A thought on the Han Culture: Most languages, i am under the impression, have words equating with the concepts of "Yes" and "No"; IT is interesting, actually quite telling, to me that the Han language has a DEFINITE word for no ("Bu").... but when IT comes to "Yes" - well, that's just a little more complicated!....
i confess my subjectivity, my imperfection, and my dependence.... And with this i admit a truth concerning the connection between myself and the longevity symbol Shòu, alluding to the living of a long life, my plea: Just give me a little more time! i can do better! i will do better! i know how, i know how i can! Just give me another chance! Please.... just give me some.... more....time.... Please,.... just.... a....little.... more.... time....
Our little cheap hotel in Qufu, Huachao Binguan, is so definitely a drug front! IT's run by sweet smiling ladies and a senile old man (who is probably faking his senility).... During the day, young girls push mysteriously heavy cardboard boxes from the street through the lobby and into the back; then later on in the evening, a whole bunch of people are packing and unpacking boxes in the lobby! During the afternoon, two cops hang around for no apparent reason, ending up passed out at a table in the lobby, high on their cut; and at night, the old man sleeps on a fold-out cot in the lobby to protect his investment.... There are so many kilos going in and out of this place, i just know IT.... and every time we see the old man, he smiles and waves us on in the direction we're headed; if we're going out, he waves us out the door, and if we're headed in for the night, he waves us on in! Always waving us where we're going, as if to say, "That's right, just keep on moving, nothing to see here.... Right this way...." This place is a huge racket! That's how they can afford to rent the rooms out so cheap....
On our wanderings in Qufu, we came upon a woman selling puppies and kittens on the street; she would transfer them into different cages by tossing them from their necks, and was generally quite less than compassionate to her brood.... One of her puppies was out of the cages on the ground; IT was one of the littlest brown ones and petrified of the world.... ITs fur looked bad and IT was tiny and sickly.... i pointed out to Tiffany that this one needed her cooing mothering, if only to ease ITs fear for a moment.... Within that moment while Tiffany was holding IT, the woman gave the puppy to her for free if she wanted IT, due to ITs sickly state and the fact that not only would IT not be able to be sold, but would also be dead soon if things went on as they were.... Tiffany made her decision and walked away with the puppy in her arms, and all of a sudden we had another mouth to feed! She named him Shao Bing, or "Little Round Bread", and for the next six or seven days, he was our little love-child and constant companion....
Shao Bing was shaking like a leaf at everything for the first night we had him, smuggled up in our hotel room, but soon began to vaccillate between fits of shaking fear and ecstasies of running and chewing everything in sight, all the while bucking like a miniature bronco and acting like a very brave and badass little man - something which we had never thought to see from the ball of shivering fear we'd taken in the day before! Tiffany fed him powdered baby formula and liver chunks, clearly the best meal he'd ever had since being wrenched away from the nipple a week or so earlier.... He loved his foodie and was very hungry....
He figured out how to go potty (for the most part) on the tile floor in front of the door in our hotel room, like a good boy.... He figured out how to follow us down the street on his ridiculously tiny legs as we strode on ahead like giants.... He figured out how to whine so loudly in the middle of the night, we would have to let him come sleep with us on the bed instead of in his boxie (an obvious pee/poop security risk) for fear of waking other sleepers in adjoining hotel rooms.... He figured out a lot in six days!
Tiffany had gotten a little purple handbag with see-through mesh sides, perfect for cute puppy transport, and we took him around to restaurants, Confucius' gravesite, internet cafes, rides around the city, and everyone loved him wherever we went.... Every passing day, he was becoming more and more like the hairy little baby that Tiffany and i never had, and IT was definitely a little weird....
After a few days of princely treatment, Little Bing didn't seem sick at all (except for his diarrhea, which cleared up by nixing the milk and introducing pumpkin baby food, whereupon he started pooping straight pumpkin, in one end and out the other).... IT seemed that perhaps he might live and be able to be healthy, after all! Tiffany was starting to get nervous, realizing that IT was going to be tough to travel with the little dog and that she would need to find him a good home sooner rather than later.... Suddenly, as we walked down a street (followed closely by the toylike puppy), an older lady sitting in front of a store made a happy exclamation as she saw the puppy.... When Tiffany asked her if she'd like a little dog, she responded in the affirmative, completely taking Tiffany by surprise.... After checking in for a moment about the vibe, Tiffany agreed, and handed her the little bag with Shao Bing in IT.... The lady was very excited, and thanked us as we walked away....
We got halfway up the block and stopped, for Tiffany was crying and unhappy at the very sudden loss of her beloved baby pup.... We conversed and agreed to go get his food from the room and bring IT back to the lady, in order to explain how we'd been feeding him and try to make sure she'd take good care of him.... We did this, coming back with the bags of foodstuffs and having a last cuddle-kissing session with the now-sleepy little pup in his purple bag, who had no idea that his life was about to majorly change again for the second time in a week.... The lady was really quite loving towards him, and appreciated seeing how much we loved him and how much care we wanted him to have.... Feeling consoled, Tiffany and i made our way back to the hotel, knowing that we had saved a little life and that he was much better off than when we had first met him a week earlier.... We love you Shao Bing! May your life be filled with love, fun, and lots of tasty treats....
"IT is a state of someone who, in his wanderings among the mazes of his psychic transformation, comes upon a secret happiness which reconciles him to his apparent loneliness. In communing with himself he finds not deadly boredom and melancholy but an inner partner; more than that, a relationship that seems like the happiness of a secret love...." C.G. Jung, "Collected Works"
"You can't do IT alone, but you alone can do IT."
".... As was only to be expected.... though their purses shrank, their souls gained in stature...." C.G. Jung, "Collected Works"
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