The Hardest Thing to Move

I've had just enough time...   to try moving...

Taken from a car in the street of the City of Hangzhou where the white snake met the scholar...

You won’t believe the things I moved

Odd shapes and sizes

Light as feathers

Heavier than stone

Smaller than your palm

Larger than the truck

Some I moved down the street

Others transported a thousand “li”

I had moved things together

And I had moved things apart

You won’t believe what I moved

But, the hardest to move

The hardest to move

- is a heart

_______

And that ain't the hardest part

The hardest part is working and I've worked enough

And that ain't the hardest part

Talkin' 'bout a true love

That ain't the hardest part

And that ain't the hardest part

The Hardest Part by Ryan Adams

Discarded Gloves, Where is the Respect in That?

I've had just enough time to...   sympathize with discarded gloves.

Taken of this pair of discarded glove on a boat in the West lake, Hangzhou China.

Used, Discarded

Reused, Discarded again

Where is the respect in that?

Like discarded gloves

On the dirty floor, felt like

Discarded gloves on the floor

Kept your hands clean, we did

Kept them warm in the cold

Protect your hands, we did

Protect them from the blows

Take the blows ourselves, we did

And we take on the woes

Now, we are worn

Lost our shine and colours from the weather

Dirty and soiled, disheveled and battered

And those hands we protect

Just threw us on the floor

Just threw us on the floor

Discarded gloves, where is the respect in that?

_______

I'd like to tell a little story
Thats been told time and time again
About the foolish men who chased me
My discarded men

They used to tell me they loved me
But I knew better than them
I'd find them looking around the corner
My discarded men

Eartha Kitt: My Discarded Men

The Monk & The Little Devil - Part II

I've had just enough time to...   give the little devil a whack with my not so mighty staff.

Taken at night in place where there was no one about.

There was a pious monk proud of his reputation. And he felt he needed to protect and enhanced it. All the better to serve his God, you see. If the people believe in him, they will believe in the God he served. The praises he heard got into his head and he sucked them in like a smoker sucking smoke through his smoking pipe. The smoke that he blew out intoxicated him and clouded his view.

The more religious relics he has, the more religious he believed he will appear to be and he set on the task of accumulating them. They should not be in the hands of the less devoted, he argued but in those of the more deserving hands like his. He plotted and schemed to make them all his lest they be tainted by hands unclean.

And should anyone stood in his way, he just arranged for them to be conveniently removed as if ridding the world of evil. For anyone standing in his quest for spiritual perfection is evil, aren’t they? Why should he feel remorse for the uncouth that could not understand the purity of his quest? 

“Do you think it is easy to have someone “removed”? How many prayers I had to make to regain my lost sense of peace? Who understands such agony in my breast and these sacrifices that I make?”

Then something strange happened. The more treasures he accumulated, the tighter he held on to them, the more he seemed to shrink in stature. Till one morning, the disciples went to the master’s bedroom and saw only a tiny ghoul with sharp teeth. The frightened disciples engaged a traveling monk who got rid of the little devil with one whack of his mighty staff and that is the end of him.

Part I - The Monk & The Scriptures.

I've had just enough time to...   talk to the Monk about the scriptures.

Taken of the Monk & his books one night alone in Hangzhou, China.

“All the knowledge is in the scriptures”, the monk said.

“Studied it well and you will know all there is to know.”

The disciple took it to heart and studied it day and night.

And when he has memorized and could repeat every single word.

He went back to the monk with all he had learned.

“You have learned nothing”, the monk said.

“Except for the words you have read”

“The wisdom is not in the words”

“Go back and read some more!”

And the disciple burned the scriptures

And become a rich trader.

And the monk took another disciple

Who is asked to read more and more

And then some more…

The Cheerful Boatman of West Lake.

I've has just enough time to...   take a boat ride on West Lake.

Taken of my cheerful boatman of West Lake

It was my fortune to hire this cheerful boatman to take me on a tour of the romantic West Lake. She effortlessly pushed the heavy oar and gently swayed with the rocking of the boat wearing a perpetual smile on her face. And in a sing-song voice, she narrated the romance of The Scholar and The White Snake.

One of the lovely view of the lake.

Through her words, I imagined the scholar walking under the weeping willow meeting Lady White Snake and falling in love with her. How the strict monk seeking to uphold the Law of Heaven forbade the union of man and spirit and drove them apart. And when he could not severe their love for each other, imprisoned her under the Pagoda for eternity. A tragic but beautiful love story. So if you go to the West Lake of Hangzhou, hired one of the boatman for this is the best way to view the lake and hopefully, you will get a boatman as pretty and as cheerful as the boatman who showed me West Lake.

_______

This animation film by Yun Tin Ruan, a famous comic artist in China give a slightly different take. It tells of White Snake practising for 1000 years to be a perfect woman. She falls in love with a man by Hangzhou's West Lake but the man's distrust eventually kills their love. The tale is used as a metaphor for the relationship between man and woman in a male dominated society. Watch it - the animation is fantastic!