Several evenings ago, the women in my family (and my little brother, the proverbial thorn) sat down to a rare dinner together. My grandma’s not as mobile as she used to be and it’s getting harder and harder for us to convince her to leave the house but on this occasion, she agreed. So went our party of six – myself, my two sisters, mum, grandma and my brother.
We went to a Chinese restaurant and while waiting for dessert to arrive, the waitress brought us a plate of fortune cookies. Now I’ve always been really skeptical about fortune cookies – I’m sure they’re made up by a bunch of people who write random positive sentences to pass off as fortunes and they never say anything bad or people would never buy them but that makes them totally unrealistic because everyone experiences both good fortunes and bad ones.
This time though, it got a little more interesting. Bec’s was, “Dare to pursue dreams that are limitless” or something along those lines, mum’s read, “Believe in your dreams,” grandma’s said, “There will be happiness in your family soon,” Jessie’s was, “Your principles are more important to you than money,” and mine said, “Good health will be yours for a long time to come.”
They were all pretty generic statements but they were applicable in each of our individual situations. Bec and mum do have big dreams, they being the only ambitious, business-minded members of our lot; Jessie does care more about her principles than money; I’m pregnant and praying for the health of both myself and my baby; and grandma is pretty excited about my pregnancy – she should be, she’s been bugging me to have kids literally from the month I got married.
The only exception was my brother’s, whose fortune read simply, “You will have a pleasant surprise.” I think he was a little disappointed at how unprofound it was. Bec and I thought it was hilarious. And clearly the work of someone who had run out of inspiration.
I still don’t believe in fortune cookies – does anyone nowadays? – but in this particular instance, much to my surprise (maybe I should have taken my brother’s cookie instead), it brought us encouragement and made grandma happy so I’m reserving judgment. Just this once. Besides, I can’t say I don’t wish the fortunes will all come true.
Surprising enough, it is sort of a ‘must’ to serve fortune cookies in a chinese restaurant abroad these days, and it took me a while to explain to people here that fortune cookies wasn’t invented by the chinese but the americans, funny huh?