Remembering Boting

Some twenty years ago, I met a cute toddler on our family trip to Taiwan. Boting was two or three years old, my youngest cousin, and we had a great time running around with him in our short stay that year.

Fast forward a few years and the sad story begins. Boting was diagnosed with an acute form of muscular dystrophy, and gradually lost the use of his legs. Doctors estimated that he would not make it past his teenage years, if lucky. And yet, Boting persevered.

As the years passed, Boting's optimism became a source of inspiration. You see, Boting's older brother, Bojun, also has a disability - his eyes are permanently blurred, and it is not correctable. That disability really bothered him, as he essentially gave up on life, never being able to be productive in school or work despite the rest of his body being functional and, in fact, quite strong. In contrast, Boting, whose body would continue to degrade for his whole life, was very optimistic, as he went to school every day, carried by our mutual grandmother up and down the stairs to school.

One particularly memorable story about the two brothers that really captures Boting's positive outlook went as follows:

Boting approached his older brother Bojun one day, offering a solution that would be mutually beneficial. He said to his brother, "Older brother, we should stick together. In doing so, I will be your eyes, and you can be my legs!"

A passion for writing earned Boting degree in Chinese and was accepted into graduate school as he powered past the doctors' expectations. The local newspapers drew from his (and grandma's) perseverance, sharing his story with the world several times in his life!

Yesterday, Melinda called me and told me the shocking news. Boting was found dead, and had left a suicide note lamenting on his condition and on the burden that he placed on his family and loved ones. The news story (in Chinese) below indicated that he had navigated his wheelchair into a body of water and drowned. The young cousin I met 20 years ago who had endured so much hardship with a smile on his face (perhaps forced, at times, in retrospect?) had finally decided to hang up his skates. It is an incredibly sad story, but we can only hope that he is in a better place today.

News story from Taiwan

Life is tough, and struggles abound. When times get rough, perhaps that's when we need to take the steps back, count our blessings, and look at the bigger picture.

Big Baby Duck Still Chugging Along

We've been keeping tabs of Big Baby Duck, who is starting to look more and more like a regular duck every day. On this particular day, there were several NatGeo-worthy moments that made me wish I had a better camera on hand:

A heron gobbles up a fish from one of the inexplicably shallow fish nests in the pond

Big Baby Duck on the left - mean Mother Duck and what's left of her brood on the right

I really wish I had a better camera on hand for this shot - it's Mother duck chasing Big Baby away again, with an egret watching the commotion nearby...

I also saw the smallest softshell turtle I'd ever seen on this day, but by the time I got close enough to confirm what it was, it had ker-plunked into the safety of the water!

Staying Tough

In this day and age, especially for those of us fortunate enough to mostly struggle exclusively with first world problems, we often forget how tough the world can be. Shortly after returning to work last month, Bill introduced me to the ongoing saga of "Big Baby Duck", who, as it turns out, can serve as an inspiration for perseverance and learning how to adapt.

Each year, right around this time of year, we see a few broods of ducklings rise and fall in the pond in the middle of our campus. It's really rather incredible - these broods typically start numbering over a dozen ducklings following their mother, but within a few days, most of the little guys will have already disappeared. I don't really think I've ever seen any of them make it to full adulthood. While the pond seems like it would be a pretty secure little ecosystem for the ducks, there are definitely some hazards, including large turtles that patrol the waters, an osprey that has made its nest high above on one of our test antennas, and blue herons.

Avid readers will recognize this amazing shot of a poor duckling's fate we captured in Lakeland two years ago...

Big Baby Duck is an interesting story because he (or she?) seems to have the opposite problem. Somewhere down the line, Big Baby got separated entirely from his brood - all of his brothers and sisters disappeared, but more curiously, his mom disappeared as well. Since then, he's been a lone wolf in the pond.

The particular episode I'm recalling today really struck a chord, however. One day, on the way to the cafeteria, we spotted Big Baby across the pond, but we also passed by a new brood of ducklings with their mother. We must have startled the family of ducks, because the mother duck started to lead her ducklings into the water:

A new brood

Big baby duck spotted the family moving out and decided that he should try to file in and get an escort from the new family. However, as soon as he filed in, the mother duck would pound on him to chase him away! He tried two or three times on the way to the shore, and even once on the shore, before he finally gave in and paddled away. Yet another of nature's sad, "such is life" spectacles right in front of our eyes!

Since then, we've monitored the duck situation in the pond. Predictably, the new brood has dwindled down from the nine that we saw at first to just two, but Big Baby has clearly learned his craft, finding camouflage in the sandy banks of the pond and having just enough go power to escape potential predators. He's now big enough to swim right past those big bad blue herons with little to fear!