moments and musings

i love china in the early morning. this is not news. but i share it now because i always marvel at the discovery. i did so on a morning run through beihai park the other day. i love moving swiftly through the beijing's morning motions - the stretching and the shouting, the old ladies gossiping, the men dancing with scarves or jumping into lakes, the babies being pushed about, the clothing being changed in public, the steam from the youtiao being fried and the smell of morning bing. as the moments go by in blur, so many captured scenes, so much humanity, i am soothed and delighted by it all. of course, sometimes i get accidentally spit on or run into patches of filthy construction work, which is decidedly less delightful. but it's all part of the blessing of being here. and in the end it is the moments of surprise and delight that i remember, the ones that count.

i am counting my blessings these days. and appreciating the moments as they come. the weather is finally fine and i am spending less time fretting about the state of civil society in china and more time chatting in the sunshine with friends. (or doing both.) my weekend was filled with sunshine, good food, and friends old and new. who could ask for anything more? i have declared may the month of momentum. so i have great expectations for moments to come.

in actual news that is not news, last week the i.o.c. stripped china's women's gynamstics team of its bronze medal from the 2000 sydney olympics because one of the gynasts was underage. this is not surprising.

in actual news, i have decided that the gmail chat status* dots have given new meaning to the green light at the end of daisy's dock. ahem-

Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgiastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that's no matter - tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms further... And one fine morning -

So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.

*part of the month of momentum involves moving my creative outlet beyond my gchat status. while a unique genre, i think i need a more spacious canvas.