Lessons in life

Last week, I made my long-awaited visit to Beijing, China. I’ve traveled pretty extensively in my day, and I have to say that Beijing is one of the most unique cities I’ve ever visited. The city is home to 18 million people, and it spreads out across six rings that emanate from its center. One thing that really surprised me about Beijing was the sheer size of everything. The main streets around Tiananmen Square and downtown were exceptionally wide. The buildings – government buildings, hotels, office buildings, and such – were enormous. Heck, even the restaurants are big. Private dining rooms and massive open seating areas flowed from floor to floor in some restaurants. (Apparently, it takes quite a bit of space to feed 18 million of your closest friends at lunchtime.)

Another notable characteristic of Beijing is its juxtaposition of the ancient and the modern world. Historical sites such as the Temple of Heaven (which opened for business in 1420 A.D.) stand proudly next to some of the most modern skyscrapers in the world. If you’re interested in the old world, stop by the Forbidden City or the emperor’s Summer Palace. If you want to see modern Beijing, head over to the CBD. (Otherwise known as the Central Business District.)

While there’s certainly lots to love about Beijing, the city is unfortunately playing host to a rather unwanted guest: smog. Most days of the year, a thick haze hangs over the city. China is burning an eye-popping amount of coal to power its unprecedented expansion, and there are more than a million cars on the roads of Beijing. All of those individual emissions add up to a big smog problem. When I went to check the weather on my first day of my visit, the report came back “Smoke and 15 degrees Celsius”. I had to rub my eyes. Did that say “Smoke”? (That wasn’t the last time I’d rub my eyes in Beijing.)

So here we have a beautiful and fascinating city on the ground and a thick blanket of haze just above the city. You can’t see the tops of most of the tall buildings, but if you could keep rising up and up, you’d find what you’d expect to find. Blue skies, a shining sun, and tremendous warmth and light. There is city and there is sun, but thanks to the smog, never the twain shall meet.

As I rode through the artificially darkened city streets, I pondered on how the smoky situation in Beijing reminds me of the life situation many of us face.

To help explain this, please join me in a quick visualization exercise. In this exercise,