whatever you want to be...

Tonight I attended a Moon Festival gathering at a Thai restaurant with my bosses and it was quite interesting.  I met a Frenchman married to an expat from Burma whose two sisters run the restaurant here in Puli.
Intriguing people.  The Frenchman's children speak fluent French and Chinese. They speak decent English and Taiwanese too.  Wow, those kids are set for life.  I'd love to master just one foreign language let alone four.  I wonder if they speak Burmese as well, seeing as their mother and her two sisters are Burmese.

One of the sisters sat down and told us how growing up in Burma, her father told them they had a choice of either cooking or studying.  Whichever they chose they had to give their full attention to but he gave them these options without pressure.  From what she conveyed he seemed pretty laid back about the whole thing.  He didn't emphasize one over the other, instead he let them live with whatever choice they made.

This is interesting.  In America, growing up we are told we have endless choices, endless opportunities.  We can become whatever we wish to be... at a price.  How many times do people stress and agonize over where they are in their lives, what they don't have, what they should have done? Even though there is freedom of choice it's accompanied by intense pressure.  Pressure to succeed, to live up to what society's definition of The American Dream or true "success" is.

How many of us actually live with our choices and feel contentment?

I'm not sure exactly where I'm going with this.  Maybe one day I'll know.


The moon is a little spooky tonight...perfect for Moon Festival.