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Last weekend was fun and interesting!  But i'm so busy working full time now (and often too tired to write a bunch by the end of the day-- also from getting over a cold)... as well as other activities like Ruhi study circles and Aikido... so i haven't found time to write about it until now!
Anyway, so last weekend, on Saturday, was many Olympians' annual favorite: The Procession of the Species.  Which is a long parade of people and floats dressed as endangered species and coincides with Earth week.  For more info and pictures of it you can click here X.  Apparently a 27,000 member crowd of tall 'n's and munchkins gathered and watched.  (i.e adults and children).  And i was one of them.  It was a beautiful sunny day the whole day.  With the flowers up and trees also in full bloom.  :^)
Upon arriving downtown a little after 16:30 i parked near the place where the parade would end where the wonderful Traditions Cafe is.  I was surprised and happy to find colored chalk all around and adults and kids drawing all over the road (which was blocked from traffic) and side walks.  I first walked a few blocks until i came upon a place where the parade was going by.  After watching a while, i went back to were the parade would end and watched the beginning of the parade go by.  I then found an area of sidewalk i liked with the Capitol Park to my back and sat down with some colored chalks and started drawing with out a plan other than for it to be on the Baha'i theme of "unity in diversity" it got bigger and bigger until ended up with the final result (see photos included).  I didn't have my camera, but my attempt at art was still there on Sunday at noon, when i went back there after almost completing Ruhi Book 2.
I ended up being very happy that i didn't have my camera the day before because otherwise i wouldn't have stumbled upon Olympia's 2008 Dragonboat Festival!  I noticed lots of tented booths in the distance, next to Capitol Lake.  When i walked up to them i found out from one of them that was handing out event programs that the 2008 Olympia Dragon Boat festival was in progress right then and there!  It's sponsored by neighboring town Lacey's Saint Martin's Uni.  So i spent the next few hours watching the races and meeting the team from China-- from the Shanghai Maritime University, (i was eager to practice my Chinese a bit) which is also the team which won the First Place for the whole competition!  By 14:00 i was getting quite hungry and started strolling into town to find a place to eat.  On the way i stopped off at some interesting booths, first was one for the Olympia Area Chinese Fellowship which was doing free calligraphy of Western names transcribed into Chinese characters.  I already have a Chinese name (Kuò Lì Yà --阔利亚) so i had him do that (on a bookmark sized piece of paper) and chatted to them about China and found out about local Tai-chi and Chinese language classes that i hope to take once i have money to spend on such things (the Aikido instructor, Will Sensei, is very kind and compassionate in allowing me to participate in his classes already now even though it'll be a couple months before i'll be able to start contributing financially).
Eventually i pulled myself away from that booth only to get stuck at a booth with Japanese students who were doing the same with Japanese Characters (in Japanese my name is Ko Ri Ya or Ko Ya and there's 3 different scripts in which it could be written!).  I enjoyed meeting and chatting with them (and getting my name written in Katakana) and so it was around 15:00 by the time i actually got to the restaurant (i chose the Indian restaurant which has an all-you-can-eat lunch buffet for about $8).  It's yummy!  ... I was wearing a Baha'i pendant and while i paid for the meal the owner enjoyed identifying the religious symbols of the world's major religions that are on it.
After lunch i headed back to the lake and practiced calligraphy (writing Ai Ki Do) with the Japanese students (from St. Martins Uni) under their tent at which time it started raining and then pouring.  After getting my coat i then watched the finals of the Dragonboat races.  The Shanghai team won the first place (see photo) as they did the last time they were here, in 2006.
On Monday evening and this morning (Saturday) i attended Aikido classes in Olympia for the first time.  It's great fun-- but i noticed how out of shape i've gotten in the year since i was an Uchideshi at Nippon-Kan in Denver!  I was very sore on Tuesday and Wednesday!  But i think i'll be able to stay healthier now that i'm getting regular exercise-- despite being around little kids all the time, hopefully!

I have a copy of this picture magnetically pinned to the front of the refrigerator along with photos of the family and drawings by the kids. 

It came about as a surprise, our friendship...  We stumbled upon it in much the same way as one stumbles over a chair in the darkness, but it worked out quite nicely.  After many many years of waiting, we had both found someone who understood us in a way which even those closest to us could not fully comprehend. 

The rest of the world thinks we're crazy.  For the most part, we don't care.  They can keep their opinions. 

In spite of differences in age, culture and language, we found a way to connect.  We were all but forced to open our hearts to one another because we could not communicate in any other manner - And we were rewarded.

Now, within the coming month or so, we're going to have to say goodbye.

It won't be forever.  In my heart I know I'll see her again.  She's more than a friend.  She's family.  I'm not losing her...  But it still hurts. 

I will miss her.

I miss her already...

She's the one thing in Shijiazhuang I am not prepared to leave behind.

In Search of...Something

Beijing -- Anyone in China over the age of, say, 30 has lived through more change than most Westerners can imagine in a lifetime.

In the early 1970s, China was in the grip of the Cultural Revolution, one of the most extreme incarnations of Communism the world has known, a chaotic period when traditional culture and values were all but eradicated. The Maoism that replaced Chinese tradition has since been eviscerated by three decades of economic reforms and opening that began in 1978. Today, it often seems that the pursuit of growth and profit are China's new reigning orthodoxy.

Not surprisingly, many Chinese feel unmoored by these turbulent ideological swings. There is a growing belief, especially among urban residents who have benefited most from economic change, that China's material success has come without any accompanying moral anchor for society. They argue that this dearth of morality in China's materialistic modern society is the cause of many of the country's well-known woes: corruption, environmental abuses, a growing gap between rich and poor, and even China's hyperreliance on cash, which many argue flows from a lack of trust needed to develop a flourishing credit culture.

The result is a widening search for religious and spiritual traditions to fill the void -- a search that some think could change society as much in coming decades as economic reforms have.

A priest blesses Catholics.

"When China opened up...many of us believed that the market would save China, and let China become stronger and more civilized," says Zhao Xiao, a Beijing-based economist who writes frequently about religion and morality. "And they were right in a way, because people became successful," he says. "But the market isn't perfect.... It stimulates greed and arouses desires."

As a consequence, says Mr. Zhao, "China is going through a new transformation. This transformation will be the most profound for China -- far more important than the superficial changes in wealth."

A Broad Search

That search for answers is surprisingly broad. Protestantism is gaining followers, and the revival of Buddhism is evident in the increasing number of people who wear prayer-bead bracelets -- a rare sight in China just 10 years ago. Among a small but growing class of wealthy executives in Beijing, Baha'i, a factionless faith founded in 19th-century Persia that stresses the unity of all groups including races, classes and religions, is gaining a following.

Xue Yongxin, founder of pharmaceutical company Chengdu Enwei Group who practices both Daoism and Buddhism, says spirituality taught him that financial success would not fulfill him. "A person's [material] fortune is an illusion," he says. "If it's all that you are, then you will lose yourself. And when we lose ourselves we may as well be penniless. Material things just give you an average lifestyle; take your extra money and do something good with it."

Muslims gather to pray.

Even the officially atheist Communist Party is beginning to embrace at least the trappings of spirituality and tradition. During the late Maoist era, worship was off-limits. Christian priests were often imprisoned, and even native traditions -- like the 2,000-year-old philosophy of Confucianism -- were actively stamped out.

China explicitly guarantees "freedom of religious belief" and protects "normal religious activities" in its state constitution, adopted in 1982, four years after Deng Xiaoping initiated economic reforms. But the government has continued to tightly control religious practices -- limiting worship to officially sanctioned services overseen by one of five "patriotic religious associations" governing Buddhism, Taoism, Islam, Protestant Christianity and Catholicism.

The party's relationship with religion remains strained -- as recent clashes with T i b e t a n Buddhist m onks show. It crushes movements that it perceives as threats -- such as the spiritual discipline called F a l u n G o n g, the target of a brutal crackdown after its adherents surrounded the leadership compound in Beijing for a silent protest against criticism in the state-run media.

To READ the REST OF THE ARTICLE PLEASE GO TO THE SOURCE:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120767838373098625.html?mod=2_1339_leftbox

 

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