Edward came over for an hour this afternoon. I like Edward. He’s a senior and is interested in doing something interesting with his life. Not that everyone else wants to do boring things but he’s got a bit more oomph to his ideas.
One of those ideas is to do some sort of independent tour guide sort of stuff. Like arranging for people to see that ever elusive “Real China.” We were talking about if there’d be a market that would want to come to China and see scenic sites but also go off the beaten path and eat at people’s homes and stuff. He says he’s been talking to Scott about setting something like this up. It’d be aimed at the independent traveller instead of Joe Five-Star.
He was wondering if I’d want to go into business with him on this. I didn’t quite explain to him how there was nothing I would like less. Instead I said I’d think about it but I’ve promised to go back to Canada after this year but if he needs an English side PR guy I’d definitely be there for him. In Canada.
He’s a good guy and I don’t want to be crushing dreams or anything, but what he’s talking about doing would be very difficult. And good on him for that. But I’ve made a decision after a year and a half of teaching. That decision is that I’d much rather do something difficult that I’m good at than something easy that I’m not good at. The chances of success are probably pretty similar but I’ll feel like I’m actually being worth a damn. Being a part of a fledgling travel business is something I wouldn’t be good at at all.
Another funny part of this afternoon’s meeting was that he borrowed a book. He wanted something very vernacular, a bestseller kind of thing, not this literature I keep on reading and encouraging others to read. So I gave him a Tom Clancy collective book from my shelf. Told him it was about spies and stuff. He was very happy. Twenty minutes later he came back and said he didn’t like it. So I traded it for a Thomas Pynchon book. Curious about what made him give up on his spy novel so quickly I opened the returned novel. First chapter is about a Chinese ship that gets highjacked on its way to Singapore.
So I don’t know if he returned it thinking “I can’t stand to see anything bad happen to a Chinese character” or if it was more “If there are Chinese in this book I know they’ll be the villains because that’s what the West thinks of us” or if it was a dissatisfaction with the book’s use of the Wade-Giles romanization method. When he returns The Crying of Lot 49 I’ll ask.
