Well, I didn't go to the Great Wall on Saturday. It's sad, to be true. However, to make up for it, I went to the Forbidden City on Monday. It was much more enormous and forbidden than I had anticipated. The buildings date back as far as 1420, and the complex sprawls forever. For a quick reference, 1420 is 72 years before Columbus may or may not have discovered America and with him brought all manner of poxes onto the native peoples. That puts the Forbidden City at 588 years old. That's ridiculously old!

This brings me to a thought. I occasionally look around at Beijing and think, "This city is older than my country." Then it occurs to me that Shakespeare wasn't even writing yet when the Emperor started work on his Imperial Palace. That would be roughly 100 years before Luther posted his theses on the door in Wittenburg, and so it was well before the Protestant church came about. And finally, it was 367 years before the ratification of the Constitution of the United States.

I've had it pointed out a lot over the past year that the US's history is not very long. I'm inclined to agree. We plan for the future and look ahead a lot. China looks at the past. China watches long, long cycles repeat themselves. Sometimes it seems like China drives by watching the rearview mirror. The people certainly don't hurry about much here. Except on the subway.

Austin expressed yesterday that he thinks I am really superstitious. I think he's way off-base, and I let him know. I'm realizing through Austin that a lot of stuff gets filtered into how we view the world by way of being American. I see a lot of where I have for so long come from, and I see what changes are yet to be made in me. I think I'm not superstitious, rather, I'm increasingly aware of the stuff that goes on that my eyes cannot see. There is evil in the world, friends, and I only know of one way to work against it: Perfect Good. You know what I'm talking about. It doesn't come from me.

Anyway, my horizons have been broadened this week culturally and spiritually and intellectually and emotionally and all that. It's not always fun, but it's always better to know, to process, to file, and to grow.

T