Dad

There were always certain things about my dad that seemed unreachable to me. He would take me to the park in humid Hong Kong and he would run around the track for what seemed like hours while I would shoot baskets on the towering hoops at Waterloo street. Sometimes I would try to run with him but I could never outlast his endurance.

I'd work on my book reports for school while he plowed away on his doctorate thesis in the basement of the SUNY library. He would read and read and read and write and write and write and pick at his patchy beard and think and just keep reading. I would sometimes sneak glances at his stuff and think, "man, it must be really good, cause he spends a lot of time on it and I don't understand a word of it!"

I can remember I'd like next to him eating ice cream on the bed watching Bruce Lee movies and was amazed that my heart had to beat twice to catch the rythm of his.

It's funny that as I get older I can run longer. I still don't think I've ever run with him but I wonder if I can beat him. Even in my latest driver's liscence photo, my right eye droops in my smile in this strangely familiar way.

I'm a lot like my dad.

Tomorrow/today he turns 58! Happy Birthday. I hope it will be a great year. I'll catch up to you some day ;)