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141 " And even though I taught my daughter the opposite, still she came out the same way! Maybe it is because she was born to me and she was born a girl. And I was born to my mother and I was born a girl. All of us are like stairs, one step after another, going up and down, but all going the same way. "
― Amy Tan , The Joy Luck Club
142 " What was worse, we asked among ourselves, to sit and wait for our own deaths with proper somber faces? Or to choose our own happiness? "
143 " My mother believed in God's will for many years. It was as if she had turned on a celestial faucet and goodness kept pouring out. She said it was faith that kept all these good things coming our way, only I thought she said "fate," because she couldn't pronounce the "th" sound in "faith."And later, I discovered that maybe it was fate all along, that faith was just an illusion that somehow you're in control. "
144 " Your tears do not wash away your sorrows. They feed someone else’s joy. "
145 " And then I see my mother sitting by the open window, her dark silhouette against the night sky. She turns around in her chair, but I can’t see her face. “Fallen down,” she says simply. She doesn’t apologize. “It doesn’t matter,” I say, and I start to pick up the broken glass shards. “I knew it would happen.” “Then why you don’t stop it?” asks my mother. And it’s such a simple question. "
146 " If you are greedy, what is inside you is what makes you always hungry,” said Popo. "
147 " ¿Puedes imaginar lo que se siente cuando uno no quiere estar dentro ni fuera, cuando desea estar en ninguna parte y desaparecer? "
148 " ... knowing I had finally arrived where my life said I belonged. "
149 " What was worse, we asked ourselves, to sit and wait for our own deaths with proper somber faces? Or to choose our own happiness? "
150 " Maybe it is because she was born to me and she was born a girl. And I was born to my mother and I was born a girl. All of us are like stairs, one step after another, going up and down, but all going the same way. "
151 " I asked myself, What is true about a person? Would I change in the same way the river changes color but still be the same person? And then I saw the curtains blowing wildly, and outside the rain was falling harder, causing everyone to scurry and shout. I smiled. And then I realized it was the first time I could see the power of the wind. I couldn't see the wind itself, but I could see it carried the water that filled the rivers and shaped the countryside. It caused me to yelp and dance.I wiped my eyes and looked in the mirror. I was surprised at what I saw. I had on a beautiful red dress, but what I saw was even more valuable. I was strong. I was pure. I had genuine thoughts inside that no one could see, that no one could ever take away from me. I was like the wind.I threw my head back and smiled proudly to myself. And then I draped the large embroidered red scarf over my face and covered those thoughts up. But underneath the scarf I still knew who I was. I made a promise to myself. I would always remember my parent's wishes, but I would never forget myself "
152 " I also found out why i should never reveal "why" to others. A little knowledge withheld is a great advantage one should store for future use. That is the power of chess. It is a game of secrets in which one must show and never tell. "
153 " Joy Luck was an idea my mother remembered from the days of her first marriage in Kweilin, before the Japanese came. That’s why I think of Joy Luck as her Kweilin story. "
154 " We feasted, we laughed, we played games, lost and won, we told the best stories. And each week, we could hope to be lucky. That hope was our only joy. And that’s how we came to call our little parties Joy Luck. "
155 " And although my father was not a fisherman but a pharmacist's assistant who had once been a doctor in China, he believed in his nengkan, his ability to do anything he put his mind to. My mother believed she had nengkan to cook anything my father had a mind to catch. It was this belief in their nengkan that had brought my parents to America. It had enabled them to have seven children and buy a house in the Sunset district with very little money. It had given them the confidence to believe their luck would never run out, that God was on their side, that the house gods had only benevolent things to report and our ancestors were pleased, that lifetime warranties meant our lucky streak would never break, that all the elements were in balance, the right amount of wind and water. "
156 " In a crowd of Caucasians, two Chinese people are already like family. "
157 " We translated each other's meanings and I seemed to hear less than what was said, while my mother heard more. "
158 " But sometimes the prodigy in me became impatient. "If you don't hurry up and get me out of here, I'm disappearing for good," it warned. "And they you'll always be nothing. "
159 " But she never looked back with regret. There were so many ways for things to get better. "
160 " The gray-green surface changes to the bright colors of our three images, sharpening and deepening all at once. And although we don’t speak, I know we all see it: Together we look like our mother. Her same eyes, her same mouth, open in surprise to see, at last, her long-cherished wish. "