"Which do you think is the best age, childhood, youth, adulthood, or old age? Michael?" 
"That's a good question, Wu. I've already been a child, a youth, an adult, and now I am 66 years old, so I suppose I am in old age." 
"But, Michael, you don't act like an old man. I think that you are very strong. I think of you as my grandfather. I am comfortable with your smooth white beard, your big belly, your songs, and your friendliness to all of us Chinese students. "
Its true. I don't feel so old. In the Chinese custom, I would be a couple of years older, and an old man who should sit in the shade or sun and relax. I've had a very active life. As the only child for my older parents, I had a special relationship with my mother. My father worked an evening shift at a factory, but when I was about 12, he decided to go back to the day shift so that he could spend some more time with me. We had a cottage at "Little Long Lake" about 100 kilometers from our home. During the time that my mother's mother was ill for about five years, my father and I would sometimes go to the cottage on the weekends. When I was twelve, my parents bought me a new piano replacing an old upright piano that I had learned to play starting when I was about six. I still have this piano and treasure it. " 
"Michael, you must like music a lot. Did you sing as well as play the piano? Did you continue when you were in middle (high) school?" 
"Oh, yes. I sang and played the piano a lot as a child, then also as a high school student. I sang in church as a child, then as a youth, and often as an adult. Now I sing in classes or in speeches to students sometimes here in China to teach the students more about American culture. I would say that I had a happy childhood. In high school, I was in two different boarding schools for boys, and was usually very happy. Though I have faced some difficulties and problems in my life, I think that I have been a happy person most of my life. " 
"That's wonderful, Michael. As a Chinese student, I hope that I will always have as happy a life as you have had. Tell me, then, which age do you think is the best age?" 
"Wu, I think that every age of life can be productive and happy if we always seek to live a balanced and happy life."