To Lead a Life Worth Living
Written 5 August 2010 (Note hyperlinks in orange) Two weeks ago I had the opportunity to talk with entrepreneur Ben Huh , of I Can Has Cheezburger , Fail Blog and other memes. When I asked him about his ambitions, he responded without hesitation: “I want to lead a life worth living.” And since that day, his comment has continued to resonate in my mind. Recently our oldest son, Andrew, was home from Germany to spend time with us before his one-year deployment to Afghanistan begins next month. It was a joy for all of us to be together. Whenever he’s home, we make a pilgrimage to Hood River, Oregon , the breathtakingly beautiful place where my paternal grandparents settled after they immigrated from Japan in the early 1900s. As a teenager, Andrew spent summers working in the orchards during the cherry harvest. He is the only fourth-generation ( yonsei ) kid in the family to do so. Beside learning the ways of a new country, my grandparents' early days were physically tough—...