curve of sunlight
A patch of growing alfalfa sprouts bent towards the sun.
It is quite amazing to see how plants manage to survive wherever they are, indoors or outdoors, in harsh winter or steaming summer. Every fine stem practices well this ritual of solar worshipping in spite of how I have moved it around in different directions.
Plants are unbelievable tough and resilient. In a conversation with some ecologists a couple of months ago, they informed me of some amazing findings about the ecological cycle. At some point, we touched upon a question about what might be the strongest life on the planet. Plants, or trees in particular, apparently. If a city is abandoned, trees will take over everything very soon. They break cement, uproot skyscrapers, hold on to the earth and live on while all man-made structures gradually disappear with time. Nature is extremely fragile but irresistibly powerful at the same time.
I recall an undelivered speech by John, Annie's husband, in the movie, Calendar Girls (2003).
Before passing away from leukaemia, John wrote a speech for the Women's Institute (where Annie and her fellow ladies in Yorkshire are involved) comparing women to sunflowers. Sunflowers never fail to follow and trace the sun, the source of life and energy, and so are women who always remain hopeful and strives to live on.
Last year, an acquaintance asked how everything had settled down for me as a new immigrant in Japan. He commented that '女性は強ういです': women are tough. I do not know if this is a shared opinion among men, but it seems to explain a lot about the lives of many women around me: my grandmother, my mother, and female friends, who have taken care of their families and built up their life all over the world. Some are happily triumphant; some take on whatever comes to them.
I am rather happy to hear that comment honestly. However, I have also heard of some women's stories that are too sad to bear, and that has made me doubt if women are really that 'strong' or 'tough'. Or, my question is rather why women have to be strong. Is that an end result of a society with a structural flaw?
A patch of growing alfalfa sprouts bent towards the sun.
It is quite amazing to see how plants manage to survive wherever they are, indoors or outdoors, in harsh winter or steaming summer. Every fine stem practices well this ritual of solar worshipping in spite of how I have moved it around in different directions.
Plants are unbelievable tough and resilient. In a conversation with some ecologists a couple of months ago, they informed me of some amazing findings about the ecological cycle. At some point, we touched upon a question about what might be the strongest life on the planet. Plants, or trees in particular, apparently. If a city is abandoned, trees will take over everything very soon. They break cement, uproot skyscrapers, hold on to the earth and live on while all man-made structures gradually disappear with time. Nature is extremely fragile but irresistibly powerful at the same time.
I recall an undelivered speech by John, Annie's husband, in the movie, Calendar Girls (2003).Before passing away from leukaemia, John wrote a speech for the Women's Institute (where Annie and her fellow ladies in Yorkshire are involved) comparing women to sunflowers. Sunflowers never fail to follow and trace the sun, the source of life and energy, and so are women who always remain hopeful and strives to live on.
Last year, an acquaintance asked how everything had settled down for me as a new immigrant in Japan. He commented that '女性は強ういです': women are tough. I do not know if this is a shared opinion among men, but it seems to explain a lot about the lives of many women around me: my grandmother, my mother, and female friends, who have taken care of their families and built up their life all over the world. Some are happily triumphant; some take on whatever comes to them.
I am rather happy to hear that comment honestly. However, I have also heard of some women's stories that are too sad to bear, and that has made me doubt if women are really that 'strong' or 'tough'. Or, my question is rather why women have to be strong. Is that an end result of a society with a structural flaw?
love it!
ReplyDeleteI love that elegant curve, too.
ReplyDelete