The Gift of the Magi

 Part of the joy of watching Jeopardy episodes with MJ is making connections about facts in life that were all jumbled up in my brain, people, places, words, historical objects, fictional characters that I had heard of but really didn't piece together or inquire further into. Today I read about Cool Hand Luke, a movie I had always known for the famous phrase "what we have here is a failure to communicate," but there's a reason the movie received a 100% score on Rotten Tomatoes. I've caught up on so much geography and reminded myself how little I know about the world outside of the U.S. and maybe a handful of touristy areas I've visited over the years; there's a whole vast world out there, and Honduras is a country in Central America bordering Nicaraugua and Guatemala, not somewhere in the Caribbean Islands as I had always thought. And the Tower of Babylon wasn't an actual place. Recoleta is a famous cemetery in Bueno Aires. (I actually kind of like cemeteries, I would walk through them if it wasn't frowned upon/bad luck/kind of creepy. But I also was reminded of an awesome short story I'd read before in Japanese, didn't finish because it was pretty long, called "The Gift of the Magi" by O Henry (it's a pen name for William Porter). It's a story about a very poor husband and wife team who are preparing for Christmas and want to give each other a gift, but don't have much money. ($1.87, apparently, to be exact, which even before inflation is not a significant sum). Spoiler Alert! The wife sells her hair to get the husband a watch chain to match his watch, but what she doesn't know is that the husband sold his watch to buy the wife combs for her hair. So neither of them can use the gift that they got each other, but it shows that they really cared about each other and how much they were willing to sacrifice. A touching story and a reminder of the good things mankind is capable of (at least in fictional stories, but I can imagine somewhere some time a similar story happened. But I wouldn't trust it if it was a story that popped up on Facebook or Instagram nowadays, it'd likely be a ploy to get attention unfortunately). I'd like to think that MJ and I have the same kind of relationship as in the Gift of the Magi, but I don't even wear a watch. Marriage goals. 

That's the kind of story people should aspire to even in today's society, but unfortunatley the stuff we read nowadays is far from the romanticized version of humans and more of the "clap-back" insult, and salacious news variety. Reputable news organizations like the New York Times and CNN have even caved to the pressures of what people want (gossip, spin, and stories that make people feel emotion, even anger) instead of giving neutral writing, not to mention all the new media, Youtube channels, TikTok videos, twitter trends, etc., that usually focus more on what the latest bad news or mean tweet is rather than positive, inspiring news. I feel like there's a need for people to read more short stories with parables and lessons, or at least get a refresher course on Aesop's fables (ex: The Fox and the sour grapes, the Boy Who Cried Wolf- aka STOP LYING!, and Hans Christian Andersen's "Emperor's New Clothes." - perfect metaphor for Trump right now who employs plenty of yes-men to tell him he's the greatest. It's almost like the more people grow up from the innocence of a kid and the natural inclination to do good acts and be nice to others (at least most kids) the more adults screw it up distrust each other, causing rifts in the world. Aka we all get worse as we age, a frightening prospect. 

One of the complaints I've had recently is while running around outside, a fairly innocuous act that isn't bothering anyone (I even mask up when I approach others on the sidewalk!) I frequently encounter people who make comments about me running. It's usually something like "Yeah" and "Keep running!" nothing too offensive (except one non-Chinese child looked at me and yelled "Chinese!") but it's very obviously directed at me and not in a friendly way, more like a demeaning way or pointing me out for doing something so foolish as to run. I've never really understood hecklers' ire for runners, am I making them jealous for trying to stay healthy, or distract them from some monumental discovery while they were looking down at their phone while walking? I've noticed that a lot of times hecklers are with their friends and want to say something to look cool, kind of like a bullying mentality so that they seem strong and not weak within their group. Sometimes it's also just people being drunk.  Many times in the moment after it happens I instinctively think about shouting something back, but then just move on as running nowadays is one of my stress relievers and one of the only opportunities to get out of the house and get some fresh air. Plus the November cool area coming through is one of the best times to run, feeling the crisp clean breeze of an impending winter, with the drawback being that it gets dark around 5PM every day, before I get off work. 

Fantasize on, 

Robert Yan