Identity - Part One

Last weekend was beautiful day in Sunny Southern California Suburbia and I was driving with Chenlu and the kids past our local park. There was small showing of a piece of the Berlin Wall on display for the weekend by what looked like a amateurish group dedicated to remembering the significance.

Just over 20 years ago, The Berlin Wall fell and created what I believe to be one of the most significant bookmarks for the history of the political man. For me, the wall and the date represent a significant change in my life, for so many reasons, but here are two.

From my family's perspective, the Cold War was over, and essentially so was my father's career in the Aerospace/Defense Industry. We won? He won! But, his talents and skills for the past two decades become instantly extinct and much like the city of Berlin, he changed. Black and white became gray, and he pushed himself to diversify. It was clear to me then, that once the wall came down, it was never going back up.

From a personal perspective, my wall of being a college kid enjoying the spoils of freedom to which responsibility loomed heavy on the other side, fell too. Starting my own family was much like Berlin starting over. The two sides flooded together to form a new way of life. Preparation, patience and maturity gave way to urgency, emotions and chaos. Now, of course, starting a family at such a young age was not unusual, but much like the diverse ideological differences between the West and the East, the expectations were drastically different than the reality of the change.

Carly asked what was the Berlin Wall and why is there a piece of it here. As you drive past the green park, kids playing baseball and soccer, cloud-less sunshine beaming off the faded asphalt and concrete sidewalks, I lose my ability to describe what it is. For, selfishly, I do not have the capability to really understand the significance of the wall to others, but just myself and how it impacted me. I shrink into simple thoughts, and like an elementary textbook describe in a few sentences what the wall was and why it fell.

As I pull up to my apartment complex, the gate is closed and waiting for signal to open. I reach up above my head on the ceiling console of my SUV and pull out a small box with the little white button that I push to open the gate and let me in. With the smallest of effort, I press the button and I my access is confirmed and the gate opens for my arrival. The wall is down and I must move forward to continue the day before me.