The best way to answer this question is to ask why anyone tells stories. Why do humans tell stories in the first place? At its root, the answer to this question is quite simple: we tell stories because we must, because telling stories is part of being human. Continue reading
Reflections
Slowly, slowly …
Twenty or so years ago, during my first stay in Chengdu, I and three friends sat in on a Chinese landscape painting (shanshuihua 山水画) class at the university where we taught English. The teacher’s method was to paint a scene at the front of the class, discussing what he was doing as he did it, while we all attempted to copy it. When he had finished, he would walk around the room looking at everyone’s work and making suggestions for its improvement. Until he reached me. Then he would look at my painting, chuckle deep in his throat, pat me on the shoulder, and, saying “Slowly, slowly …,” walk on to the next student. Continue reading
Kurt Vonnegut on just about Everything
I am writing a post today on Kurt Vonnegut for no particular reason. There are other posts I could work on that would be far more in keeping with the overall theme of this blog, but this is what I feel like writing today. One of the nice things about a blog is that you can write anything you want and publish it. There’s no guarantee anyone will ever read it, but that holds true for books as well. Continue reading
Spring, the Limits of Expression, and the Men who Won’t Fit In
How’s that for a title? Spring has been steadily growing here, and as I sat outside one warm evening, it occurred to me that there are definite limits to how much of my experience I can communicate in this blog. I add audio recordings to this blog to help fill in some of the details that photos can’t capture (and I’m going to post a video soon!), but there’s no way I can capture the soft, moist touch of a warm spring breeze blowing through the trees of a park at night. I suppose I could record the sound it makes, but even that would be difficult–it’s too quiet, too subtle–and without the accompanying feelings of the gentle night-warmth and the soothing way the wind brushes across your skin, it just wouldn’t be the same. Continue reading
Winter Warmth
Among the many types of “common cold” described in Chinese medicine, there is one type–called “winter warmth (dongwen 冬温), that I have often invoked in treating patients. In particular, it is the type of cold my daughter is most prone to catching. Continue reading
Poetry (3): Li Bai 李白 and Others
[Warning this one rambles!] This is not my own. It’s by one of China’s most famous poets and misfits: Li Bai 李白。 The translation, however, is mine. This was the first Chinese poem I read, and like many Chinese grade school students, the first Chinese poem I committed to memory. I can still recite it–rather better than most grade-schoolers … I think. 🙂 Continue reading
“To have friends come from afar …”
Outside of East Asia, not many people realize that the first line of the Confucian Analects is a statement about the joys of life:
The Master said, “To study and at times put it into practice, is it not a pleasure? To have friends come from afar, is it not a joy? To take no offense when other do not recognize [your virtue], is [such a person] not a gentleman? Continue reading
Ten Thousand Li 