The One in Life

Golden ladies have a monthly reading gathering. It usually takes seven ladies one week of emailing to settle upon an appropriate date. The location of reading gathering is another challenge. There is a saying, the success of business is based on location, location, location, so is the reading gathering. If the location is right, it would add much value to perfect our monthly gathering. Time, place, people are three factors of each successful encounter.

Every month seven golden ladies take turns hosting the reading gathering. The hostess finds the location and recommends three articles to read. As most ladies are career women, Lydia joined me to shoulder the responsibility to find the locations since her retirement in August. We took initiatives to search for good locations for our future gathering while satisfying our stomachs. Lydia recommended The One on Chung-shan North Road (中山北路) for lunch today. She invited Harris, her high school friend who she had not seen for more than 30 years.

I thought about arriving late intentionally, but I changed my mind to be on time, because punctuality is a good virtue. When I arrived at "The One" at 11AM sharp, I saw a man in his 50's waiting in front of the restaurant. Without much thinking, I approached him by calling his name. Harris was astonished and tried to avoid my mini skirt which he confessed later was too short for a mature woman like me.

Lydia joined us within less than one second, so I didn't have the opportunity to practice a succinct icebreaker speech with Harris, a college English professor. When the waiter sat us to a table by the window overlooking the maple tress on Chung-shan north road, right across from Hotel Royal Taipei, I was amazed at the location for our future reading gathering. I like the interior design of The One, a sense of Zen in a spacious four stories building. The rest room is surrounded by blackboard where patrons can express their emotions while waiting in line to satisfy their biological needs.

Before lunch was served at 11:30, Lydia and Harris caught up with each other by talking about the old days and about their children. Harris talked mainly about his two daughters, Lydia about her two sons. They spent quite some time sharing their parenting stories. As an outsider of no children, I picked up a book about the tree houses from the shelf, imagining myself in a hideaway high above in the woods.

But it is no fun to have two talkers in the three's company. Luckily, I bring Toastmasters magazine September issue with me. Isn't Harris an English professor an ideal Toastmaster member? I introduced myself by showing him the Toastmaster magazine. After luncheon, I even encouraged him to read "The Body Language Myth". It would certainly be nice if Harris could help charter a University Toastmasters Club his school in Tao-yuan in the future.

Harris, Lydia and I didn't leave The One till 3:30PM. We talked for four and half hours straight. It is a valuable afternoon to listen to a middle-aged man talking about his responsibilities, his interests, and his desires. Harris is humorous to share about his secrets how to guide his students (mostly girls) to grow and to achieve in the field of English literature. Why don't you visit his blog for yourself when you have time. Don't miss the chance to meet with Harris next time when there is an opportunity. I'm sure you can learn and gain as much as Lydia and I did today.