Usually, people graduate from high school once, and if they go to college, they might graduate from there once. But this season, I got to toss up my graduation cap around 90 times.

Graduation is the opening scene in the dance The Choice. Set in China, it tells the story of two good friends who, after graduating, go separate ways.

The young man helps catch a robber and is recruited to be a police officer. He asks the police chief if his lady friend can also join, but the chief dismisses her with a wave. The woman is disappointed, but still convinces her friend to follow his path and not worry about her. He doesn’t want to leave her, but after much persuasion, agrees to go off. Their paths, though, will cross again.

I was among the protagonists’ classmates. Having graduated and left the stage, I now return to the scene as a practitioner of Falun Dafa. My friends and I are peacefully meditating in a park when the young woman, now alone, comes across us. She learns the practice, too, and adopts our belief in truth, compassion, and tolerance.

The stage lights go out and come back on. We fast-forward a few years and the popular Falun Dafa discipline is now persecuted nationwide in China. We practitioners go to Tiananmen Square to stand up for our faith. When we are badly beaten by the police, the young woman comes to defend us—but is caught by policemen.

A police officer pounces in her direction, ready to strike. But as his baton is about to come down, he realizes the lady in front of him is his long-lost friend. They gasp in horror as he freezes and the baton drops from his hand.

He begs the police chief to spare his friend but, instead, the policemen now turn against both the young officer and the lady. Together, they are brutally beaten and left to die.

Yet, the woman awakes. Seeing her friend lying unconscious on the square’s cold concrete, she is heartbroken. In the midst of despair, she sits by his side and calls upon the deepest recesses of her faith. Her righteousness touches the heavens, and soon enough, Buddhas and deities come down to help.

I now return to the scene, still a Falun Dafa practitioner. The lady, overwhelmed with joy, brings her awakened friend to us. And here comes my favorite part of the dance. Police officers again jump out, ready to attack, but at this moment, the young man, now an ex-policeman, raises a banner with the words “Falun Dafa is good,” and with that the terrified policemen scram.

I love that satisfying feeling when good triumphs over evil. I do believe goodness will always prevail.

June 9, 2012