Love and Friendship

Day 98: Thursday, June 16, 2011

Like I often do, I got in trouble (with Ian again) for saying too much on Talking Barnacles today… I just wrote what happened- the way it really happened- but sometimes facts aren’t always most important, especially when it comes to love or friendship…

When I first moved to China to live with Madi, we would often fight about how bad and corrupt her government was and I would always do my best to prove it… but one time after I had clearly had and was proudly waiting for my apology, she asked me something so simple and yet so profound, which was:

Why do you always have to be right?

With only eight words, she struck down the very concept, which I had always believed the world was based upon- how I had always thought the world worked- because in her subtle Asian ways, this time she was right. Here I was dissing her country and her government with my so-called righteous/politically correct beliefs when in actuality there was nothing that she could do, and all I was doing was just hurting her.

Relationships aren’t based on facts, but on feelings and understanding and caring… and in my righteous American way, I couldn’t see that until now.

So basically what I wanted to say to Ian, Madi, and everyone else, who I hurt unintentionally in the past, was…

Sorry.