As I think back on this INCREDIBLE trip and think on just how fortunate I am to have had such an experience, there is a moment at the very beginning that stands out. The six of us representing the “David Yang” branch of the family tree had just met up in the SEA-TAC airport, flushed with excitement over our coming adventure.
“You know, I wouldn’t even be here if it weren’t for your grandfather. I’m just so grateful for this opportunity,” said Robyn to Dave.
I thought for a second, then realized...”Neither would Vicki...in fact, NONE of us would be here!”
It was a strong reminder of how our lives in the present are built upon the works of those who lived in the past, and of the responsibility we have toward those in the future.
Growing up in the United States was something I just always took for granted. The double-edged sword of knowing nothing but freedom is that it becomes the lens through which one views the world. It simply exists as the natural order of things, and aberrations such as fascism or communism are expected to fall away of their own accord. After all, doesn’t everyone want to be free?
It takes a story, a personal story of a human experience to span that gap between the abstract and the real. Perhaps the most striking experience for me on this trip was visiting the Sung family ancestral village. The image of my great-great-grandfather laboring under the weight of an overflowing wheelbarrow of firewood threw into stark contrast the lifestyle I now enjoy. Today, the living standards of that small village are little changed. In fact, the wheels of industrial progress seem to have made life harder. Now that much of the surrounding hillside is being mined for one resource or another they must walk miles just to reach the land they are allowed to cultivate...
And yet, we, the descendants of Song Feiqing, have enjoyed blessings of fortune many times over that which these people have. I ask myself, what is the difference? Yes, simply being in America is a big part of that, but then how did we come to be here? How did “I” come to be...here?
This question, for me, is everything. It’s a question that first started forming in my mind years ago during a middle school culture fair project. It was then I first heard the story of an incredible man. A man who built not just a company but a community, indeed a very industry where there was none. This man touched the lives of those around him so deeply that now more than 2/3 of a century later the ripples of his deeds have spanned the globe. I too, now get to span the globe, to see the place where those ripples began.
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