PROBABLY NOT ANYTIME SOON

Sunday, 9:00 AM.  26 degrees F, wind W, calm to light at present.  The sky is now darkly overcast, whereas an hour earlier the sun had been peeking through the gloom enough to at least silver the equally  dark waters of the channel.  We got several more inches of snow last night which I just finished shoveling, and the city plows have already cleared the roads.  The barometer is either stuck on the bottom or broken.  Unless the sun comes out and the barometer revives miraculously by mid afternoon, I am done with this deer season. 
        Cousin Susan (a retired railroad VP and an exceptional  woman in a man’s world) called last night, just back from China with her sister Marilyn, nephew Michael and Michael’s Chinese wife Emai and their fourteen month old baby girl.  They had all gone to visit Emai’s parents and other relatives in a very large city in Szechwan Province (I don’t remember the city’s name, which really doesn’t matter).  In the course of several week’s visit they did some of the obvious tourist side trips, terracotta warriors and such, wondered what they were eating, and heard no English except that spoken among themselves.  The air pollution was pretty bad but otherwise they had a fine time. The crux of the visit came unexpectedly one day when Emai’s father took the visitors to a tea house with the obvious intent of having a rather serious discussion.
        First, he thanked them for caring for his daughter (a beautiful, independent and talented young woman) and new grandchild in America.  He thanked them for bringing them to visit.  He prevailed upon them to teach the child the values of both cultures so that she could be a bridge between China and the United States.
        Then he came to his most important point, that it was destiny that had brought Michael and Emai together:
        “A millennium ago in an earlier life they passed each other without recognition.  Five hundred years ago in yet another existence they briefly caught each other’s eye.  In this life they finally met, and realized they had loved each other for a thousand years.”
        Susan looked at Marilyn and said, “Gee, and we thought it was just another internet romance.”
        East is East, and West is West…will the twain ever meet? Probably not anytime soon.