You Can Never Go Home Again or Can You?

Although we have been back in China for less than a month, we also have less than a month in China before we return to the US . After that we are planning to return to China for another year at the end of August. Thinking about all that there is to do in the next few weeks to get ready to go home, reminded me of the saying "You can never go home again". What does that really mean? Most of us think, "of course you can go home again", but can one really? Obviously, one can go back to the house of their parents, and in a sense, that is going home. However, what makes a house a home is not the collections of bricks, sticks, mortar, and tile. It is the people and the memories. Memories are in the past, and people are transient, both physically and emotionally. Therefore, the idealistic memories that we have can never be recaptured, and we ourselves and the people we remember have all changed. The home of our mind is gone forever. I know that that is a rather bleak assessment of things, but it does not have to be. Let me give you an example. Have you ever watched an episode of one of your favorite TV shows from years ago? How often does the show in actuality live up to the memory? Often time distorts the true nature of things. It causes us to forget about the bad acting, weak script, or lame special effect i.e. "The Greatest American Hero". Now, that show will always hold a special place in my heart, but I would not want modern shows to look just like it. Instead, I can appreciate it for what it was, and yet still recognize the merit of some of my new favorite shows. Time can also have a different effect though. It helps one to see things from a different perspective. The fact that we are transient can be beneficial. As we grow older, we are constantly adjusting to the circumstances of life. Everyday, all of us are refined, shapened, and molded little by little. I remember when Star Trek the Next Generation premiered, many didn't like it because it was not the Original series. Becuase of advances in special effects and more sophisticated writing, the franchise was helped. In fact, I think it was improved. Kirk and the Crew were great, but the Next Gen was more polished. The effects of time are not always bad. So it is with us, just because we can't return to the home of our mind, doesn't mean we can't return to a home. When I think of how supportive our friends and families have been, always with kind words of encouragement, always anticipating our return, I think that although the home we left no longer exist, the one to which we return to will be even more special. It will be new, better, and even more polished than it was before. So in a since we will not be going home again, we will be going home for the first time. Again. - Frank

Human beings are the only creatures that allow their children to come back home - Bill Cosby

He's Dead, Jim!

For those of you who are not big fans of Star Trek, the original in particular, those are the famous words of Dr. McCoy. He would usually say them after of one the "unknown" crewman wearing red was sent off alone to investigate some weird sound. This dire pronouncement was made following a quick examination by the good doctor. Well, I have been experiencing some serious computer problems over the past two weeks. To make a along story short, there was a conflict between all of my hardware and the software that was supposed to operate them. How this came about, I don't know? I contacted Acer technical support, and gave them all of the details. I expected to hear a variation of that ominous diagnosis. They contacted me a few days later and there reply was reminiscent of a quote from a different "doctor" (Miracle Max) from a different movie (The Princess Bride). It seems that my poor laptop was only "mostly dead". They informed me that all I had to do was reset my laptop to the original factory settings. The good news is that fixed the problems. The bad news is it also wiped my C drive. The good news is I bought a 250 GB hard beforehand to back up the C drive. The bad news is I didn't do as good a job backing everything up as I thought. This good news, bad news routine is something that we learned in our TESOL class. It is supposed to be a fun way to teach language. I have found out, though, that when you have lost almost all of the pictures that you have taken over eight months abroad, pictures that are irreplaceable of the wonderful places that you have visited and may never get back to, that routine just isn't as funny to you. The worst part about it is that it did not have to turn out this way. A few week ago Amanda saw that I was transferring everything from my cameras memory card to my computer and told me "You should always have your pictures saved to at least two places". That was good advice but there is a genetic trait that males have, it causes us to sometimes ignore good advice. Just think of the aforementioned unknown crewman. How many times back on the Enterprise did he and the guys talk about all the other security detail members that didn't make it back. I am sure he was told "No matter what they say, don't go off alone"! But once he was in the situation, he just could not control himself. Well, as if drawn by some siren call to stupidity, I thought at the time, "That takes up too much space, what can go wrong"? Well, I had to ask didn't I? So now I am paying for it the hard way. At least, Amanda has been gracious enough not to say "I told you so". She has even felt genuinely sorry for me. - Unknown Crewman

McCoy:
I'm a doctor, not a bricklayer. Devil in the Dark I'm a doctor, not a psychiatrist. City on the Edge of Forever I'm a doctor, not a mechanic. Doomsday Machine I'm a doctor, not an escalator. Friday's Child I'm a doctor, not an engineer. (Scotty: Now you're an engineer.) Mirror, Mirror I'm a doctor, not a coal miner. The Empath I'm a surgeon, not a moon shuttle conductor. Corbomite Maneuver I'm not a magician, just an old country doctor. Deadly Years He's dead, Jim. The Enemy Within, The Man Trap, Wolf in the Fold, The Changeling She's dead, Jim. Wolf in the Fold (twice) He's dead, Captain. And the Children Shall Lead He's dead. Amok Time, I, Mudd, For the World is Hollow... She's dead. The Deadly Years Dead. The Apple This man is dead. Catspaw That man's dead back there. A Piece of the Action Very dead, Mr. Spock. Spectre of the Gun
The captain's dead. Enterprise Incident