Turns out…fortune cookies are really deep these days…

My brother Adam Truman has been visiting for the past week or so. He’s leaving tomorrow so we decided to go to our favorite Fremont spot on my lunch break. “Wok City Diner” features many delectable situations but the one that has stolen the hearts of me and my tribe is the famed…HONEY WALNUT PRAWNS.

They are prepared by deep frying fresh shrimp in a very light tempura type batter and then tossing them in a glaze made up primarily of mayo and honey, then it’s all topped with candied walnuts and served piping hot. I know it sounds a bit off, but they are absolutely delicious.

I digress…the purpose of this post is to talk about a much more serious issue that has presented itself on the Chinese restaurant scene….FORTUNES OF SUBSTANCE

These are the fortune cookies from today’s farewell lunch. I will recite each and then flush them out briefly…

1. Morality is truth in full bloom: This is a page from Les Miserables. The phrase is used about 1/4 of the way down. Looking for the origin of this profound fortune caused me to read enough of Les Mis this evening to officially put it on my “read soon” list. This passage in-particular is packed …. “What is the ideal? It is God. Ideal, Absolute, Perfection, the Infinite – these are identical words.”

2. Keep on charging the enemy so long as there is life:

It is truly a shame that such a blue faced braveheart sort of statement has such shallow origin…

It was posted on the net in response to an interview with Anne-Marie Slaughter and G. John Ikenberry regarding foreign policy and “Wilsonianism”. It’s a pretty interesting interview, although I haven’t a clue who the poster was referring to as the enemy what needs charging. Here is the link to the interview… http://press.princeton.edu/blog/2009/02/18/was-george-w-bush-the-heir-of-woodrow-wilson-woodrow-wilson-school-interview-with-john-ikenberry-and-anne-marie-slaughter/

3. Men do not fail…they give up trying:

A quote by Elihu Root: (February 15, 1845 February 7, 1937) was an American lawyer and statesman, the son of Oren Root and Nancy Whitney Buttrick. His father was professor of mathematics at Hamilton College. Root was the 1912 recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize.

While I don’t claim to be a wiser man than Elihu, I do believe this position on failing is a dangerous one. Men fail everyday, all men fail and are failing in several areas at all times. There have been a few short seasons when it seemed that all the areas of my life were in order and I was “successful” on all fronts. Each and every time, these seasons come to an end rather quickly, not because of a change in my circumstances but rather my acknowledgement of delusion. Anyone that knows me will attest to my unwavering pursuit of success as it relates to things such as spiritual maturity, family, vocation, connection, friendship, etc… This is to say that, even though I realize the futility in believing that one day I’ll be hitting 350 on all fronts, I practice and strive for it all the same. I do this because the things that matter most are worth my entire self. The great news about pursuing success on all fronts is that by presenting yourself genuinely and passionately, you are in fact succeeding. When our hardest fought battles are lost, God tends to move most evidently in our souls. In my experience, failures have served as the most visceral reminders that I, in my own strength am fairly inadequate in most all the areas I take most seriously. There is no love big enough to honor God sufficiently. There is no pursuit on this side of heaven to which God is not required in order to obtain. I cannot possibly lead my wife, children, family, clients and friends towards connectivity with me, and moreover…God without…God.

The idea that all things are possible by men, so long as they stay at it… is a farce. All things are possible through Christ and he strengthens us and uses us to accomplish his objective which is to glorify himself in those things.

BTW: Today Rebecca and I celebrated our 3168th day of marriage…(9 years). She is so very important to me and I’m thankful everyday that I was able to talk her into joining me on this crazy ride:)

3 thoughts on “Turns out…fortune cookies are really deep these days…”

Michael Gardner says:

May 18, 2011 at 6:43 am

Les Miserables has a bunch of beautiful reflections like that… but the problem is that they are buried in pages and pages of exposition. The guy literally got paid by the page and so there was no detail not worth a few paragraphs. He actually spends seventy pages describing the Battle of Waterloo… which if you are familiar with the story you know has nothing to do with anything except that France lost.

Jackson says:

May 18, 2011 at 1:25 pm

Good words. One thing worth noting is that even in your picture of success – hitting .350 – you’re not on base over half the time.

Nicole Gibson says:

June 25, 2011 at 11:25 am

Wok City Diner is the best! especially the monday specials 🙂