Wednesday, July 3, 2013

Dr. Trung and My Japanese/Korean Birthday Present

Today I turned 26 in Japan. No longer do I feel entitled to constant declarations of “Happy Birthday!”s or a stack of greeting cards with cash inside.  Rather, today I was simply excited with Dr. Trung, a young visiting doctor from Vietman, handed me a present.  Inside was a small plastic plate decorated with a picture of the Trung Tien Bridge in his home town, a Barbie keychain, and a mini bottle of nail polish remover.  He apologized that his gift was stupid but he had nothing else in his apartment. I responded that as the only gift I would open on my birthday, it did not matter the contents.  But in fact the plate is beautiful and I truly needed some nail polish remover.  His concerned frown widened to a smile and he bowed deeply, pleased that he could bring me birthday joy.  And when Dr. Rachy and Dr. Jome, two Thai doctors I had met 3 hours before, insisted that they take me to lunch at a restaurant, not the cafeteria, to celebrate my birthday, I was again reminded of the genuine goodness of the human spirit. 


A birthday is not a day for presents or greetings from family and friends.  It is a day to feel blessed.  Blessed to be alive.  Blessed to have a go at this crazy, exciting, weird, a little shitty, but always amazing thing called life.   Thanks to Dr. Trung, Dr. Rachy, and Dr. Jome, I ended up having a great 26th birthday.

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