I think tonight I have seen one of the most amazing things in my life. I left China almost fifteen years ago, during the reign of Emperor Kao-Tsung, and I’ve been abroad for all of that time, experiencing things outside the empire that those I grew up with could not even imagine. Barbarian things, new ways of thinking, new kinds of tradition which would probably shock and offend the man I used to be. But yet, ironically, as I re-enter my home, my country via the Silk Road, THIS is when I see the thing which would pleasantly surprise me more than anything I saw thousands of miles away from home.

A Woman. A woman of stunning charisma and imposing manner, no doubt a hero in her own way, with a life I’m sure I can scarcely imagine, in charge of her very own people, in command of a small clan -- a clan I’m sure I remember was only nomadic and primitive as I passed it years ago heading out. A woman known only as “The Black Tigress,” with a patch over one eye from some wound I wouldn’t dare inquire about.

She took to me, I think, perhaps because of the open manner I have worked hard to develop in myself during this journey. We feasted in her hut, drank her wine and heard the stories the villagers had to tell of her. When I felt it was appropriate, I spoke to her of how I remembered a society in Chang’an with philosophical leanings like hers, and that if she confronted her homeland again, they would do well to take her in.

I don’t know if I will ever see her again. Something tells me I might. She is not the kind of person who ever stops moving forward. For better or for worse, I think she will eventually make her mark on more than just one village and one old man’s heart.