7 January 2012
#acorn(my very first post)
The little town outside the Confucius temple was by far the most charming we had seen so far. The store fronts,with their pointy gabled roofs all had bright red lanterns hanging outside. It had gotten late so we decided to have lunch before heading up the street to the temple. Our hosts had secured a private room on the second floor of a small restaurant. As always, they did the ordering and as always, when the meal arrived I was amazed at the massive quantities of food. Big platters, mounded high with meats sautéed in salty bean curd atop fresh greens were endlessly shuttled in until there was no more room on the table. And then, more food. Noodle dishes, fish, sautéed veggies, and of course, Tsing Tao beer. The food was sublime. Truly the best so far. As we finished up and walked out of our little private room I winced at all the food that remained uneaten. But my belly was stuffed, I had a nice, gentle, heady buzz and was looking forward to our walk up the main cobblestone street towards the temple. As we drifted by the store fronts, I noticed an elderly man riding a bike on the street near the sidewalk. He slowly pedaled his rickety old bike keeping pace with us. Attached to the bike was a sort of flat bed trailer and there, sitting on the flat bed was an old woman. She was bundled up in a colorful, frayed cotton coat and her short gray hair wisped about her face in the breeze. The man turned back to say something to her. She cocked her head and then waved her hand in front of her face to indicate disagreement. Something about this couple touched me. These two, small, old, wrinkled brown people reminded me of my grandmother. How nice that they taking the time to get out and enjoy the day. It occurred to me that he must really love her to ride her around like that. How sweet. Suddenly, the man stopped and ran to the edge of the curb. He bent down and picked something up from the gutter. He held it up and peered at it closely. He began to blow on it and brush it off. Then, he scurried over to the flat bed where he promptly plopped it into his wife's waiting, open mouth. Oh shit. Reality sucks.
Reality Sucks • Opuss № I