What a wonderful book launch celebration we had on Sunday, May 24th! Ken Cohen demonstrated a Chinese tea ceremony and had lovely tea for all 45+ participants. It was the perfect way to relax into our time together and read from Still Point of the Turning World.
A communal reading seemed to reflect the spirit of Stillpoint as I’ve come to understand it, so Carmen Baehr and David Chrislip joined me. The reading included excerpts from the early 1950s when Gia-fu was caught in this country by political forces spinning out from the Korean War. He had completed his Master’s Degree in International Banking at the Wharton School and had enrolled in a Ph.D. program in statistics at New York University. This he did not complete. He was bewildered, bereft, lost, depressed for some time.
Most people, myself included prior to researching this time, had no idea that the U.S. government forbade Chinese students in technical areas to return home. Some committed suicide. Others endured somehow.
Gia-fu’s consequent U.S. travel and searching ultimately landed him just where he needed to be. A divine accident, he would say. Others might call it good fortune. Still Point of the Turning World seems both to me.
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