Lucky and Unlucky
I have a question for you all. Do you have criterions or labels that can be used to determine or adjust a person who is lucky or unlucky? When I was in Sweden in 1990’s, a Swedish told me the following. “If you are luck you have an American bank account, a British house and a Chines wife”. I had no chance to prove what my Swedish friend said until I relocated to New Mexico in 2008.
In state of New Mexico I met a local family. The housewife is Chines and her husband is American. Today I use Mei-Mei-Mei-Mei as nick name for the housewife and Mr. Bones as nick name for her husband. We became friend and visited each other many times. Mei-Mei is a pretty woman but also a sharp and handy one. Mei-Mei likes Chines cooking, especially stir fry cooking. In almost every kitchen, above the stove there was a smoke venting machine, but Chines cooking could generate a lot of smokes and fumes, a normal smoke venting machine could not suck smokes and fumes out of the house. In 2007, Mei-Mei’s family bought a new house, as well as new furniture and window curtains. Mei-Mei needed a better smoke venting machine to filter and purify smokes and fumes from cooking. To install powerful smoke ventilating device in the kitchen would cost at lease couples of thousand dollars. Mei-Mei decided to build one herself. She opened a hole on the kitchen wall and installed a powerful vent fan. This smoke ventilating device worked well, while she spent only a couple of hundred dollars.
When Mei-Mei married Mr. Bones, he had yet paid off his loan and owned a debt of thousands dollars. However, about two years after they got married, the family had thousand dollars in their saving account. Mr. Bones often said “I am lucky to have a Chines wife”, especially when Mei-Mei was on the spot.
One day, my wife, Mei-Mei and her kids were playing in the yard, Mr. Bones and I were chatting in the living room. Mr. Bones asked me “would you like to play a Chines game?” I agreed. Mr. Bones put a plate on the table and poured into the plate roasted soy-nuts. Also, he put on the table two pairs of chopsticks. The game rule was that we should use chopsticks to pick up soy-nut, and who could pick up more soy-nuts would win the game. Surprisingly, Mr. Bones could use chopstick to pick up soy-nuts quickly. I told Mr. Bones what my Swedish friend told me “If you are lucky you have a Chines wife”. And then, Mr. Bones told me some stories about Mei-Mei.
Mei-Mei wanted to keep everything clean and neat in the house. Mr. Bones had a problem with Mei-Mei’s perfect and spotless clean in his house. For instance, when Mr. Bones took business trip, Mei-Mei did not want Mr. Bones to use hotel’s towels because she believed the hotel’s towels could not be disinfected. Mr. Bones had to bring various towels with him for his travel, and had always more luggage than his colleagues. When Mr. Bones came home from trip, he had to put his luggage in garage for cleaning and disinfecting.
Mei-Mei liked “drinking vinegar”. Drinking vinegar is a Chines expression for a feeling of jealous. When you are jealous you may have “sour feeling” in the heart. Chines call this feeling “drinking vinegar”. Chines women are usually jealous of other females. For example, when Mr. Bones talked to his EX, Mei-Mei always wanted to know what they talked about. Mr. Bones struggled for his freedom, but Mei-Mei did not give up her “sour feeling”. Finally Mr. Bones had a solution. When his EX called in, Mr. Bones turned the phone on speaker, so that Mei-Mei could hear their conversation.
Mei-Mei liked cooking, especially cooking spicy foods. Chines cooking differ a lot from American cooking. Chines people usually use a pot for cooking but not a pan. An iron pot has round bottom and is deeper than a pan, such a design is practically good for stir cooking. When Mei-Mei was cooking, she liked to pore into the pot a lot of oil, after heating the oil up to about 70 degree Celsius (150 degree Fahrenheit), she added to the pot a lot of red chili pepper, and stirred them with heated oil, which generated spicy smells. One day, she overheated the oil, and burnt the pepper, and the house was full of smokes and fumes. She opened windows to let smoke out. Her neighbor saw smokes coming out, and called police. Mr. Bones told his feeling when he first time ate spicy foods cooked with red chili pepper. “I feel the food burns my tongue like putting a red rifle iron in my mouth”.
“I have been assimilated by Chinese culture in my family. I may forget how
to use fork and knife.” as Mr. Bones said that, he used chopsticks and skilled picking up a soy-nut.
I tried to please Mr. Bones and told him that everything in the world has two sides, good on one side with bad on the other side; lucky on one side with unlucky on the other side. Mr. Bones smiled without saying anything for a while. Suddenly he said “except one, my wife’s letter is always one side.”
