My personal memorable dates, as far as I can recall, include the date I reported to the boot camp that started my mandatory military service in Taiwan (July 12, 1980), the date I finished it (May 26, 1982, exactly 1 year and 10 months and 2 weeks later); the date I had a horrific car accident on the California freeway and walked away unharmed (January 4, 1983); and the date I came to America, August 16,1982.
That date is memorable because it marks the first time ever I went abroad, leaving a place I was born and raised and lived continuously in for almost 25 years, for a far and foreign land that I had only heard about and saw on TV. Going to the USA for study, that's about the only way many a young man and woman of my generation did to break away from the old and familiar to the new and fancy in a land that waves a promising hand to the world.
Everything was new and titillatingly fun to a young mind then. It's as if just yesterday I was sitting in that tiny Japan Airlines seat, eating tiny Japanese cold noodle, looking out the window, seeing the bright blue skies and white shiny clouds, and the beautiful landscape down below, excitement more than overcoming the bitsy unease for the unknown to come...
And whiff, just by one turn, that yesterday was 30 years ago already, and that barely 25 year-young lad had just turned double-five this past month.
Remember that "Never trust anyone over 30" proclamation by the baby-boomers when they were at their prime early 20's, that shows how incomprehensible big chronological numbers seem to young people. I remember when I was at grade school age and one day I read on a youth magazine projections of many soon-to-be-accomplished human achievements for the next 30 years to come, and I told my father, finger pointing at one of those projections on page: "there, I can well live to see this thing happen--humans landing on Mars," I said triumphantly, as if that would be my own accomplishment too.
Well, that forecast date had long passed and gone, and no human feet have ever set on Mars yet, and I doubt it will any time soon. Nor are there any automated walkways that transport pedestrians around city blocks day and night, or people living happily in beautiful, sophisticated undersea cities all over the world, for that matter. Straight line projections based on science and technologies alone always neglect to take into account other factors that make people do what they do in the first place.
But many things amazing that I did see happen in the past 30 years: Neil Armstrong's foot-step on the moon, Berlin walls got torn down overnight, Apple beats Microsoft, Korean soap operas trump Japanese ones.
And Y2K crisis was just a hoax of millennium magnitude, AIDS and SARS did not decimate human population, oil and gas did not run dry, the ozone layer did not keep on thinning, as many predicted they would.
We defused the nuclear hot war between two super powers but were then shocked by the havoc natural hazards such as tropical storms and tsunamis could wreak over the world, one of them led directly to a nuclear calamity in Japan. The evil Soviet Empire is no more but no one foresaw a few extreme men could bring down two monumental buildings of New York City in broad daylight on one sunny September morning. Japan's economy did not take over US during the 1980's, but China's may in the 2020's.
So I just turned 55 mid last month. What significance does that carry? If our dear old sage Confucius is right (which he always is), turning 50 means "I know what on earth am I here for (五十而知天命)," and turning 60 means "wife's nagging is music to my ears (六十耳順)," then turning 55 means I am halfway to realizing that my purpose in life is to hear my wife's nagging as music to my ears soon.
Actually the even more blissful thing for turning 55...are you ready...is you start getting "senior discount" at some shops. I found that out about a couple weeks ago when I called into a local golf club to check out their green fees, and the clerk explained: "If you buy this gift card, you'll get $5 off our senior rate," upon which I interrupted: "I am only 55, so I don't think I qualify as senior..." "Oh no, here in our club 55 is considered senior..." OMG, moment of enlightenment, for the first time in my life--it dawned on me--that I am considered a senior citizen already!!
I recovered from the shock and sadness fairly quickly, and about one week later, when I was sitting at a Denny's Restaurant for lunch with a friend, I flipped the menu around and saw the "Senior Menu--for 55 and over" on the back. How interesting, as my friend laughingly explained to me, when his wife was pregnant, she seemed to see lots of pregnant people around her all the time. Same logic applies, when you become senior, you start seeing things senior more and more. I turned around and look, and lo and behold, I saw so many senior people sitting around me that I didn't pay attention to just moments ago!
Then the waitress came, and joyfully I told her: "This is your lucky day, your restaurant has the privilege of serving the first ever senior discount meal for me," and went on to order one good country fried steak that was about two dollars cheaper than it normally would be charged. The waitress just smiled and took the order, without ever asking for my ID... Even though I looked too young to be over 55, she decided to give me a pass for the good spirit I showed her, I reasoned.
To close, I'd like to make a projection, especially for those superstitious minded friends of mine: When I turned 30 in 1987, the Wall Street had a "Black Monday" crash in October; when I turned 40 in 1997, we had the Asian Financial Crisis; and when I turned 50 in 2007, of course that's when the current Great Recession started in December that year. So naturally, my friends, I project when I turned 60 in 2017, there is bound to be a world class financial crisis of some sort happening again. Where there are crises, there are opportunities. Take this lead from me, and no need to thank me when you make it, because I will be busy hearing music to my ears all day long by then.
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