One map of looking at life is the medicine wheel, which I think of sometimes, here. The assertion is that there are many stages and phases in life people (and the earth) go through, represented by the directions and seasons.
South: Summer, childhood, happiness, sensuality, passion.
West: Fall, adolescence, struggle, pain.
North: Winter, adulthood, responsibility, strength.
East: Spring, death/rebirth, enlightenment, peace.
Maybe some people, in some places, say, the tropics, don't experience this as much as folk from Wisconsin, where we can have freezing cold winters with lots of snow and sweltering summers of drought. Perhaps that is why I am so sensitive.
The past week or so has been tough. Confusing. The badger Emily and I bumped into in Hong Kong said that what I was going through sounded pretty normal; a lot of people just drink themselves through the first few months.
Today I ate a new dish, something with pork, potatoes, green beans, garlic and ginger, onion, and corn all sort of slow cooked together and then eaten with little cornmeal pancakes. SOOOO GOOOOD.
Tidbits: The water we drink here in Beijing is ocean water from Tianjin that's been desalinated using nuclear power. Talking sustainability the other night, someone brought up the point that we as humans surpassed being sustainable a long long time ago. The only option is to figure out how to stay one step ahead of the game, (which has always been the case, eh?) and if anywhere is going to figure out how to do that, it's China. I mean, they have to.
Pictures include the Drum and Bell towers in central Beijing, Shopping on Thursday, the first day of a national holiday for labor day. The girls I went with laughed very hard when I said "China really does have a lot of people," after being squished on the subway and trapped in a 6 story shopping mall for hours buying clothes. We ate in a canteen on the top floor where a fight broke out and soup was spilled all over the floor. I couldn't understand a word that was said.
That day I also went to a break and hip-hop dancing competition, which made me feel like I was 19 and back in Madison.
Thanks to Danny for the post and I love hearing from the fam. Hi Grandma Dot!
2 comments:
Did you know China has its own version of the medicine wheel? ANd four sacred mountains to correspond to the four directions. I dont remember them all-mount tai is one, so is the one near xian (its been a while since I studied ancient Chinese cosmology-dui bu qi!). The associations are roughly the same as those we find in Native North America. Tropical areas also tend to have similar models (Bali and Mayan Mexico are outstanding examples) but the associations tend to be quite different. For instance, for the Maya the North was associated with heat and aridity because the northern tip of the Yucatan is hot and dry. Of course in the Southern hemisphere north and south are flipped and the wheel spins couter-clockwise (which is still sunwise to them).
Thanks for giving me the opportunity to share so much of the random bits of information that inhabit my mind. It's fun for me.
Hollah!
Great blog.
U have some really great perspectives. You've made me very hungry with your food pics.
Thanks for taking the us with you!
Everything's happening right where you are. Must be so exciting.
You're holding it down for all the cheesey freezin WI B~boys and girls!
Will you take home the gold in the Up-Rock battles? =P
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