During the evening of the Lantern Festival, on Feb 11, I took a flight from Beijing back to my parents' home in Tennessee. That's the last night fireworks are used to celebrate Lunar New Year. It was an astonishingly clear, smog-free and cloudless winter's day in Beijing.

I was fortunate enough to have a window seat on the west side of the plane. The red rim from the setting sun framed a beauteous sight I fear I'll never see again.

A bouquet of fireworks bloomed across the city. While we were still at low altitude, I could see the colors of each firework grow, then fall away. A myriad of these flowers covered the city.

For the first hour or so of the flight, as we flew northeast, the Earth twinkled. Everywhere, bright stars would live beautifully, achieve their destiny, then be gone in a second. The lights showed countless people rejoicing for a thousand kilometers. North of Harbin, Heilongjiang province, the lights were fewer, but even across the Amur River, I saw flashes of Chinese civilization.

No video could capture this sight. I'll savor it as a once in a lifetime view.

Growing up in the South of the United States, on hot summer nights, children used to chase fireflies - glowing, flying insects that flash their tails to attract mates. To a child, they are fairies. I thought it so sad when a teacher told us they live for only a few days. But, are people really that different?

Cynics laughed at former US president George Bush the Elder's slogan that encouraged us to be one of "a thousand points of light", each doing just a little to help the world. But, wasn't that a great goal - even if too seldom reached?

My own father, who passed away while I was on this flight, called all his children and grandchildren together on Christmas for one last talk. He told us that the greatest sin is to waste the talent given to each of us to do something good.

At their core, the American and Chinese dreams are very alike. My Chinese wife and I have some differences in culture and somewhat different social conventions. We know different history and philosophy. But, those differences are just superficial.

Winston Churchill reportedly said that "history is just one damn thing after another." Who can now remember why all those boys died in the World War I? And, what was the US doing in Vietnam?

Nineteenth-century German chancellor Otto von Bismarck said: "The Balkans are not worth the blood of a single Pomeranian grenadier." (Pomerania is a part of northeastern Germany and a grenadier is a low-ranking soldier.) His successors forgot that, at the cost of 50 million lives and the near-destruction of European civilization.

For the past few years, I've feared that one of Churchill's "damn things" could ruin relations between the US and China. The two countries have so many common interests and greatly enrich each other's culture. I pray that future historians don't write tomes about how we let some little thing lead to waste and destruction.

Maybe thinking about the people celebrating with those Lantern Festival lights can teach us what is important.

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(China Daily 03/07/2017 page2)