Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes!

This morning was a morning to revel in changes. I came to China in August 2000 and have witnessed an almost breakneck pace of change in this little corner of the world. When I arrived here the big news was that WalMart had opened up downtown in the previous year and Pizza Hut had just arrived in the city the same month I did. My internet was a basic telephone modem with poor wiring in the walls so that the interference made it all but impossible to do even basic surfing. Sometimes simple emails would take minutes to load. I had a VCD player for watching movies (essentially a glorified CD .. movies were split on 2 discs and were of very poor quality).

Fast forward to June 13, 2009 and I find myself sitting in my apartment which is significantly more spacious and modern than the first apartment I lived in here. My my wife and children (I was single and childless when I arrived) were puttering around the house as I sat and watched Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals on my high speed cable internet connection. I was sipping my Starbuck's Coffee (we got one 3 years back) and eating some chocolate from IKEA (just opened this February).

As I watched the rematchfrom 2008 I realized that my life had changed about as much as the fortunes of Detroit and Pittsburgh. I felt for a moment connected to those youngsters on the ice (Crosby 21, Malkin 22, Stall 20) as we both were swept along in a sea of change. Mine is like a slow rolling wave that lazily washes the gentle sands of time. It changes so slowly as to be imperceptible but in the long run the effect is tremendous. Pittsburgh's is like the photos of the giant crashing waves with the surfer riding confidently inside a tube of water enjoying the coolness of it all quite separate from the entire world around them but all the while realizing their special moment in time and space.



To the Penguins I give you the quote from David Bowie's "Changes"
"And these children that you spit on
As they try to change their world
Are immune to your consultations.
They're quite aware of what they're going through.
Ch-ch-ch-changes.
Don't tell them to grow up and out of it"

The song is almost 40 years old (1971) but it's as beautiful and poignant now as it was then.