Stepping out from our building I was “paralyzed” by a wonderful sight - There was a full moon hanging out over Manhattan’s skyscrapers.  It was so picturesquely beautiful that for a split moment it took my breath away. I knew tomorrow would be our sentiment-filled and homesick-induced Mid-Autumn Festival.    

I was standing there admiring the moon while classic Chinese poems were like heated popcorns jumping up and down in my head.  My mind was tied up with my family in China, thought about  many my favorite dishes,  tasty moon cakes, delicious fruits & treats  and  so much more coming with on this particular holiday feast table. I almost could feel there would be father’s humorous story lines, mother’s chopsticks carried my favored pieces towards to my bowl, grandpa’s acute attention working on freshwater crabs with his exquisite silver tool set and grandma’s music-like laughter …    For heaven’s sake I was really missing all of them tonight. 

In business school the concept of “Opportunity Cost” is often tossed and debated in classroom.  In application I am now paying hefty price for not being able to get together with my family at this traditional reunion occasion. To large extent the costs for all of us who left our hometown to live in foreign lands are discernibly not cheap. In our Chinese fairy tale, Moon Fairy (嫦娥) was darting to the moon after she was overdosed with the immortalization pill. As a barbarous consequence she was deprived inhumanly her chance to return home.  Are we (men and women) luckier than her?    

On the way home I swallowed my saliva very hard as I was debating myself mentally for choosing my picks  on moon cakes, Cantonese style from 杏花楼 or fresh minced meat filling from 老大房  or  vegetarian delight from 功德林 or  even the regular type. After  I completed my selection of my desert I was  starting to work on  my main dishes  “How about 水晶虾仁,  醉毛蚧 , 排骨年糕  and 醃笃鲜 ?   They surely sounded and tasted terrific. Of cause, It  was  pie- in- the- sky sort of spiritual feasting. The problem was the more I pictured them hungrier I became. 

Finally, I ordered a pizza with four different cheeses from corner pizzeria to rustle my teased appetite and extinguish my hunger quickly. When I opened the box the pizza looked like mid-autumn moon to me. I sighed and accidentally popped out last piece “corn kennel” in my head. It was  “但愿人长久，千里共婵娟”.  I am helpless.