Happy New Year! Happy 2023!
Let me be the first one to welcome you to another new year! December was the first time that I have ever taken a sabbatical in my life. What I mean by sabbatical is that I cancelled or turned down all social engagements except for the thirtieth birthday of one of my nieces, the sixtieth birthday of one of my sisters, Christmas Eve celebration, and a dinner with a friend visiting from out of town. Otherwise, I spent my mornings doing different forms of exercises and the rest of the days reading and writing. I stopped my consumption of all types of alcohol, and I mostly drank soups once a day to lose some weight.
I am grateful to report that I have lost thirteen pounds in the month, and I feel fabulous. The daily exercises include walking on the treadmill at a fifteen-degree incline for thirty minutes until I start to sweat. I have also hired a personal yoga coach who has come to my home three times a week for one-hour sessions. I am also reactivating a set of Qigong exercise that I learned from Maryann’s uncle #3.
But I am most excited about my writing project. A total of thirty-eight essays have been written that will form the basis of my first book. My reason for writing a book is for my grandchildren to understand the beliefs, the culture, and the behaviors of the Fong family. With the arrival of my third grandchild, my first grandson Cameron on December 2nd, the book has an additional reason for completion.
A Christmas gift that I received from one of my nieces is the book “Unreasonable Hospitality” written by Will Guidara. This book really resonates with what I have been writing this past month. First, I write about food and wine in my book because I consider them to be glory expressions of God’s creativity and the ability to create and appreciate fine foods and wines is unique to humanity among all living creatures. But more importantly, hospitality is even more crucial when we try to deliver a memorable experience whenever anyone comes to our home for a meal or gathering. Look at it from the angle of Jesus’s command to love our neighbors as ourselves which extends to my promotion of servanthood over the much-bastardized subject of leadership. I like the word hospitality because it conveys a strong biblical message without using a traditionally religious word. The current popularity of the book excites me because I hope my focus on servanthood will stimulate the reader’s mind to think about how we can all treat each other better or with “unreasonable hospitality.”
As I reread what I wrote and posted at the beginning of December, I would like UVC to pursue “unreasonable hospitality” starting in 2023 as a stated mission. Because I am a self-declared myth buster, I have been critical about most of what is faddish and popular. But I believe unreasonable hospitality or rather, enlightened hospitality, a term coined by Guidara’s mentor Danny Meyer, emphasized servanthood and ultimately the essence of loving our neighbors as ourselves. This is a good trend for all businesses to follow and a way of living for humanity. Let this be an encouragement for us all! May 2023 be the best year in your life!
Happy New Year!