詩鈔

 

'Eternity'

He who binds to himself a joy
Does the winged life destroy;
But he who kisses the joy as it flies
Lives in eternity's sun rise.

William Blake

-----

One Art

The art of losing isn't hard to master;
so many things seem filled with the intent
to be lost that their loss is no disaster.

Lose something every day.  Accept the fluster
of lost door keys, the hour badly spent.
The art of losing isn't hard to master.

Then practice losing farther, losing faster:
places, and names, and where it was you meant
to travel.  None of these will bring disaster.

I lost my mother's watch.  And look! my last, or
next-to-last, of three loved houses went.
The art of losing isn't hard to master.

I lost two cities, lovely ones.  And, vaster,
some realms I owned, two rivers, a continent.
I miss them, but it wasn't a disaster.

-- Even losing you (the joking voice, a gesture
I love) I shan't have lied.  It's evident
the art of losing's not too hard to master
though it may look like (Write it!) like disaster.

伊丽莎白·毕晓普（Elizabeth Bishop，1911-1979）

Xiaohu 走了

 My cousin's dog 小虎 passed away a couple days ago.  I just read about it yesterday.  I cannot imagine how devastated they are right now.  It takes a lot of more effort to take care a dog than a cat.  And this dog was special to my cousin.  My cousin was in a special program for 10 year martial art disciple-ship.  小虎 started the program with him in 2008.  They lived in a mountain really remote from the usual life my cousin was accustomed to.  All kinds of people came and went, either for the program, or they were seeking trainings.  Very few things remained constant in the mountain, 小虎 was one of those dependable faces.  After 10 years was up, my cousin got his 師父's permission to bring the dog with him back to Massachusetts.  That's where I got a chance to really interact with 小虎。  

He was a unique dog.  I think he must've meditated some in those 10 years.  My cousin said when they brought him to the park, he never interact with other dogs.  It seemed he thought he was a human as well, 不屑 interact with other canine.  The most interesting thing about him was he was very expressive.  His emotion was so visible, and he had his own desire, but he was so well behaved.  He would look at you and understand what you want.  He can even let you know what he want with a look.  I walked him once, wanting to bring him pass a bridge.  But the bridge was made for cars, with metal bars as flooring.  His reaction was plain visible that he did not want to step on the bridge.  I tried to find another way around but afraid if he could tolerate any more walking.  So I carried him across the bridge.  The other things about him was he was never shy from any people.  He's always friendly, excited to see everyone.  It must have be the training from the mountain.  Because lots of people visited the mountain over that 10 years, 小虎 was used to people almost all the time.  Though of course, he had his favorite humans, my cousin and his wife.  

The quirk about him was that he would not stop barking in the car.  I heard the story when my cousin and his wife drove across the USA in 2018 when they finished their 10 year program.  Then I saw it with my own eyes when one Christmas, they invited me to NH for a weekend.  小虎 just barked most of the way.  I thought he was afraid, but he was also excited.  I even shot a picture of him and my cousin side by side, with the caption saying, "will you be my friend forever?  Of course.  What do you ask of me?  No barking in the car?  NO!"  

Later last night, after I got the news.  I was kind disturbed.  I felt deep sadness.  It's a feeling I wish no other pet owners should experience.  But it's inevitable.  I kept referring to a Kipling's poem, 

"兄弟姊妹們，
聽我來相勸；
勿將心許狗，
由他撕成片。
            --魯雅。吉卜寧"

But how can we not love them?  It's not just their innocence, but pure joy when we are with them.  Let it be known, the death of a dear one will toil our heart, but after a while, I so wish it will make the love in our heart stronger.  So that we will be able to love even more.  

I dreamed last night

 昨晚做了一個夢，夢到一直灰白的花貓和一隻黑貓在我身旁睡覺。  

一首詩抄錄下來

 I heard from Colbert'slate night show.  Never heard the poet's name before.  Found a poem I really like.  

RobertHayden

Those winter Sundays

Sundays too my father got up early

and put his clothes on in the blueblack cold, 

then with cracked hands that ached 

from labor in the weekday weather made

banked fires blaze.  No one ever thanked him.  

I'd wake and hear the cold splintering, breaking.

When the rooms were warm, he'd call,

and slowly I would rise and dress,

fearing the chronic angers of that house.

Speaking indifferently to him,

who had driven out the cold 

and polished my good shoes as well.  

What did I know, what did I know

of love's austere and lonely offices?  

a few quotes

I saw a quote, "Everyone you meet is fighting a battle you know nothing about.  Be kind, always."  (BradMetzer)  

--------------------

DuaLipa was on ColertShow.  She asked a question to show her interview skill.  I am very impressed with the question.  That gal will be ready for anything.  And Colbert's answer was not disappointing either.  Kind of reminded me of a debate I read in the Name of the Rose, which is also about laughter.  

Question: "does your faith and your comedy ever overlap?  And does one ever win out?"

quote from the interview:

"...in the same way the sadness is like a little emotional death.   But not defeat if you can find a way to laugh about it.  Because that laughter keeps from having fear of it, and fear is the thing that keeps yuo from turning to evil devices to save you from the sadness.  As RobertHyden said, 

'we must not be frightened or cajoled 

into accepting evil as deliverance from evil.

We must go on struggling to be human(humanity, Colbert's word),

though monsters of abstraction police and threaten us."

 So if there's some relationship between my faith and my comedy, it's that no matter what happened, it's you are never defeated and you must see this in the light of eternity and find some way to love and laugh with each other." 

Since Colbert is a Christian and a catholic.  He mentioned about love and sacrifice in his religion, then he talked about death is not a defeat.  Then he mentioned one of his favorite movie is Belfast, in which sadness mingled with funny.  Then he said the above quote.  

I am struggling to say it out loud, for I am not able to really use the words I am about to say.  But it's kind uplifting.  I also see the same element in many of the movies, like 魯冰花, and 周星馳的電影。  It's a struggle to face the life, the ability to laugh about it, and keep going, is very important.  But even so, there's a choice, the thus the struggle.  

明天的戰爭 觀後感

 I watched theTomorrowWar 2 nights ago.  I don't particularly like the movie.  I feel it's very generic, the so called threat can be replaced by zombie, xenomorph, or any other monster movies.  I was hoping ChrisPratt could lift the movie.  JurrasicWorld did the trick for me, I like both ChisPratt and BryceDallasHoward , the so called star powers.  But no, not here.  It's not enough.  The rest of the characters did not bring their weight in the movie somehow.  I felt the daughter father relation should have enough impact.  But no, it do not.  I do not know why.  I want to compare the relationship here to interstellar's.   But I can't, it's not comparable.  I do not know why.   I really wish it worked.  

And comparing father daughter relation and the weightless of the rest of the characters, I feel the rest of the characters were the weakest link.  I feel the whole thing is made on top of ChrisPratt.  And I feel they want to be so political correct, they just forget to develop characters in the movie.  There's no time, it's already a couple hours long, and yet, everyone has to show up, colored people and all genders has to be shown capable.  But none of them really get any development.  I think a TV series would be more suitable for their purpose.  Thinking back to the independenceDay, I think I am wrong.  They don't need a TV series, they need better script.  

One more thing, the monster in the movie is really generic.  It's basically an Aliens ripoff, with bad taste.  

Today's Quote

 ShannonSharpe on TomBrady not mentioning NewEnglandPatriots in his retirement post on IG:

"Some things can only be seen through the eyes that have cried."

The way Mr. ShannonSharpe said, is really like "哀詠怨嘆"。  I did not follow Usan Rugby, so I did not really know the story about how TomBrady left NEPatriots.  Looking at their discussion kind give me a picture how it happened.  Thanks for their heart felt discussion about the situation.  That quote is very memorable.  Mr. SS told his own story and feeling from the similar experience.  I wish I could talk like him.  No, I wish to have the genuine heart like him.