Thursday, December 25, 2008

its christmas time in the city


you shouldn't talk about jesus that way on his birthday.  when i was in elementary school, the gym teacher, mr. denner, once said "don't forget the reason for the season," as we left the sweaty gym on our way to christmas break.  it upset my elementary self.  i'd never heard someone thrust the suggestion of jesus so unsanctimoniously around a gymnasium.  i think mr. denner was a creeper.  anybody that is so shameless a mouthpiece for their religious thoughts must have some kind of perversion to compensate for.  that's the way it struck me at the time anyhow.  his daughter was a pretty well know s-word by the time we hit high school.  i bet the denners do it up big on christmas.  

we were sitting in the sun peeling coffee beans for a while this morning, listening to neil young.  before that i took a walk up to Sun Yat-sen memorial park.  its about a mile of hilly side road before you get out to the main road, the park is.  first i wondered what Sun Yat-sen would think of the place.  concrete picnic tables donated by the International Rotary Club, which they so brazenly advertise by fastening a plaque in the middle of the table.  not knowing anything about Sun i tried to imagine him imagining a small, not very well attended to park dedicated in his name, with its massive concrete lions holding down their orbs at the corners.  

so assuming Sun can imagine this park when he dreams of how history will remember him, what could he think of it.  i'd imagine he isn't so thrilled about the Rotary Club seal on the tables.  next i tried to imagine the christmases of the past.  this i could not do with much success.  so i sat awhile, then took some pictures of the statues and left.  the walk downhill to the farm gives you a constant view of the ocean twisting and stretching out in different directions.  

time for my christmas nap.  then we're going to watch Christmas Vacation.  Shiz, how can you study american culture and not meet the Griswolds!

maui christmas to all (thanks jimbo) 
and to all a swell evening.

4 comments:

  1. I don't think Sun would have given any of it a thought, because thinkng about it would not have mattered. He had a higher purpose, a free China. It is the person with the calling so clear that walking past a memorial with their name on it does not matter, which then would allow them to one day walk past a park with their name on it.

    What is there does not matter, what made it possible to get their does.

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  2. the wise words of venerable Horace. thank you kind sage.

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  3. The face is looking weak again. I find it facinating the things that you've captured in your memory. The daughter was a tramp parade though.

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  4. hahaha

    tramp parade. those are the words i was looking for.

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