Celebration through a new set of lenses

The Fourth of July comes pretty much every year (it really did not happen the years we lived in China), and we celebrate America’s birthday in the usual ways with the aroma of meat cooking over charcoal, desserts featuring Cool Whip, newly singed skin stinging against clothing, and bombs bursting in air.

This year, I had the honor of seeing the Fourth through a new set of lenses and it looked pretty good.

We took a trek to Northern Michigan this weekend at the kind invitation of American friends, Kevin and Amie, who lived in Shanghai at the same time as we did. During our time in Shanghai, when Mary (her given “American name”) who works for Amie, needed additional work, I hired her to help me around the apartment. Her quality work lived up to all of Amie’s bragging, and the year I came back to teach school, Mary took care of the housework for Roger and cooked Chinese meals for him. I am so grateful to her.

As the time nears for our friends to repatriate, they gave Mary the gift of a lifetime and brought her to “Mei Guo” (America) for a two-week trip. The only sky Mary knows in her homeland is gray and pollution-laden, lined with sky scrapers much taller than the ones we visit in New York City. Crowds of people are inescapable and nature consists of spotty flower gardens planted, fertilized and tended in small court yards among city buildings.

Mary and her son, “Daniel,” (also, a given American name) landed in Michigan last week to puffy white clouds and clear blue sky. With jet lag weighing heavy on the mother and her toddler who had never journeyed out of a time zone, they travelled from Detroit to our friend’s cottage on a lake. There, the view consists of tall pines and still water. Traffic sounds involve the occasional Jet Ski, with no horns honking or bicycles disturbing the peaceful setting.

We joined this group at the cottage on Sunday, and at the sight of Mary, tears welled up in my eyes of seeing such a special part of my former life here in my own home land. Mary knows more English words than she did when I knew her in China; I have fewer Mandarin words in my vocabulary, but we found common ground sitting on lawn chairs in the shade overlooking the lake. Daniel played with a little boy his age nearby and the two seemed to have no translation problems at all. They used the universal language of play. Neither of the little boys knows a word to share between them, but they passed the miniature cars back and forth with what seemed to be very accurate communication.

Mary squealed with what I think was surprised delight when I stripped off my outer clothing down to a swim suit and dove off the back of the boat. Lake swimming is just not part of her world.

When Mary worked in my home, and as she works with Kevin and Amie, she does not get first-hand account of watching us break a sweat. It seemed to do her good to sit in a chair watching Amie scurry around the kitchen and me loading the dishwasher.

Daniel is not yet three and though he does not speak English, he knows “dog,” and enjoyed speaking Chinese to Bing and Clover; he also delighted playing in their sleeping crates and crawling around on all fours barking.

During fireworks, Daniel, who is used to enormous amazing fireworks displays filling the night sky during holiday in Shanghai, looked up, then nodded to his mother and simply said “xiao” – little.

Fireworks brought up emotion in me, as all things that remind me of Nicholas. When I sat away from the crowd with tears quietly streaming, Mary came over and consoled me in Chinese. I recognized the word son and the words I love you. That was enough to bring me back to calm.

While we did eat all the traditional American delicacies for the Fourth of July and participated in the outdoor festivities, my favorite sight this Fourth was to see our country’s birthday through the eyes of a first timer. It looked good.