One of my favorite movies for many reasons – Midwest, Chicago, 1930s organized crime, father-son themes.  One of my favorite scenes is when Paul Newman, the mob boss plays a piano duet with Tom Hanks, his chief enforcer.  Touching.

The other is when Newman knows he’s about to be killed by Hanks, and he is at peace with it.

“I’m glad it’s you.”

A lot of the things I had to do in life won’t show up on paper – survive, thrive, pave the way for my children as an immigrant.  Break various generational cycles.  Pursue legitimacy as an Asian in this society not set up for people like us.  With limited support and many obstacles.  All while trying to keep the faith.

Ok.  I can live with what I did.  That’s my Paul Newman moment.  While I did not accomplish all thaf I dreamed or hoped for, I am mostly at peace.

The opening line to the movie goes “When people ask me if Michael Sullivan was a good man, or if there was just no good in him at all, I always give the same answer. I just tell them he was my father.”  I’ve had similar sentiments repeated back to me by several friends who have lost their fathers.  

In the graphic novel the movie is based on, the enforcer’s son does a 180 from his father’s path and becomes a priest.  One of my students actually lived this out – his father was an enforcer for Whitey Bulger and went to federal prison.  My student ends up becoming a prosecutor, in Philadelphia actually.