PureInsight | December 3, 2006
[PureInsight.org] (New England Fahui 2006)
There was so much going on over the past year. Today, I'd like to share
one story with everyone. The experience about how my daughter joined
the Dance School.
Early this year, the Dance School was established. After audition, my
daughter J J was selected. The main goal of the school is to prepare
students for the New Year's Gala. I understand the Gala has played very
important role in the current Fa rectification. As a Dafa disciple, my
daughter should actively participate in the Gala, there is no question
of this. From the human side, I've been hoping my daughter could have
dance training. I have not been able to focus on her all the time over
the past years. I was very happy that she was selected. My daughter was
very happy too. She has found her own path on the Fa rectification. In
addition she never considered herself as a dancer, she is honored to be
provided with this opportunity and both of us were initially very
excited.
Then the reality of the commitment to the dance school set in. The
school is in New York. It is a 4 hour drive that sometimes takes as
long as six hours. The students are expected to arrive there at 8:30
every Friday evening, and leave the school on Sunday afternoon to
return home. We took the long journey each week. In the beginning WJ
split the driving duty with me. Really WJ did most of the driving. I
need to thank him for helping JJ and myself to get us through this
trying time. School, work and the long drives on the weekend were hard
and without WJ I might not have been able to do it. Thank you WJ.
There were problems from the beginning. First, my daughter didn't have
enough time to do her home work. You all probably have heard about how
strict the Boston Latin School is. They require a great deal of study
and reading. My daughter was not able to go to bed before 11pm any
night. Tests, quiz, exams take place almost everyday. So each time we
got home from New York, she had to work on her homework until the next
morning.
The second problem was my daughter never has had participated in such
an intensive physical training program, she got physically drained each
week. Before the dance school started she used to help me the design
ads and do translation for the newspaper. I immediately stopped her
working on the paper and instead took better care of her. I cooked
better food for her and tried to give her more time to do her studies
and rest during the week. However the situation was getting worse and
worse. She simply couldn't handle it and felt stressed and tired. She
struggled every day in order to keep her good academic record. I
realized I should share some of my thoughts with her based on the Fa.
We reviewed Master's lectures about all human beings coming here for
the Fa and the lecture about how a person's life is already there,
people just follow the path; (not original words). I discussed with her
about how important the Gala is and so on.
After this discussion, she calmed down, her face relaxed, and she had a
better understanding about what she is doing. She didn't worry that
much about school and resolved to do what she can. At the final exams,
she still received A's. Time passed quickly and the school summer
vacation was coming. My daughter will go to the 11th grade next year.
It's a very important year for her. She planned to take some classes
during the summer according her teacher's suggestion. But, we were told
directly she needs to arrive at the Dance School the first day of the
vacation. We didn't hesitate, we followed Master, followed the Fa, gave
up all plans, and arrived at the Dance School the first day of the
summer vacation.
After summer vacation, a more serious test came. We were told that the
Gala is a global event and the Dance School would present a world class
performance. In order to reach that level, weekend training is not
enough. Students were encouraged to consider the dance school as home.
This is a big challenge. My daughter has been a straight A student for
many years. The whole family thinks she will go to a prestigious
university. Staying at the Dance School might cause her to lose her
future in human society. My daughter cried many times, she told me
dance is not her favorite thing. She is not good at it. As a
practitioner she could do a lot of other Fa rectification work. It
sounds reasonable. I was confused and don't what to do. One day, I
looked at Master's lectures and started reading one of the 2000
lectures where Master mentions that the passage for life and death is
not necessarily having to face death. It's whether you could give up
personal gain and fame. What my daughter said is right. However, right
now, Dafa needs her to be a dancer. She should focus on dance.
I realized my thought wasn't righteous. I was still attached to human
fame and interests. When my mind became clear I shared with my daughter
about this based on the Fa. She happily accepted staying at the Dance
School. My daughter became one of earliest students who decided to stay
in the School. Later on, some other students joined them at the last
minute.
A week after my daughter moved to New York, I went there to visit her.
I was at the entrance of the hall looking for my daughter when I saw
Master was standing in the center of the hall. He raised his hand to
say "Hi" to me. I immediately Heshi to Master. I told myself in my
heart, "Master, this is what we are supposed to do as Dafa disciples."
To apply for a leave from school for one year from Boston Latin is not an
easy thing as well. I told myself I had to do it. I went to the school,
clarified the truth to the head of the guidance council and wrote a
letter to the head of the school. In the letter, I used ordinary
people's language to disclose the CCP's evil nature, and how
magnificent the real Chinese culture is. My application was granted
immediately. Here is an excerpt from the letter:
"In China, due to the series political campaigns launched by the
Chinese Communist Party over the several decades, all the traditional
culture is considered a bad thing and it was completely destroyed. I
grew up during the Cultural Revolution. The education I received from
school is that all the knowledge is capitalism, bad. The most important
issue in one's life is that following the Chinese Communist Party,
‘they gave people's life, without the CCP, without our life, without
CCP, people would be suffer deeply, CCP is sun, it brings people
light'. Those words are in the songs which we listened everyday,
everywhere. In my mind those were Chinese culture, it is actually CCP
culture. For [my daughter's] generation, the situation has been changed
even worse, everyone's mind is worthless. It's opposite to the
traditional culture which values virtue as the most important.
"Since [my daughter] began attending the Dance School months ago, she
has had an opportunity to learn about the Chinese traditional culture,
and found it so deep and profound. She decided to take advantage of the
Chinese New Year Spectacular to promote traditional Chinese culture to
the whole world.
"[My daughter] and I came to the United States 10 years ago from
mainland China. We enjoy the freedom and democracy, but starting a new
life is not easy for us. We learned together, overcame all kinds of
difficulties together. We are very proud of her being able to attend
Boston Latin, one of the best schools nationwide, and treasure the
education here a lot. I'm also very glad to hear that she wanted
to sacrifice some time to do something good for the society when she
decided to participate in the Chinese New Year Spectacular. She learned
from Boston Latin not only knowledge, but also social responsibility,
dedication and kindness. As a mother, I fully support her."
The day I sent my daughter back to the Dance School, I told myself,
maybe this is the day for my JJ to start her own life journey. Over the
past year, I decided to sell advertising full time for the newspaper.
It's a big challenge for me. In the meantime, her little shoulder also
took over part of responsibility. I always asked her to help do this,
do that. She never said no to me. But did I ever ask her what she
wants? Do I still have chance to ask her? I asked myself, "Can I be
considered a good practitioner? Am I a good mom?"
