most native speakers. Mandarin Chinese is becoming the fastest growing world language taught in schools in this country.
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