Living with ghosts

Neil Gaiman won the Newberry Award for children's books.

The Graveyard Book 

Spooky stuff. Fade in-fade out.

Metta.

Year of the Ox

Joyful Chinese New Year! It is the year of the Ox. Strong, conservative, patient, hard working, loyal.

We are in the middle of a total solar eclipse. 0606 GMT to 0952 GMT. It is traversing the Indian ocean toward Mindanao where it will open its light shade.

Birds sing dusk twilight songs. Bored children in a green field play yo-yo. They need solitude. Nature. They have 532 "friends" on a social network website. They feel strangely alone. They are alone. Authentic. Restless. Their televisions tell them to seek short attention spans.

They are Slumdog Millionaires. See it. Rotten Tomatoes more...

The sun spans the moon. Lotus leaves dance in piano winds. Rolling thunder.

Speak in silence. More...

Metta.

Water's heartbeat

Well now, such an elegant universe. Bamboo wind. A drop of memory carried by a pure and simple recall, shadowed reality of sand, coral, diffused surface light, edges of black glistening diamond sand, palms and dirt trails.

The water droplet reflected everything it dreamed, imagined and bird songs escaping from a single throated sound. Yes, this water sustained a yellow leaf on it's gently rising energy, feeding the green veins with harmonic flowing surge. Pulsating.

Metta.

Zeynep - Wonder Kid

Once upon a time there was a traveling teacher and he left Asia Minor after a year of exploring and returned to Southeast Asia.

He began helping 4th graders. As a student he was making new friends and sharing on another very small part of the spinning planet filled with orchids and astonishing butterflies. Ah, the joys of travel, teaching and taking risks!

Meanwhile, back in Bursa, Turnkey, a magical place on a border between Asia and Europe, at the Western end of the Silk Road, Zeynep is a precocious 5-year old.

The front of her t-shirt reads, "Nobody's perfect." 
The back reads, "I am Nobody."

She pointed around her restaurant and whispered across the table.

"See these adults? Why do they look so sad and/or angry? Because, when they were young, they were punished for dreaming."

"Yes, fear is a real imaginary way with them, this perpetual adolescence."

"And I'll tell you another thing," said Zeynep. "I experience joy through writing, painting, drawing, singing and dancing."

"Yes," I whispered, "I am happy we met here. You are my best friend in the world. I trust you and love you." We shared a hug and dissolved into tear reflected light.

Walk to Hospital #8

The gap between rich and poor in China - such is the reality in developing countries - is becoming more apparent.

Recent figures speak. Average city wages - $2,300 a year. Rural wages - $690 a year.

The central party hopes their economic stimulus will encourage rural people to buy appliances and cars. I need a 4x wheel drive washing machine so I can I take my family on weekend excursions to the beach, the Himalayas and deep tropical jungles where life is simple. Yeah!

The process evolved like this. I walked. I saved and eventually bought a bike. A Flying Pigeon. Black. One speed. It got me from home to the village rice paddies.  

We had a radio in the work unit. The local propaganda machine blasted revolutionary worker party anthems day and night. We got one for the home. My wife was happy. Then we had the required one child. We wanted another one but the forced abortion committee and local officials said, NO! you do not qualify for two children.

Then my wife wanted a TV. Ok I said, let's get a 24" flat screen with a remote.

What about a new rice cooker? Ok I said.

How about a used refrigerator? What's wrong with the box of ice? You shop for fresh vegetables at the market every morning. Why do we need a refrigerator? Because the neighbors have one.

Oh, I see. I scrounged around and traded rice for some chickens and traded the birds for some used teak wood smuggled in from Burma. I developed some connections. One trade lead to another and I eventually found a well used fridge. My wife was happy. Then we filled it up with baby formula.

The formula was tainted with a chemical to increase the protein. We didn't know this small fact.

Our little girl became sick. The Worker's Hospital #8 said I had to pay them a lot of money for medicine or she would die.

I sold my bike to buy medicine. Now I walk to the hospital to see my daughter. It takes forever and a day.

I want to move to a big city filled with neon and food smells and construction projects and appliances hoping against hope to find a job but party leaders say millions of unemployed workers are returning to their villages for Chinese New Year.

The radio and flat scream tell us to stay home. Be quiet. Don't worry. Practice social stability and harmony. My future opportunities look precarious.

I have to go now because they will cut off the electricity soon and I need to get some candles.

"Sometimes life is found in a desperate situation." - Chinese proverb.

Metta.