文學館 ● 詩 ● 下雨的日子

#2019-0520

It's a rainy day, sometimes raining cats and dogs. Jean and I went to Taichung Literature Museum (台中文學館) this morning. She was excited, and so was I.

She was excited because she had been invited to do a recitation this morning, reading and singing a classical poem (what's the title?) written several decades ago by a Taiwanese poet (what's his name?) who had passed away.

I was excited because she had told me that I must (or should) keep this "public project" a secret. -- Oh, no! There's nothing more I can tell you here now. No more information should be leaked . . . before the right time -- that is, before the publication of the films and the relevant books!

觀景心得 (Untitled)

#2019-0518

觀景心得：《無題》

滿山竹影隨風動

遲暮幽情伴夢飛

一旦空盈皆得意

如雲進退不須歸

------ By Mookoo Liang

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可參閱下面的

紀錄 短片 / See below!

～～～～～

#2019-0515

在土黃與草綠之間的曲線美

　　~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

看哪！我們彼此依存------走著，
　　　走著，終於走入一段清幽可人的林間小徑。

原來，這「生命之道」曲折又平直 ～～～～～
　　　～～～～～～～ 一路行過象徵意義鮮明的「土黃」與「草綠」之間！

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相關圖文 (See also)：
1)  七絕《春回》

Whispers of Carnations (康乃馨 ● 花語)

#2019-0514

Maybe this blog post of mine can be entitled "The Whisper of a Carnation" or "Whispers of Some Carnations" or "Carnations Whispering on Mother's Day" or ... something like this!

I'm not quite sure whether I should use the singular or plural form of the key words whisper(s) and carnation(s), nor do I know for sure why the definite and indefinite "articles" (the and a/an) must or must not be used in English. However, I do remember that every kind of flower has its FLORIOGRAPHY (language of flowers).

On the Internet, I find that ...

• Light red carnations represent admiration, while dark red denote deep love and affection.
• White carnations represent pure love and good luck, while striped (variegated) carnations symbolize regret that a love cannot be shared.
• Purple carnations indicate capriciousness. In France, it is a traditional funeral flower, given in condolence for the death of a loved one.
• According to a Christian legend, carnations first appeared on Earth as Jesus carried the Cross. The Virgin Mary shed tears at Jesus' plight, and carnations sprang up from where her tears fell. Thus the pink carnation became the symbol of a mother's undying love.
• The formal name for carnation, dianthus, comes from Greek for "heavenly flower," or the flower of Jove.

Now, as you know, carnations are often worn on Mother's Day. And, you know, in Taiwan and many other countries, Mother's Day falls (and is celebrated) on the second Sunday of May.

Not long before this past Sunday, my daughter-in-law gave my wife some carnations, saying, "Happy Mother's Day to you, mama." I saw the flowers on the kitchen table at first. Then they were moved into the living room. And finally, several days later, they were put on the glass shelf in the bathroom (see photos) just before the bathroom mirror!

I know that my wife has changed the water in the container for the carnations, the stems of which were already cut short so that the plants did not look so heavy-laden, but was able to stand firm for a longer time.

Well, seeing those charming colors and shapes of the carnations (called 香石竹, 剪絨花, 洛陽花, 康乃馨, etc., in our language), I would start thinking of my mother-in-law and my own mother again. Both of them are old ... and rather weak at the moment!

Lucky-7 歡樂的一天

#2019-0509

上午...健行：挑水古道

中午...餐敘：草屯世華植物工坊廚藝會館

下午...《茶 + 咖啡 》時間： 我們 Lucky-7（七人福氣小組）不愧是多年的好友至交，每次相聚，都可以談笑風生一整天（至少，有說有笑一整個上午／下午）。

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相關圖文 (See also)：
1)  A Celebration: 又一次溫馨的相聚, 2018
2)  The 7-P Group: 「七人組」在「膳馨」, 2015
3)  Sharing Our Stories in the Evening (茶敘之夜), 2014

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「天南地北，題材無限；說天道地，暢所欲言。」

My Life Notes Tonight

#2019-0507

Probably every day is a special day. And every night is special, too. If this is true, why don't I take some notes right now? Why don't I write down a little bit about my life today?

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.

How about today? How about my church life today? -- About 12:30 pm, Jean and I arrived at St. James' Church and from there we walked with Rev. Lily Chang (our rector) to a nearby restaurant called Yoho. Rev. Lily had organized a "farewell lunch" for Dr. Ian B. Maclennan, who is leaving from us for his home in Canada soon. Our good friends Tina Pan and Mimi Huang also came to join in this "small and beautiful" get-together. We had a wonderful time chatting with each other; we were especially cheerful chatting with Ian. He, so far as I know, has been teaching at Thorneloe University; he taught the history of theater/drama, being specialized in Shakespeare's plays.

Dr. Ian told us something very interesting to me: A few days ago he went to see A Midsummer Night's Dream (仲夏夜之夢) presented by Cloud Gate Dance Theater (雲門舞集) in Tamsui, Taipei. The play was performed in the dialect of Taiwanese Hokkien (台語). Ian said he could not understand any single word of Taiwanese but he did know what the performers were acting on the stage then.

(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.