The Gift of Sam Hsu
Ivenette LaCountI have been reading pieces about Dr. Samuel Hsu written by his friends and colleagues. They are labors of love, exquisite and endearing. They stretch far beyond formal, biographical eulogies dedicated to those of renown that have passed. They resonate with the living. They are stories about a man who, transformed by grace and the will of God, has gone beyond his extraordinary experiences of life and has entered into the full splendor of eternality.
Wordsmiths far more accomplished than I have merged flawlessly into the highly trafficked corridors of memory, thanksgiving, appreciation, Christian love, and affection for the beloved human multiplex we knew as Sam Hsu. So I will simply say this: Sam will be forever set apart and above others in my intimate circle because he really understood what makes me…me! When someone “gets” you, it engraves an indelible mark of trust on your heart. Sam imprinted on us his sage wisdom, rapier wit, abundant friendship and unselfish generosity.
Here is one example that stands in the place of dozens I could recount to make my point crystalline. One year from one of his many trips to New York City, Sam gave me a baseball cap from the Juilliard School with the logo impressively embroidered on the crown. He delivered it in a plastic bag from their gift shop. He knew my passion for the performing arts and my reverence for Juilliard. He also knew how much I would love owning a little piece of that impressive school’s legacy, even if it was just sitting on my head. Knowing Sam would get the joke, I promised to wear the cap to music venues in order to amuse my friends who hold actual, formidable music credentials. We laughed together, imagining the audacity of my blatant accessorizing in their presence and what their reactions might be. I thanked him profusely for the excellent cap and assured him that I even treasured the plastic bag in which it came.
That Christmas neatly folded inside the box that held Sam’s actual present to me there were a bevy of Juilliard plastic bags identical to the original. I gushed unabashedly over my windfall of Juilliard labels and logos. It was precisely his brand of humor, perfectly matched with insight. I believe it was a gift from God that our Sam could see through the windows of what made us each different and dear to him, whether he had known us for twenty minutes or twenty years. Sam never missed an opportunity to use his manifold gifts in a way that would throw open those windows wide with joy and always to the glory of God.
