My life? My personal life? -- My personal life is just a part of the life of my family, or a very small part of the life of my community, my church, or my society. Well, the society you are in is usually bigger than the family you belong to; however, my social life is definitely smaller than my personal life, which is almost equal to my family life.
Anyway, don't be confused by my words above. The words I say may be very tricky, sometimes. For instance, in its real sense my "family life" is NOT the life of my family, the latter being the total (or collective) life of my "family" -- the members of which are my mother, my mother-in-law, my wife, my son, my son's wife, and my two grandchildren! Most of them live in a different city (the biggest city of Taiwan) and one of them lives in a small village in the mountains (that is, in my hometown) and the other one in a town near the sea; you know, wherever they are, I miss them all very much at this moment. So, personally, I see my family life as my "personal life" (in its broader sense). And in addition to this personal family, my church is another family of mine. I meet my "brothers and sisters" in the family of the Lord on Sundays -- and, quite possibly, on any of the weekdays.
(Note: Ian has learned a little Mandarin Chinese, taking a language course at National Taichung University of Education. But this photo shows that he spoke about Shakespeare at National Taiwan Normal University, my alma mater, where I studied English long, long time ago!)
As soon as our lunch with Ian came to an end, I went with Jean to Jen-Ai Hospital - Dali, where she had a dental appointment at 3 pm. I could have visited my friend(s) living there in Dali while she was treated by her dentist. But I decided to stay in the hospital all the time until her dental treatment finished. At least for an hour I was alone, either sitting outside the Dentistry department or pacing around the spacious waiting room. I found that there were quite a few flowers (see photos) planted there as sort of decorations.
"Are these true flowers?" I asked myself.
After having a closer look at them, I said softly, "No, they're just fakes -- `false flowers'; they are made of plastic ... or something like that."
"Oh, I could be wrong about them," I changed my mind, murmuring, "These flowers may not be false; at least, they are TRUE flowers -- true artificial flowers!"
Finally, I came to such a conclusion, "Even if they are made of plastic or something like that, they are true products -- true copies of the genuine flowers." And I'd like to add these words to my conclusion: "Everything on earth is like a copy of the Archetype or Prototype (原型 / 工程原型) of its kind. These flowers have been made (produced) according to their Archetypes, the truly genuine plants of flowers; probably in the same way Adam and Eve were made (created) ... in the image of God."
Oh, Lord, whose image should be the Archetype of/for human beings, bless us (human beings) from generation to generation! ...
The photos below may as well be regarded
as the copies of their Archetypes or
Prototypes -- the true artificial
flowers in Jen-Ai Hospital.
as the copies of their Archetypes or
Prototypes -- the true artificial
flowers in Jen-Ai Hospital.
