A separation

Stepping out

Chapter 15 A separation

It was a 14 hour flight from Los Angeles to Kuala Lumpur. The India plan didn't work out. However, the invisible hand of providence had come to steer the issues into a new arena for their continued advancement.

The completed study had picked up interests in UNICEF and Susan was awarded a two year contract at the Sorbornne for the development of a curriculum in the teaching of a new subject in cultural evolution, that pertains to an understanding of self.

Bob was working out a deal with the white house for an appointment as the adviser to the president on human rights. His father helped.

Charles found a new sponsor for his research through the offices of the social development policies of the Sultanate of Brunei. They worked out a deal for him to take up a two year contract at University Malaya. They had proposed a new area of research for him that engages the issue of social themes in public media communication, with an emphasis on comic characters and cartoons, that play a role in the artificial stimulation of the mind.

In the last month, before leaving the US, Charles was pressed into several issues that he never knew was there.

Bob had come to define himself in many ways during the course of the study and this was undertaken in a relative identification of his role in the research team. He had filled in quite nicely. With Charles leaving for the East and Susan for Paris, Bob, like any good political appointee, was left to his own devices in Washington DC. However, he felt obliged to show that he might miss them.

Susan later provided one of his quotes about the separation as,” We shouldn't have planted the apple tree in autumn.”

To Charles, he was almost warm, with the line, “ Two brothers couldn't have had a more amiable relationship.” And, “ What I'll miss most about you is your sense of humor. You didn't think I noticed, did you?”

Charles was somewhat stunned. There was always something about the American experience that is unique and self defining. It would never be imitated any where else.

With Susan, Charles realized he wouldn't be able to hide what he felt and therefore didn't try.

“I think I have been in love with you in some way,” he declared.

“I might have noticed,” she replied. “ Don't be a stranger.” They kissed on the cheek.

“What's the research issue in Malaya?” she asked, combining the name of the university with the country.

“You'll laugh,” he defended himself.

“I could do with a laugh about now,” she said.

“Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and the impact they create in changing archetypical behavior in society. With an emphasis on consumer habits,” he added.

She laughed.

“It would be a break from the pow wow that we have been through,” she added.

His mother, on the other hand didn't allow him to be humorous. Looking frail since the stroke she had the previous year, she had come to herself, since the death of his father 15 years ago.

“Cut down on the smoking,” she called as he left.

Karen was seeing somebody new since the divorce and Charles wished her good luck.

In Malaysia, Charles was appointed to the position of lecturer in the school of business studies, University Malaya. His MBA combined well with his PhD dissertation on the impact of the Mahajnanapada movement on the Indian psyche beyond the Vedanta period. His contract called for the publication of a research thesis on public media influences.

The faculty campus was located in another town. Malacca, with a population of about 1 million people was located about 2 hours drive from Kuala Lumpur. It was a historical city with early colonization by the Portuguese, Dutch and the English. Some of the old administrative buildings still stand in town. It was a major port in the area about 300 �" 500 years earlier and was a point of migration for people from China and India. From here, it was a 3 hour drive to Singapore in the South.

The native population in the country comprised Malays from the surrounding regions. It had a good sized population still living in the forests as aboriginal tribes.

As Charles got into session with the classes, he started to notice a poor development in the area of communication by the students. A society expresses itself best on the basis of the rules of ethos. It was the standard in Athens.

He found that, while the Malay population did so in their communication, the Indian population indicated a preference for pathos based thinking and relation. This is typically the position of the gods. The Chinese population relied on Logos as the fundamental reference to lexicon and indicated a breezy view of life founded on money and its constructive power in society.

However, in a balance created for harmony, a convention on speech that relied primarily on rhetoric, had come to occupy their exchanges in social customs. That held the relationships on level ground on certain issues and permitted a greater experimentation with others.

It was quite a melting pot and in the long run, would cultivate a mutation in social customs that is adapted to combine elements of other cultures, while maintaining the dynamics of the society.

Reviews

[patricia]

I felt there were parts in this chapter that could have been showed rather than told, you usually put a few warm bits in here and there, but still a good chapter. Thanks.