Chinese Proverb and Novel

                                 Chinese Proverb
   An elderly Chinese woman had two large pots, each hung on the end of a pole, which she carried across her neck.
   One of the pots had a crack in it while the other pot was perfect and always delivered a full portion of water.
   At the end of the  long walk from he stream to the house, the cracked pot arrived only half full.
   For a full two years this went on daily, with the woman bringing home only one and a half pots of water.
   Of course, the perfect pot was proud of its accomplishments.  But the poor cracked pot was ashamed of its own imperfection, and miserable that it could only do half of what it had been made to do.
   After 2 years of what it perceived to be bitter failure, it spoke to the woman one day by the stream.
   “I am ashamed of myself, because this crack in my side casues water to leak out all the way back to your house.”
   The old woman smiled, “Did you notice that there are flowers on your side of the path, but not on the other pot’s side?”
   “That’s because I have always known about your flaw, so I planted flower seeds on your side of the path, and every day while we walk back, you water them.”
   “For two years I have been able to pick these beautiful flowers to decorate the table.  Without you we would have no beauty to grace the house.”

   Each of us has our own unique flaw.  But it’s the cracks and flaws we each have that make our lives together so very interesting and rewarding.  You’ve just got to take each person for what they are and look for the good in them.
   So, to all of my crackpot friends, have a great day and remember to smell the flowers on your side of the path.
                                                                   Anon
 
     We are so alike, yet so different.  That is what I discovered when I read the novel, The Woman Who Breathed Two Worlds by author Selina Siak Chin Yoke.  The book covers a lifetime, from the late 1890's to 1941.
   If you read it do not be deterred by the Chinese names, she writes from
The history of her ancestors.  They are not Ma ry and Jack, but they are believable.  Some novels are so contrived I stop reading them after two chapters.  Others are believable, and like a real life trip, take you on a journey where you meet interesting people, see how they live, and eturn home having had a good time.  This novel does just that, but it is heart-rending.