Inspired By

Chinese Lunar New Year

I visited Dallas, Texas to get warm.  20° F where I am, and I was pleased to find that it was well over 40 and a different feel.  Turns out I had much more than that to draw me there.

I searched and chose a billiards room in Ft. Worth.  I love the game but rarely have a chance to play it where I am.  Beautiful tables played perfectly.  A house that exudes respectability.   All seemed to appreciate my desire ( and need:) ) to learn.

After a few hours of solo practice surrounded by expressions of culture that seemed to me to take such matters both seriously and joyfully, a man who spoke English welcomed me and taught me a structured way to determine from the current position and desired target, to aim.  He invited me to the Lunar New Year celebration occurring nearby, explaining to me the reason for the crowd and difficulty parking.

Throughout the shopping center, typically a partially open market/bazaar, and now with additional food vendors and merchants from all over the world, were mostly Asian and Asian American families, friends, folks, folklore, and even some furries, both for fun and for show.  A concert stage and live music in a full room, traditional enough and westernized enough for the setting.  A singer who lit the room.

There were so many families. Many mixed, which provided perhaps some of the most accessible social observations for me.  An Asian grandfather may observe the westernization of his grandchildren, whereas I saw that so often an American who married in had adopted the stoic serenity that is so often lacking here.

The styles of food from the street vendors helped me determine the culture and countries represented,  though surely there were gray areas and blurred boundaries (Duck Feet or Egg Roll?)  I saw Viet Namese, Thai, Cambodian, Chinese, Japanese, Pinay, Korean, Laotian, and what I would guess is Polynesian, just among vendors.

I had a chance to observe families from everywhere working together over food, which was perhaps the most interesting.  So many commonalities, though surely I generalize them – perhaps seeing what I want to see, perhaps seeing what I already believe,  perhaps learning from what is.

The kids sell, or don’t, sometimes with hope that you might be interested, sometimes with tricks.   But typically colorful ones – like the plastic bonzai, the caucasian buddha, or the nylon silks.  The most offensive I observed was when daughter smiled brightly, but coyly for attention, to beckon me toward mother’s wok.

Mom and Dad cook, Grandma has the recipe, and Grandpa is there, or perhaps he faithfully serves the tradition in her absence.  But the older, the quieter, almost universally.   No pessimism in the house.  Private neutrality may be more common outside a Lunar New Year celebration in America, and here there was some,  but certainly none of what I would call ‘social interventionists’, beyond authentic expressions of curious human nature.

And no one was disrespectful. Sure, some kids were wild, and some loud as geese.  But no one out of order, no one drunk or disorderly.  The friendliest police officer I think I ever met was there, and had nothing more pressing to do but to help me find the restroom.

For me it was not just a sight to behold, but a god thing.  The next step in my development was to open my eyes to the fact that there are places where my energy feels normal.  Where the default position is respect or neutrality.  Too often I have been affected by weaponized overhearing, self-serving verbal cacophonies at disproportianate volume.  Not here, where everyone seemed to want to serve the well being of others, even when, at worst, it may have been done only by, for instance, the most presentable dress chosen to represent the family enterprise.

To be among the variety of individuals who were in celebration of, as I understand it, a cleaning of the old and unneeded, and an ushering in of the new and prosperous, was a holistically refreshing experience that I wish to participate in at every opportunity.