#2022-0604
This morning I asked one of the flowers on the tree Da hua ziwei (大花紫葳), "Are you a flower?" She replied, "Yes, as you can see."
This afternoon I asked the same flower on the same tree, "Are you the same flower that I saw in the morning?" She replied, "Yes, if you think so."
Why did she add the phrase "as you can see" or "if you think so"? There must be something tricky in our conversation. So, pointing at the other flowers clustered around her, I deliberately asked her, "Are you the same flower as they are?"
"Well YES, if you see them as my siblings -- coming out of the same source; we're all Queen's crepe myrtles. But NO, because siblings can't be exactly the same, even if they look pretty much alike." The flower I talked with gave me two possible answers: YES and NO.
"What do you mean by YES?" I continued, "And by NO, what do you really mean?"
"By YES I mean our origins are the same, and our destination will be almost the same too." She explained with patience, saying, "And by NO I mean we're separate. Separate things must be different, or unique, in a sense!"
Now I can further distinguish between "pretty much alike" and "exactly the same": This can be a confusing concept. When I asked the flower in the afternoon, my question was "Are you the same flower that I saw in the morning?" -- Even to that question, you may get two different answers. You know why?
Let's have a simple analogy: Yes, I am Mookoo Liang, whether in the morning or afternoon; but No, in the afternoon I'm a bit older than I was in the morning (of the same day). Compare you and other people (individuals) living in the same country, or working in the same boat, or suffering from the same pandemic or war situation. You'll find that all the people undergo something very similar but each person's physical and mental experience is unique -- or rather different from each other. Do you know what I mean?
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相關文章 (See also)：
1) 雨後池邊見：共 3 組 (2010)
2) 雨後寫真 (Photoed after the Rain) (2019)
3) 寧可相信 (2020)
4) (家附近的) 花樹 / 花草 (2022)
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