A Time For Sorrow
There’s a time for joy and a time for sorrow. Following a happy reunion with my UW gang and coffee with the girl-I-like after more than a year of pandemic craziness, news of sickness and death started coming in from people around me.
First, my colleague told me her husband’s intestinal cancer had metastasized into the lymph nodes (stage 3) and will need to schedule for chemo and electro therapy. Then, one of my high school friends’ mother was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and she was deemed too old and weak for an operation to remove the tumor. And lastly, news of the death of my high school’s Chinese teacher reached my high school’s friends’ group and a few of us decided to attend her funeral on Sunday evening.
The grand funeral hall was packed with my late Chinese teachers’ family, friends, colleagues, and students. Each of the guests were handed a book that my late teacher had written and edited herself. It contained photos and letters and detailed chronological posts of her thoughts and feelings in the year long battle against tongue and throat cancer. I started sobbing as soon as I began reading the book. Even though I dreaded to read long passages of Chinese, I managed to read through the entire book from cover to cover after I got home, my eyes were watery most of the time. I think it was about 0330 when I finished reading and took a shower before going to bed.
My late Chinese teacher was one of the nicest teacher I had despite Chinese Language being my most dreaded subject back in the days. I studied it the hardest and yet get the lowest mark of all subjects. I can still recall one occasion when my late teacher asked me while smiling kindly in front of the class whether I was Chinese – “你係咪中國人嚟㗎？”. Don’t remember exactly what made her ask that question back then, and I was not at all offended, but her kind smile and voice stayed in my head after 20+ years, quite incredible if you think about it. I doubt that she would remember the incident or even me being once her student out of the thousands of students she had taught in the past 20+ years, but I think she’ll be happy to know from heaven that one of her students who hated Chinese is now learning Chinese calligraphy and am still a follower of Christ.
I must confess however, I still hate to read long passages of Chinese, it takes too much effort.
Sabbatical Ended
The opening of the embattled and postponed Tokyo 2020 Olympics also marked the end of my self-conducted (half) Sabbatical. Thought about continuing the rather fruitful Sabbatical till the end of year, but it felt like the right time now to finally get myself out of this marathon pandemic rut and get serious with my life. I shall reserve the right to continue the second half of the Sabbatical for when I visit Canada later (hopefully before year end).
Ordered another budget 3D printer and four spools of filaments to accelerate the papertube furniture project I started experimenting with during the Sabbatical. I still see great potentials with the idea, but not quite sure how to turn it into a sustainable venture yet. Will see how opportunities unfold in the future, meanwhile more R&D work still needs to done before I’m comfortable offering the prototypes as real commercial products.
I’m probably thinking too far ahead at his point, my plan for next week is to cleanup the studio and prepare it for more serious design work in the near future!
A Packed Week
Joined my fellowship b/s for lunch on Tue. after my calligraphy class. Went to see a movie on Wed. with some fellowship brothers. It’s good that they still didn’t seem to see me as an outsider even though I stopped joining my Friday night fellowship since the pandemic started more than a year ago.
The pandemic had got me thinking more about time. Instead of spending my Friday evenings repeatedly discussing and sharing my faith with b/s who share the same faith, I want to use the time to put my faith into practice and help others in need. Signed up to do some volunteering work during my regular fellowship time, saved 30 unsold bread from a bakery to provide meals for the homeless. Felt good to be able to offer my kindness to those who may need it. Will see if I can turn this new volunteering experience into a more regular habit.
Signed up for a whole day of sharing sessions on Sat. to learn more about the legendary King of Kowloon. My friends and I find it very interesting. Stayed to see the related Ink City exhibition next door, serendipitously bumped into another old friend who came looking for us after the sharing sessions.
Managed to keep up with my running practices on Mon. and Thu. evening despite the hot and busy week. The tiredness brought by the packed week finally hit me early Sat. night and I was put to deep sleep for a record 10.5 hours!
Keep Running…
Not much had happened this past week (relatively speaking). Hundreds of pro-democracy district councilors call quit before the anticipated disqualification by the government. Apparently, it’s now a crime to serve the community as long as you are not pro-China. The city’s atmosphere continues to feel depressing and suffocating and I continue to try ignoring it all and indulge myself with digital fabrication work…
Woke up at around 0230 on Thursday to catch the Euro Cup semi-finals (England vs Denmark). Last time I watched a soccer game was probably already back in the last FIFA World Cup (2018)! It felt quite refreshing to watch the excited and cheering expressions of mask-free crowds during these depressing times albeit the worrying spread of the virus.
Met and caught up with an old neighbor and friend for dinner on Thursday. Must have been at least a year since we last met? We chat about whether we’ll leave the city for good, this seems like a common topic when friends meet nowadays.
It wasn’t easy, but I managed to push myself to keep up with my running routine. Ran 2 nights, slowly but steadily improving my stamina. Aside from the much needed endorphin, it felt good to go offline for the hour or so and worry nothing other than just run. In these depressing and suffocating times, seems like the best thing to do is just to keep running.
