It has been much longer than I had hoped to be back here. There has been many times that I wished to be writing, but for whatever reason, I am back now, at last.

After a very prolonged 3 months, I finally finished reading Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert.  Contrary to its fame, I found the book difficult to finish.  Despite Flaubert’s success at transcending the boredom of provincial life, I found some of the recurring details repetitive and drawn out.  Perhaps he was trying to install Emma Bovary’s anxiousness for readers through this style of writing, in which case he was masterful.

The character development of Emma Bovary was very effective, as I have never been more frustrated with any character than herself.  My annoyance with Emma Bovary was so strong that I think it effected my enjoyment with reading the book.  Madame Bovary is the perfect example of so much of what I don’t believe. Not because of her societal frowned upon adulteries, they are more like symptoms from her sickness, rather of her never-satisfying nature.  She is someone who never looks at what she has and constantly blaming those who love her most for what she doesn’t have.  Such people, such sentiment can never find happiness no matter what they gain, because the hollowness comes from within, and the hunger for more never dies.  It was a true, true tragedy of greedy, but its one that was long time coming….

And I am glad to be done with such darkness.

It is not so often that we come across inspirational words that actually inspire and do not sound like a desperation attempt to maintain false calmness before announcing bankruptcy the very next morning in a crisis time like now.  Fortunately, however infrequent it may occur, such small pockets of light do sprout out in our what appears to be the current state of greyness.


“The Power of Less

We do some of our best work when we’re constrained: by budgets, by headcount, by technology, by the economy. These are the times when bureaucracy and waste die by necessity. What’s left are ideas, and the muscle to make them real.”

I’m not a complete romanticist and have serious concerns about how much bureaucracy and corruption are actually being killed by necessity in the recent and current bailout situations, but time doesn’t stop for us because people make mistakes.  We’ve got to keep our sight of the sunny side of our spirit so we can walk out of darkness.

* The passage was taken from Web 2.0 Expo’s site, which is not involved in any bailouts, as far as I know.

“We saw a number of whales but none so close up as that first one.  I would be alerted to their presence by their spouting.  They would emerge a short distance away, sometimes three or four of them, a short-lived archipelago of volcanic islands.  These gentle behemoths always lifted my spirits.  I was convinced that they understood my condition, that at the sight of me one of them exclaimed, “Oh! It’s that castaway with the pussy cat Bamphoo was telling me about.  Poor boy.  Hope he has enough plankton.  I must tell Mumphoo and Tomphoo and Stimphoo about him.  I wonder if there isn’t a ship around I could alert.  his mother would be very happy to see him again.  Goodbye, my boy.  I’ll try to help.  My name’s Pimphoo.”  And so, through the grapevine, every whale of the Pacific knew of me, and I would have been saved long ago if Pimphoo hadn’t sought help from a Japanese ship whose dastardly crew harpooned her, the same fate as befell Lamphoo at the hands of a Norwegian ship.  The hunting of whales is a heinous crime.” (Life of Pi, 230)

I came home from China 3 days ago, on Valentine’s day.  People from both countries celebrate this holiday, yes China does as well.  I’ve been inform by a friend living in China, apparently the price of a single rose rises from 10 RMB to 100 RMB on the day of Valentine.  Unfortunately, the holiday itself is not the only trans-national part of this global expansion.

I am not a huge holiday person.  Not because I’m not a romantic person, but because I don’t like doing things if I feel that I’m expected to do them.  Anyhow, that’s another posting perhaps..  The point is though, if we must celebrate this day, then I rather think of it as Love Day!  The day to celebrate not only couply love, but family love, friendship love, animal love, earthly love, big love, little love… If we must limit our recognition for love to one day a year, then let’s be generous with our love on that day!

Let’s go out and love someone, something, today and everyday!

Part of me feel guilty for posting my thoughts on books only during my jet lag sessions. Something I need to work on, clearly! But for now, here’s the latest lines that I found interesting from Pi,

“You may be astonished that in such a short period of time I could go from weeping over the muffled killing of a flying fish to gleefully bludgeoning to death a dorado.  I could explain it by arguing that profiting from a pitiful flying fish’s navigational mistake made me shy and sorrowful, while the excitement of actively capturing a great dorado made me sanguinary and self-assured.  But in point of fact the explanation lies else where.  It is simple and brutal: a person can get used to anything, even to killing.” (p.185)

What a scary statement?!  It is scary, only because there is truth in it!

“Faith in God is an opening up, a letting go, a deep trust, a free act of love — but sometimes it was so hard to love.“(p.208 )

I don’t consider myself a religious person, but I could see how others might get quite attached to their relationship with God.  I would even go further and say that I believe some people are probably better off with God in their lives.  Learning to love, to truly love, and feeling loved, truly loved, by God or someone human, are all part of necessity that give us Life.

In light of the historical inauguration today, I asked a class of 3rd graders to write 10 suggestions for President Obama.  All twenty of these students are immigrants or children of immigrants from Mexico or another South American country, hence the grammar and spelling errors in their writing.  Despite that, their wishes and messages are loud and clear…  I never cease to be amazed by the little ones surrounding me…




10 Suggestions for President Obama
by Jennifer Mendoza, 8 years old

1. Give papers to Mexican people for immigration, like my parents.
2. Do not send any more soldiers.
3. Do not be mean with all the people of the United States.
4. Give money to poor people.
5. Give things like books to schools.
6. Fix Houses because in my house water goes in the house.
7. That people that work a lot pay them lots of money.
8. That people that go visit their family do not come hiding in a car or through mountains.
9. Give better jobs to Mexican people.
10. In my school the computers work, but sometimes they don’t work.

Happy Happy Ox year!!!  Mooo…..

“I was alone and orphaned, in the middle of the Pacific, hanging on to an oar, an adult tiger in front of me, sharks beneath me, a storm raging about me.  Had I considered my prospects in the light of reason, I surely would have given up and let go of the oar, hoping that I might drown before being eaten.  But I don’t recall that I had a single thought during those first minutes of relative safety.  I didn’t even notice daybreak.  I held on to the oar, I just held on, God only knows why.” (107)

This is obviously an extremely unlikely situation in reality.  It’s so extreme that the picture it paints is almost comical.  But I wonder, in a true moment of devastation, do we stop thinking and simply act on immediate necessity?

I’m a late adventurer for reading, and also an extremely slow reader. I’m not sure which came first, I didn’t like reading when I was young because I was a slow reader, or I am a slow reader, because I didn’t read much when I was young? Nevertheless, I love reading now, even if I am still a very slow reader. Maybe this will change one day.

I say this with hesitation, but it usually takes me months to read a book. Aside from feeling slightly embarrassed from what others might think, I don’t really mind it too much myself. I guess, if I had a choice, I would wish to read slightly faster, so I can read through more books. But really, its not so bad. I am mostly just happy that I finally found my chemistry with books and now want to savor each word as we interact. I literally do read each word when I read.  Yes, even the is, but, and ands... I don’t know how to skim and don’t understand how others can. This must be why I’m so slow.  I feel like a teenager being in love for the first time, never want to miss any little glance, slight movement, blurred out words coming from the other person.  I’m afraid I might miss something if I skipped a word.

Even with such diligence and carefulness, I still often come across passages that I don’t fully understand.  Some of it may be because I’m still a learning reader, others, might be exactly the reason why reading is so addicting and satisfying.  Bizarre, I know.  How can something be satisfying when you cannot fully achieve the satisfaction of thoroughly understanding it?  I don’t know, but I like it.  It’s always challenging and never predictable.  Its like there are bite sized wisdom scattered throughout books, some more than others, that I stumble upon.  Even if I don’t fully grasp all its meaning, I can tell the flavor is there.  I can keep chewing on it and more meaning will keep coming out.  It’s mysterious.  It’s satisfying.  It’s profound.

Other times, I run into lines of words that just resonate, and I’m impressed that someone can put such intangible emotions or believes into such precise and effective words.  That is also satisfying!

Since I started reading, I’ve been meaning to write this post.  Partly, to have an ode to reading, but more practically, to have a place to remember these bite sized wisdom that I come across as I read.  The older I get, the more I realize, sometimes, if something is worth remembering, we’ve got to write it down somewhere, otherwise, it may be lost forever.  And that would be a sad thing.

So, here’s the first of many… The current book I’m reading, based on a friend’s recommendation, is Life of Pi, by Yann Martel. It took me a while,  a pretty long while to finally get to the main meat of the story.  I didn’t really mind the religious setups in the beginning.  It was interesting as I have very little knowledge or experience on the topic.  There were definitely worth remembering lines from that section that I want to write down here, but will have to go back and find later.   Now, the voyage is about the start, I’m looking forward to it.  But just before it,

“Things didn’t turn out the way they were suppose to, but what can you do?  You must take life the way it comes at you and make the best of it.” (91)

Sometimes, we need to be reminded of exactly this.

I’m subbing a 2nd grade class this whole week.  And of course, today its a special day.  It’s election day.  All the kids know this.  Although they are too young to vote for real, the concept of voting should still be taught early.  And that is exactly what we did.

The entire school had our own voting process.  Each classroom represented a state.  Each student got their own ballot with the choice of McCain or Obama.  The kids were super excited about this.

It just so happend that today’s math lesson involved learning about picture graphs. As the clever teacher that I am , the two concepts were quickly combined.  The result?  A very cute and complete landslide winning by Obama.