New Streams of Life (28)
New Streams of Life (28)
It’s Sunday today, and inspired by people who had picnic on a mountain in Suzhou, my friend and I decided to go out and have a picnic in the nice sunshine on
the grass field by our local wood.
We bought pizza base from supermarket and, as normal, improvised our own pizza.
While the pizza is sizzling in the oven, I cut an orange and lemon into slices for pimm’s and my friend mixed the alcohol with lemonade. It has been a while since we had pimms last time. My friend’s mother invited us back to Cornwall and
had a family gathering that night. Both the atmosphere and the drink were
really nice.
We just made do with what we have got such as lemon and orange, though ideally some mint leaves and ice cubes would be nice. We left the mixed drink in the freeze to chill and packed all the rest while waiting pizza to be ready: a light-weight blanket, a camera, sunglasses, tissues, and a bag of grape and crisps.
We went out around two o’clock in the afternoon. It remained windy and
intermittently cloudy outside as the whether forecast predicted, but wheneverthe sun was out it was really nice and warm. It took us around twenty minutesto get to the wood, and another twenty to wander off the wood and got to the grass field.
The grass field was part of a foot path, so occasionally there were dog walkers
passing by. But we didn’t mind much as the field was so big and therefore no one felt their privacy intruded upon. I told my friend that I always felt closer to him at weekends than weekdays, as at weekends we always got more time to talk
and stay together.
I felt almost eerie during the past few days, partly due to the jet leg and partly due to the fact I didn’t have any energy to read at the end of a working day
. Felt a bit like a zombie really. But I am glad the worst stage is gone and now
I can actually think and act like normal. Have been reading Jane Austen’s works again. Jane never exhausted her talent in her short life time in my opinion,
nor did she ever cease to stop writing to amuse herself, her circle of friends, and further her readers cross the span of her time.
I have been wondering why people can never stop reading, and I think Milan Kundera gave me an answer recently in his book The Art of the Novel:…It interrogated
the world not in order to satisfy this or that practical need but because “the
passion to know had seized mankind. ” Just imagine a world without literature.
I personally would prefer to die in that world.
Like at the moment I don’t typically have a good time, being physically stuck in this small town of East England and not being able to do anything to change the situation. If without the company of those lovely works from different parts of the world, I don’t think I could handle it. It’s easy to say staying focused
and determined, but hard to achieve as the often truth is there are always gaps
between what you are now and what you aim to achieve next.
For that I think both my friend and I enjoyed our trip back to China. A nice break from the mundane everyday life. Also because it was a transferred flight we
got a couple of hours at Amsterdam airport and it was really nice to see a few Van Gogh’s paintings at the airport museum. I personally always have a special affection towards Van Gogh. His zeal for his paintings, his sensibility towards
the colours of the nature, and his compassion towards people especially those socially below him deeply moved me.
His life was tough but definitely worthwhile. Sometimes looking at his paintings
from varied periods of his life, you could almost imagine him standing in front
of you, who never ceased to explore his own potential and the objects around him. In his paintings everything had a life. It’s almost as if his passion for life had penetrated into everything he painted. To be honest, every time I saw his
paintings or read about his life, Tagore’s poem would creep into my mind: “Let life be beautiful like summer flowers and death like autumn leaves.” And I think no one has ever had impact on me as Van Gogh and his paintings have….
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