In reflecting on my father's life, I am reminded of F. Scott Fitzgerald's comment that, "there are no second acts in American lives." This may be so, but I think my father's life really had three acts. First there was a period of preparation which took place in China. Then there was the crossing of the great waters to America and to his Downstate Medical Center/scientific/scholarly phase. And then there was his third act: the recrossing of the great waters back to China in search of the nature and principles of traditional Chinese medical practice. His story reminds one of the myth of the hero, an individual driven to go off and discover a new world and perform feats of courage and skill. The hero then returns home - like Ulysses - but returns home changed. In fact my father returned "home" to China with new insights, skills and perspectives. He was able not only to create something valuable in the West, but to bring something valuable back to his home country as well, a country that he never lost his feelings for and which he was so happy to visit after a twenty-five year absence.

My father somewhat modestly says in the introduction to his memoirs, "I can argue strongly that although I was an ordinary person, I lived in an extraordinary time and environment." I would say instead that he lived a rather extraordinary life and a life that spanned many points of view, many cultures, many geographies. It is no accident that his wish was to have his ashes scattered in the Pacific Ocean, thus further linking East and West. His spirit is able even now to link together continents as well, of course as all of us.

So I think that there is a joyful note to be sounded in conclusion which is that his work will continue, and of course that he will live on forever in our hearts as our love for him will also live on, forever.