String Theory

More hand-me-down fortunes:

"Long life is in store for you."

"Share your joys and sorrows with your family."

"Golden hours are coming to you."

I strung them together and came up with a novel. Just kidding. It was a coincidence, though, that I had just finished reading Shanghai Girls which follows the string precisely. The book opens in 1937 with two sisters, Pearl and May. The story of their escape from China, the detention at Angel Island, their attempts to make a life in Los Angeles, was in turn horrifying and joyful. May was born in the Year of the Sheep and Pearl, the elder, in the Year of the Dragon. Intentionally or not, the manner they coped was reflected in these personality traits. They shared terrors but the Sheep did not confide in the Dragon out of fear of fire and the Dragon dismissed the Sheep's goodheartedness as frivolous. Eventually, May's heartbreaking secret forces Pearl to reevaluate her reactions and seek forgiveness for her entire past. The part of the book most stirring for me was the Angel Island account. I went to Angel Island as a sort of pilgrimage in 2003. Looking out over the bay to the skyline of San Francisco, so out or reach for Pearl and May and an easy ferry ride for me, and seeing the view from their perspective, changed how I think of the island. Before it was a place where Gertrude Janz, who would have been my dad's older sister had she lived, died and was buried at the age of two. But now, I see Angel Island like sorrowing saint statue--the tears falling into the chilly water. There is something noble about the land rising in the mist where many endured and moved on, either back to China or new lives on the road to citizenship in a foreign county. We do not have to experience such trials personally to gain from them. A stunning, well-written book provides soul-searing lessons.

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...as Spring approaches, the blessings of renewal be yours...