A Surprising Father’s Day Present

 On Father’s Day of 1995 (June 17, 1995), I received a surprising present from Victor, and Leo, then 21 and 19 years old and were typical college kids. The present was a big hand made poster-painting of the Beethoven’s portrait with his characteristic hair lock and penetrating eyes (Fig.1).  The poster- painting has a size of 21” by 26,5”.  They made a transparent slide of the portrait then projected the slide onto a wall.  After that they put a white poster on the wall, then followed the image, painstakingly dot-by-dot, put the image together.

Why is this present so special for the occasion?  The two college kids must have heard me saying a lot about this great musician. (By the way, both kids are better musicians than I.). I admire Beethoven all through my life, not because he was a great composer and performer, but his tenacity.  When he composed the signature 9th symphony with chorus, he was deaf; he could not hear his own music.  

If someone asks me what my talents are, I would say none except my tenacity.  I will give you two examples. 

When I was in middle school (about 15 years old), I was sick often.  It was no fun at all. Then by accident, I found an old work out book left over from my old brother, Ting-KAi.  There were step-by -step instructions of doing push ups, sit ups at home, or pull ups on the gym equipment at the school.  I told my mom that from that moment, I will work out everyday starting on that day.  I keep that promise after 63 years.  I do the exercise, or work out at least one hour everyday.  

Here is another example.  In 2002, I retired from Kimberly-Clark and took a chemistry faculty job.  I was very excited; but there was a catch:  I need to teach both Thermodynamics and Quantum Chemistry.  What were the preparations ?  Was I ready to teach these two difficult subjects ?  That summer, I slept early but then woke up at 3:00 AM in the morning. While it was very quiet, I studied the teaching  materials.  It took all summer and finally, I was ready to teach.  That was the tenacity I have.

There is an old Chinese Proverb. It goes as this. A foolish old man moves a mountain. 愚公移山 How ? One pebble at a time.

I do not think I have any talent. But, I am that foolish old man, moving a mountain, one pebble at a time. That trait has been serving me well so far.