Goodbye September Hello October ......... 🦅

 

Accentuate that which makes us human ......... 🦅

Ronald Reagan in 1980 was asked by a reporter, "Are you a born again Christian?" 

His response, "I don't wear religion on my sleeve." I can respect that response from our late 40th President. 

I can respect others even when I do not share their views because there are pearls of wisdom in all belief systems, even those, that seem alien to our American cultural beliefs. 

I like to remind people especially those who are devoutly staunch in their views that,  fundamentalism is dangerous – it forces ill-willed people to live their lives ignorantly due to a lack of spiritual insight and a narrow-minded belief system. You can find these extremists in every religion throughout history. 

Religion is shaped by one’s parents and by their parents' parents, but our spirituality is what we are born with. Spirituality is the spark, the essence, and the spirit that sustains us and all things. It’s beyond rituals and religious symbols because it’s the core of our existence. True Spirituality is the torch that lights the way, not religious principles that are imposed or mandated on others. It is lived and expressed freely in one’s character for others to emulate and embrace. 

Many devoutly religious people place religious mandates and their human beliefs over what it means to be spiritual. On the other hand, many spiritual people are devoid of religion because they implicitly understand that the spirit of love transcends religion, and trumps all human understanding. We need to remind ourselves,  the true essence of God's love is at the core of our being never separated from our existence ......... 🦅   

Always with love, from Suzhou, China. 

Thomas F O'Neill 

WeChat - Thomas_F_ONeill 

U.S. Voice mail: (410) 925-9334 

China Mobile: 011 (86) 13405757231 

Skype: thomas_f_oneill 

Email: introspective7@hotmail.com 

Facebook: http://facebook.com/thomasf.oneill.3

I have an implicit understanding ......... 🦅

 

I may still be young in heart and mind but I’m getting slightly older in other places ......... 🦅

Always with love, from Suzhou, China.

Thomas F O'Neill

WeChat - Thomas_F_ONeill

U.S. Voice mail: (410) 925-9334

China Mobile: 011 (86) 13405757231

Skype: thomas_f_oneill

Email: introspective7@hotmail.com

Facebook: http://facebook.com/thomasf.oneill.3

 

I will always be young in heart and mind but unfortunately, I’m getting slightly older in other places ......... 🦅

Always with love, from Suzhou, China.

Thomas F O'Neill

WeChat - Thomas_F_ONeill

U.S. Voice mail: (410) 925-9334

China Mobile: 011 (86) 13405757231

Skype: thomas_f_oneill

Email: introspective7@hotmail.com

Facebook: http://facebook.com/thomasf.oneill.3

 

Having some fun with a few of my students during an English Corner ......... 🦅

Having some fun with a few of my students during an English Corner as you can see I get as much enjoyment from them as my students ......... 🦅

Always with love, from Suzhou, China.

Thomas F O'Neill

WeChat - Thomas_F_ONeill

U.S. Voice mail: (410) 925-9334

China Mobile: 011 (86) 13405757231

Skype: thomas_f_oneill

Email: introspective7@hotmail.com

Facebook: http://facebook.com/thomasf.oneill.3

The gift of storytelling ......... 🦅

 A question that comes up quite a bit in my emails is, “Tom, what do you do for entertainment in China?”

I tell them I enjoy singing old karaoke tunes. That was something I enjoyed doing in the U.S. as well. Karaoke is extremely popular in China just like in America, and throughout the rest of the world, which I was glad to see when I arrived here.

The Karaoke technology was first invented in Japan in the 1980s. In 1992, I discovered the Karaoke rave in Malaysia, Australia, and believe it or not India. It has been nearly thirty years since I traveled to those places and technology has advanced quite a bit since then.

In today’s world, hundreds of thousands of songs can be stored on a 2TB portable hard drive. A person running a Karaoke event can easily locate songs from a laptop computer. If a Karaoke DJ still cannot locate your favorite tune, they can easily download the karaoke version from the internet in a matter of seconds.

Singing is one of my favorite pastimes and I have discovered many locals here with extraordinary musical talents. I wish today’s technology were around when I was a teenager. I would have discovered earlier that I could actually, belt a tune.

American music is having a huge influence on China’s culture, you can hear the western tunes everywhere you go, and the youth cannot get enough of it. American music and films are popular throughout the world, especially among children and teenagers.

American films are also having a huge impact on Chinese pocketbooks. The Chinese are willing to spend 200 RMB (approximately $29.00) to watch an American movie in an IMAX movie theater. I have gone to an IMAX theater here in Suzhou and I must say it was a great experience.

I like telling Children here that when I was their age, I was able to see a movie in my hometown in America for 25 cents. I then explain that 1 RMB is now worth 14 cents in American money. They always reply by saying “Movies are expensive in China.”

I mostly download movies from the internet and watch them on my computer. It does not give you the same bang for the dollar as an IMAX movie theater, but it can still be quite enjoyable.

In the apartment building where I live there is a lobby with a couch, chairs, a coffee table, and end tables. The lobby is a great place to project movies for the kids that live in my apartment building. A couple of weekends a month I show an American Children’s movie there to entertain the kids.

The last time I showed a movie in my apartment lobby was a few weeks ago and the entire area was filled with children with beanbags to sit on. They always reserve a chair for me because I’m not a beanbag person. Bowls of cut watermelon and other fruit will miraculously appear for everyone to munch on too.

I showed them the 1978 movie version of Superman which they never have seen before and now they cannot wait to see the sequel which came out nearly forty years ago. The children here are extremely cute, and they all clapped their hands every time Christopher Reeves turned into Superman.

Our school’s Chinese art teacher lives in the same apartment building where I live, and her daughter is in the third grade. The third-grader always invites her school friends over whenever I treat them to a movie. I enjoy the time I spend with those kids and I find that when I entertain them, I am also entertained in the process.

In the City of Suzhou, there are various amusement parks with many fun rides. If that is not your cup of tea - you can always take a boat ride along the city canals. The canals run throughout the city of Suzhou and into an ancient part of the city. It’s a great tourist attraction for an old foreigner like me with all sorts of shops and ancient buildings. The ancient buildings give you a glimpse of the city’s ancient past. In one of the ancient buildings, there is a large rug on the floor with a board game in the middle of the rug with human wax figures playing the game. The Chinese have been playing that game for thousands of years and it is still a form of entertainment for many of the Chinese elders.

The streets in the ancient part of the city are very narrow - much too narrow for cars to drive on. Some of the buildings and gardens were built around 2000 years ago. I enjoy taking the tour and I once told a Chinese tourist that the buildings we visited are older than America. He then excitedly said, “I have been to America, I enjoyed your country very much.” His knowledge of the city was more in-depth than our tourist guide and I learned quite a bit from him.

There are also plenty of western restaurants and bars in Suzhou that serve a variety of western-style foods. I enjoy going out to eat with others and meeting new people in those places. You can find all sorts of ethnic foods from around the world in the city and you can take your time enjoying the various ethnic tastes.

The internet is also a form of entertainment for me because today’s technology enables me to stay in touch with people in various parts of the world. On Skype, Facebook, and Zoom I can have face to face conversations with people without leaving the comfort of my home. I also use the video phone feature on WeChat to communicate with former students of mine who are now studying in Canada and the UK.

One of my former students asked me last week, “Tom, what makes you happy?” I told her true happiness is a state of being and you experience it more fully when you share it with others. The same can be said for those who seek joy in life. Joy is simply a state of mind and the more you share it with others the more joy you experience throughout your day.

Our ancestors did not have the technology we have and yet they found their entertainment through simple games and by conversing with one another. A simple conversation and the telling of great stories to children are truly richer than today’s computers and IMAX movie theaters. Our imagination can be a marvelous tool to develop, especially, when it comes to the art of entertaining.

I get great enjoyment in telling children, and my students, stories that make them laugh. The telling of a great story does not have to be left to Hollywood these days. I like to remind others that storytelling was a great form of entertainment for those who came before us. Those who possessed such talents were sought out and held in great esteem. Storytellers were greatly entertained too by simply taking the time to unweave a great tail. Adults and children alike who are the recipients of these great gifts - passed down through the ages - are truly enriched by the experience.

Most of my entertainment comes through the interaction with the Children here. When I hear their laughter, it reminds me of how things used to be when my Irish Grandfather (Red O’Neill) told me the entertaining stories of old. He too inherited the gift and talent from his ancestors and hopefully, those same gifts are being passed on to a new generation by this old American foreign teacher here in China.

Always with love from Suzhou, China

Thomas F O'Neill

U.S. Voice mail: (800) 272-6464

China Cell: 011-86-15114565945

Skype: thomas_f_oneill

WeChat: Thomas_F_ONeill

Email: introspective7@hotmail.com

Blogspot: http://thomasfoneill.blogspot.com   

Facebook: http://facebook.com/thomasf.oneill.3/

Cute little 5-year-old girl got first prize in the Jiangsu Province's English Language speech contest here in China ......... 🦅

I volunteered to be a judge in an English Language speech contest. This cute little 5-year-old girl got first prize in the Jiangsu Province's English Language speech contest here in China. She beat other contestants that were more than twice her age. She is amazingly gifted in English and very smart ......... 🦅

Always with love, from Suzhou, China.

 

Thomas F O'Neill

 

WeChat - Thomas_F_ONeill

 

U.S. Voice mail: (410) 925-9334

 

China Mobile: 011 (86) 13405757231

 

Skype: thomas_f_oneill

 

Email: introspective7@hotmail.com

 

Facebook: http://facebook.com/thomasf.oneill.3

 

We will never forget ......... 🦅

Every year at this time I take a moment to tell my students about the event or should I say the attack on our country on September 11, 2001.

None of my students here in China were born 19 years ago when the tragic event of 9/11 occurred. But that doesn’t stop me from taking a moment to speak about it in my classes.

Last year one of my students said her parents watched the event unfold on CCTV here in China and they were just as shocked by the attack as we Americans.

Every American should take a moment to reflect on this moment in American history which marks the 19th anniversary of 9/11 ......... 🦅

Do not sweat the small stuff ....... 🦅

In 1991, I volunteered my services in Ecuador, which is an extremely rich agricultural country but also an impoverished country in terms of the workers working in the agricultural fields.

The people living in the hills of Duran in Ecuador made about 20 cents a day in 1991. To this day, many are living in sugarcane huts with no electricity or indoor plumbing, and they wash with rainwater. They eat only what they can gather for that day because they have no way of preserving their food.

Water must be boiled before using it to prevent an outbreak of cholera, a common ailment in that country that can kill you. I went there with other volunteers to build sugarcane huts. When I returned to the United States, I was grateful for what I had, and the little inconveniences were just that little inconveniences compared to how the poor live in various parts of the world. 

When I look at life in terms of my experiences, I realize how our beliefs are a major part of who we are in terms of how we relate to others. I also realize, more so now than before, how the people living in those impoverished conditions in Ecuador rely on their community for survival. The individual cannot put themselves over the welfare of their community because it is the welfare of the community that is vital to their survival. In America, we rely on our rugged individualism, and there is no such concept in Ecuador in the hills of Duran where I lived for three months.

The people in Ecuador looked at me with such curiosity, and they were the most loving people. I washed my clothes and ate with them, and we had to communicate through body language because I could not speak their language. There was one thing that they loved to do, and that was laugh. They were unaware of what they did not have in terms of technology because they were pretty much isolated from the rest of the world. They were content living in their community because their community was their family, and they could rely on each other in times of need.

The agricultural workers there were the most loving people, and they invited me into their lives with a warm embrace. They made me and the other volunteers feel quite special. In their minds, we were there not just physically but spiritually. They believe that everyone they come in contact with is for a deep spiritual reason. That was reflected in how they treated us, with an affectionate and loving acceptance.

I have learned over the years that a great deal of my understanding came from books. What I have read in those books helped me acquire a lot of knowledge, but now I recognize that I am learning much more about myself from my reflections on my past. Writing is also a way of expressing myself, and I suppose that is one reason why I am posting this on Facebook. It is a way of sharing a part of who I am with the reader.

I truly believe deep down in my soul that it is not the material accumulation of objects that count in life, but rather it is all the unrecognized, undetected, and unremembered acts of loving-kindness that one bestows on others that are the most significant achievements in a person’s life.

What we give to humanity, we give to ourselves, and what we change in ourselves, we change in humanity. If we want to live in a better world, we must change for the better. If we want to see a world of loving and joyous people, we must be loving and joyous towards the people in our own lives. That potential is part of our humanity. When we reach out to touch others, we touch a part of the humanity that is within us. When we change the life of another for the better, we change our own lives for the better.

The people I met in Ecuador profoundly changed me for the better, not monetarily but emotionally, through their loving affection. How they live their lives profoundly impacted how I now perceive the world around me.

To have a profound effect on others and to change and enhance the quality of others' lives is not achieved by imposing our will or our beliefs on others. But rather, it is achieved by living our life as we would want others to live their lives in doing so, others will emulate our way of life.

Life is simply a quest with greater self-awareness as the means to greater spiritual growth within us and in all that we touch because the afterglow of a great life is ultimately love.

Always with love from Suzhou China

Thomas F. O’Neill

WeChat - Thomas_F_ONeill

U.S. Voice mail: (410) 925-9334

China Mobile: 011 (86) 13405757231

Skype: thomas_f_oneill

Email: introspective7@hotmail.com

Facebook: http://facebook.com/thomasf.oneill.3/