Billy: According to Stephen Lee’s Chart, to achieve Unity in Diversity, we need Self Development with 4 virtues: Faith, Perseverance, Wisdom, and Patience; Social Interaction with 3 virtues: Integrity, Love, Teamwork; and Balancing Freedom with 2 virtues: Freedom and Reciprocity. Please discuss the interrelationship among the three steps and the nine virtues

ChatGPT:  To achieve Unity in Diversity, integrating virtues across self-development, social interaction, and balancing freedom is essential. Each set of virtues supports and enhances the others, creating a cohesive framework for personal growth, positive social engagement, and a balanced society. Here’s an exploration of how these virtues interrelate across the three steps

1. Self-Development Virtues

• Faith: Trust in oneself and one’s potential is foundational. Faith in personal and collective goals provides the motivation to pursue growth and overcome obstacles.
• Perseverance: This virtue is the persistent effort to achieve goals despite challenges. It sustains progress and personal development.
• Wisdom: Wisdom involves the application of knowledge and experience to make sound decisions. It helps in understanding oneself and others better, guiding actions and choices effectively.
• Patience: Patience allows individuals to endure difficulties and delays calmly, which is crucial for both personal growth and interactions with others.

Interrelationship among Self-Development Virtues:

• Faith and Perseverance: Faith fuels perseverance by providing the belief that continued effort will lead to success.
• Wisdom and Patience: Wisdom often requires patience; understanding that not everything unfolds immediately and knowing how to act with foresight and calm.
• Perseverance and Wisdom: Wisdom informs how to persevere effectively, making informed decisions about when and how to persist.

2. Social Interaction Virtues

• Integrity: Upholding moral principles and honesty builds trust in relationships and ensures ethical behavior.
• Love: Compassion and empathy foster positive, supportive interactions and strengthen relationships.
• Teamwork: Collaborative effort towards common goals relies on integrity and love, as both build trust and encourage cooperation.

Interrelationship among Social Interaction Virtues:

• Integrity and Love: Integrity and love work together to ensure that relationships are both ethical and caring. Integrity provides the foundation of trust, while love adds warmth and empathy.
• Love and Teamwork: Love enhances teamwork by creating an environment of mutual support and understanding, making collaboration more effective and enjoyable.
• Integrity and Teamwork: Effective teamwork requires integrity to ensure that everyone is contributing fairly and honestly, and that the collective effort is guided by common ethical standards.

3. Balancing Freedom Virtues

• Freedom: The ability to make choices and express oneself is fundamental for personal and collective growth.
• Reciprocity: The principle of mutual respect and exchange ensures that freedom is exercised in a way that considers the well-being of others and maintains balance in relationships.

Interrelationship among Balancing Freedom Virtues:

• Freedom and Reciprocity: Freedom allows individuals to act and express themselves, while reciprocity ensures that these actions do not infringe on the rights or well-being of others. Together, they help create a balanced environment where individual liberties and mutual respect coexist.

Interrelationship Among All Three Steps

• Self-Development and Social Interaction:
  • Wisdom and Integrity: Wisdom informs the practice of integrity, helping individuals make ethical decisions in their interactions.
  • Perseverance and Teamwork: Perseverance in personal growth can enhance one’s ability to contribute effectively to teamwork, and collaborative efforts often require individual perseverance.
• Self-Development and Balancing Freedom:
  • Faith and Freedom: Faith in one’s potential supports the responsible exercise of freedom, motivating individuals to pursue their goals while respecting others’ rights.
  • Patience and Reciprocity: Patience aids in understanding and respecting the principle of reciprocity, ensuring that interactions are considerate and balanced.
• Social Interaction and Balancing Freedom:
  • Integrity and Reciprocity: Integrity ensures that freedom is exercised responsibly, and reciprocity promotes fair exchanges and mutual respect.
  • Love and Freedom: Love ensures that freedom is exercised with empathy and consideration for others, making interactions harmonious and supportive.
• All Three Steps:
  • Faith, Integrity, and Freedom: Faith in oneself and others supports the ethical exercise of freedom, while integrity ensures that such freedom is exercised in a responsible and honest manner.
  • Wisdom, Teamwork, and Reciprocity: Wisdom guides effective teamwork and the fair application of reciprocity, ensuring that collaboration is both thoughtful and equitable.
  • Patience, Love, and Reciprocity: Patience supports the exercise of love and reciprocity, fostering enduring and respectful relationships.

By integrating these virtues, individuals and societies can work towards Unity in Diversity in a holistic manner, where personal growth, ethical social interactions, and balanced freedom contribute to a harmonious and inclusive community.

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“ Boola  Boola Boula In Fiji  Means “We’re Happy You’re Here, Welcome, We Love You “ explained  Marsha Vande Berg, President of MJGlobal Insight- July 2024

Boola, boola, rang out the cry. Faces turned up in smiles even though not even the Americans among us understood the words’ meaning. That is unless they were Yale University graduates or citizens of Fiji! Boola, boola is the recurring verse of the Yale song sung worldwide by Yalies and Yalie fans. In Fiji, it’s repeated three times in a greeting – We’re happy you’re here; welcome – we love you. 

On this sunny day in 2000 as the China economy was just beginning to open up,  boola, boola was the cry of a smiling Chinese American, Billy Lee, who hailed originally from Ningpo and who is now a successful architect in California whose work is recognized widely by many, not the least of whom I.M. Pei. On that sunny day, Billy was focused on performing in an impromptu skit before a small group of Chinese citizens in a village in Yunnan Province. Back in San Francisco, he and the five others in the traveling delegation, including this author, were members of the 1990 Institute and by extension, guests in this western, China province of the All China Women’s Federation. All but the author spoke Chinese. I dare say fewer in the audience seated on the outdoor folding chairs spoke English! 

But we were determined to communicate, and hence we performed a skit.

Our intent was pretty simple: extending friendship that is curious yet speaks without judgment of the other. We spoke different languages but we regarded the gathering as an opportunity to share a common embrace, a willingness to break bread with one another and to express gentle curiosity about each other’s way of life.  To this day, we value this experience as a gesture on behalf of cross-cultural friendship. It works when it can happen with an open heart and open hands. Its effect multiplies when it grasps the potential for bridging otherwise difficult times in geopolitics and between behemoth economies.

Boola, boola, boola became our collective chant back in 2000 in Yunnan Province. Going forward, we knew it pointed to a better way for realizing friendship that’s measured not in trade dollars or competitive economics but in smiles and a handshake or two. We realized too that the chant would unlock memories of friendship shared without judgment. Boola, boola! 

Marsha Vande Berg is president of MJGlobal Insights, a international corporate and non profit director and advisor. Find her at: linkedin.com/in/mjvb

Billy  wrote on July 24

Dear Good Friends All, Just want to let you know that most of my time today is spent on peddling Friendshipology and Compassion This has been most Gratifying ! Love to have you write something for my <https://friendshipology.net> even as you may already have done so ? Cheers ! Billy – Ming Sing Lee

Instant reply from Prof. Joe Mcbride- U.C. Berkeley

Dear Billy,   Glad to hear from you as usual. Attached is something you might want to consider for your articles for Friendshipology.                                                                                           Stay well,                                                                                                          Joe

Maintaining & Rekindling a Friendship – by Joe McBride

Maintaining a friendship sometimes requires a special effort, especially when a friend is not close by. Zemin Wu is a friend of mine who lives in Hefei, China. I first met him on a trip with Billy Lee about 25 years ago to explore potential research projects that could improve the environments of cities in China. Zemin was teaching in Hefei at the time, and we immediately hit it off. Our friendship developed as we explored different urban forest designs that could reduce air pollution in the city of Hefei. Our contacts extended over a three-year period as I travelled to Hefei and Zemin came to California. Subsequently, our contact in person and via email diminished to annual email New Year greetings.

One year I added to my annual New Years email a watercolor sketch I had done to let him know that I had taken up watercolor sketching in my retirement.

Zemin responded with an ink sketch of horses he had recently done.

Discovering a common interest in sketching rekindled our friendship. It was this mutual interest that
sustained and reinvigorated our friendship. If you have an old or distant friend, see if you can identify
a mutual interest that could rekindle the friendship.

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