I'm on vacation! Taking a much-needed break. But don't worry. While I'm away, I've enlisted some great guest bloggers to keep things going around here. Here's Joy Osmanski writing about a recent trip to Korea.
When I went to Korea, I felt like a Clydesdale.
The Clydesdale is a draft horse originating, predictably, in Clydesdale, Scotland. Okay, it's the Budweiser horse. Huge. Clomping. Snorting horse heads. They pull things.
I stepped into the belly of the Korean Air 747, and stopped blinking. The flight attendants, hair smoothed into low coils, sea foam scarves winging from perfect knots, lips in tiny, pacific smiles... my brain ached. I'd been awarded a gratis trip to the motherland sponsored by the Korean government and a Korean adoptee organization. The last time I'd been in a Korean Air plane, I was seven months old and alarmingly chubby. The flight took 17 hours and I was awarded the nickname "Monsoon." Apparently, I cried. A lot. I was delivered to a mother who knew me only from a photo, from the paperwork, and the dutiful reports written up by the adoption agency.
Decades later, after pegging my jeans, suffering through spiral perms, listening to Pearl Jam on constant loop, wading through college in Midwestern cornfields, getting my MRS degree in Boston, getting my MFA in San Diego, getting divorced in Los Angeles, and always explaining my Polish last name, I sat, holding my breath, on a flight bound for my country of origin. The country to which I felt only the thinnest thread of connection.
Took this screen shot last night, because I wanted commemorate this kickass moment. Take a look where "Like a G6" sits on on the list of Top 10 singles. My boys in Far East Movement, aka the hardest working guys in hip hop, have the number one song on iTunes. That's amazing. 
I grew up believing that taking advantage of the very best education money and hours of studying could get you was the key to the Asian American dream. There's no doubt a strong education remains key but an Ivy League degree isn't the only key. The world of social technology - the development and use of - is changing the way leadership and social power works. 
. In the business world, the gurus are by and large men of a paler shade. It's been said of novelists that they subconsciously assume the race or ethnicity of their readers and characters. If you read enough leadership books, you may say the same about those authors as well. Just add gender to the mix.
