Untimely Reflections

As my 75^th birthday approaches, I find myself engaged in the 9^th phase of my critical thinking framework. I added reflection to all the other critical thinking competencies we found in the research literature. These reflections were prompted by the deteriorating relationship between China and the USA. I have had many rewarding experiences in China and with Chinese colleagues in the last ten plus years. Those experiences brought to mind many other enriching experiences in other countries including most especially Norway and Indonesia. I unconsciously grew up with a belief that America was the best in almost any category one could name. I have come to a much different conclusion late in life.

We are products shaped by our families, friends, education and experiences. My mother was a plain-spoken woman who did not hold her tongue nor hesitate to tell you directly what she thought. My father was more tactful and aimed to instill a sense of responsibility and respect in us. His words - “be the voice that encourages, the ear that listens, the eye that reflects, the hand that guides, the face that does not turn away” – still echo in my conscience. My older brother, Danny, was an accomplished Middle East scholar who embodied both of my parents strong attributes. My sister Peggy was someone dedicated to family, friends and strangers who was always willing to lend a helping hand. My sister Minnie overcame a childhood disability and raised two amazing children who live close to me here in Round Rock, Texas.

My five children have taught me far more than they are able to realize, And I am learning so much from my six grandchildren … children are such amazing creatures … learning … always learning … doing amazing things … always amazing.

My early friends disappointed me in many ways but I managed to find many friends in other countries, including Norway, Germany and Australia. My education at the United States Air Force Academy and the University of Texas at Austin have helped my professionally as well as personally. My experiences with scholars in other countries, though, are what have been most prominent in my reflections on my past, due in part to the global pandemic and worsening international relationships among so many countries.

I met a colleague in Norway who considered hiking on Sunday in the seven mountains around Bergen as his weekly religious obligation experience. Indeed, giving thanks for the beauty and bounty of this planet seems an appropriate way to say thanks to something higher. I met parents in a remote village in Java who said they wanted their sons and daughters to go on to high school in a faraway city and get an education even if it eventually led to demise of their remote mountain village. They valued education of their children more than their livelihood. Such a humbling experience and  not one I can ever forget.

After many years of collaborating with colleagues in Shanghai, Beijing, and Fuzhou I have come to the conclusion that there are many things in China which are getting better than things in the USA = and vice versa. Respect for elders is one thing I see very strong in China and from which I have personally benefitted – some Chinese doctoral students even call me their grandfather – the highest degree of respect I never earned. I see both China and the USA exceptionally adept at political spinning of truth and facts, although I doubt the Chinese leader has uttered 20,000 lies since becoming President. National unity seems much stronger in China than in the USA although my experience there is quite limited. The Chinese are apparently repressing Muslims in Xinjiang and the USA is repressing blacks in many places. Just as no individual is flawless, no nation is flawless. Individuals with integrity seem capable of admitting their flaws and striving to do betters. Perhaps it is the same with countries. Germany has admitted to the flaws of the Nazi regime and has systematically done better in the years since WWII. I am not sure the USA has fully admitted to dropping atomic bombs on Japan in the year I was born. We can do better. All of us can do better. Every nation can do better. I can do better however many years I have left to apply what I have gathered from coincidence over the years.

I so appreciate my many friends and colleagues in China, in Indonesia, in India, in Malaysia, in Hong Kong, in Taiwan, in Thailand, in Tunisia, in South Africa, in Chile, in Brazil, in Canada, in Mexico, in Norway, in Germany, in Belgium, in The Netherlands, in Portugal, in Spain, in Crete, in Greece, in Italy, in Turkey, in Israel, in New Zealand and in many places across the USA. From them I am slowly learning what it means to be human, to be flawed, to be capable of becoming still more human.