Scapegoat.

Yesterday Noah played Hello Kitty Bingo with Grace and Jonah. Jonah won. Noah threw a tantrum and threw pieces everywhere. Grace said that was it and now they couldn't play because they didn't have all the pieces.

"I don't care if you don't have the pieces I just want to win and Dai dai doesn't win!" said Noah.

After much screaming and tantrumming and searching of the lost piece to no avail, Jonah just watched Noah crying and said, "Maybe Hulk took it." trying to blame the situation on our fictional creator of bad and scary things even though he just saw Noah throw the piece.


I have also seen Noah blame missing pieces on the dark too. Like, "Maybe the dark took it."

Sometimes it just makes everyone feel better to have a scapegoat. It works better too when the scapegoat is a fictional being.


Actually Noah was at a birthday party and I witnessed the dynamics change real quick when there were a few older kids and Noah was the weakest and smallest member of the group that was playing in the hall. (Jonah just did his own thing.) Noah became the person who was "it" the scapegoat and many other things very quickly. It ended with him crying. But I told him that if he was going to decide to play out in the hall when I told him not to leave the room, then it was his fault. Just play with Dai Dai where I am. And after that he did. Quickly there was a power struggle among two of the older boys ending in one of them getting hit and crying and then the group was semi-dispersed for a while and they started acting like human beings again. Well I guess they were acting like human beings the whole time but the uglier side had come out for a bit.

Practice Easter Eggs

Yesterday we made practice Easter eggs, well Grace did with the kids. It was a touching family moment. The eggs didn't turn out too well because I suppose we used too much water or something. Jonah threw the instructions away (if we had any in the first place.) But they didn't really care. In fact we ate most of them yesterday and one today. Noah was very disappointed when he peeled his egg.

"Why didn't it turn into chocolate? I think you did it wrong." I mean basically what you are telling me parents, is that I went threw of the trouble of dipping these things in colorful water and pasting stickers on them to turn them into Easter Eggs and look, their still normal eggs made out of egg. I want them to turn into Chocolate Eggs.

I explained that isn't how it works.

"No I remember there was a chocolate egg."

"Well maybe last year we gave you a candy egg but that was because we bought a chocolate egg for you. Normal eggs don't turn into chocolate eggs just because you dip them in colorful water."

He looked at me as if I was a pulling his leg.

Well this morning he held his Easter egg all through our meditation and Kung Fu (These two activities were more attempted then actually carried out.)

Then he began to peel his egg. And then I saw that the egg he had been so protective over was being peeled by Jonah, right in front of Noah's face.

"Dai Dai is going to eat your egg you know," I said in case Noah had somehow been oblivious to Jonah's conquest.

"That's okay Jonah can have me egg." wow I thought Noah is being so generous. "When are the eggs going to turn into Chocolate eggs?"

Oh.

Taking care of yourself.

The Parenting Journey group has started up and one of the questions we were asked to reflect on and answer was what we did this week to take care of ourselves. My answer to the class was this blog, because this little exercise, of having an adult conversation (with myself) is my way of not going insane. Recently Jonah has been asking me the same questions over and over and over, and not only that, they are the same questions he heard Noah ask me. I can guess that the reason why he does this is to start polite conversation, to interact with me. Except that it's like a piercing sword through my own thoughts that he will start screaming "WHY ARE YOU 30 YEARS OLD!!!!" when I pause because I didn't necessarily hear or understand him the first time. Or maybe I was explaining something to Noah. I guess it's a cry for attention, and both children simultaneously battle to have me answer THEIR addition question, or THEIR question about who knows what. But if it is a new question say, about why trains go faster than Noah even though Noah is running, as I try to explain it, and put real thoughts into words, they will just talk over me with another question or some other statement. Well it's annoying.

I think part of the reason why I have been more irritable and unable to tolerate such questions as much, might have something to do with the tooth that I am suppose to have pulled in a week. The problem is it has started throbbing now. But I can wait 9 days right? I mean the appointment is already set up.

At one of the last appointments they asked if they wanted to pull all the teeth now. It was a few of them. But I couldn't do it because I had Jonah with me. It's unfortunate because it was during quiet time of day. And I would be done by now. But I can wait 9 days right?

Bullying and Enlightenment

Fear and self doubt is the main source of unhappiness I think. Well no I guess anger is pretty bad, and then when you are starving, that's the main terrible thing. Can't be happy if you don't have the main things. Food shelter, air, water, some sunlight.
It's really hard to go through if you are afraid of risk though. I don't want to go toe to toe with this guy because this and this might happen. Then people end up pushing you around. But then if you go toe to toe with everyone it's pretty hard to be happy too, and maybe the person that goes toe to toe with everyone is also afraid inside. Afraid of being pushed around. So they lash out instead.

What's the middle path then?

People talk about this balance a tight rope walk. Jesus talked about the path to heaven as narrow and difficult (right?) Buddha made it seem like it wasn't that hard. Just choose somewhere in the middle. Not so extreme in either direction. You shouldn't be afraid of losing "everything." And usually our ideas of "everything" are mostly financial and material. We rarely worry too much (at least I don't right now) about losing our lives our children, our loved ones. And yet that happens all the time. Okay we have moments of time when we worry like this. When a child goes to close to the street, or if they are sick.

But that type of worry seems real and perhaps makes us stronger in a way that getting chewed out and bullied by people at school or at the work place kind of breaks us down.

I remember reading some Japanese Zen Buddhist thing about a certain type of enlightenment. It was the enlightenment that comes in exactly the moment before death. This guy was a warrior type of Buddhist. And he was talking about walking around and maintaining that enlightenment all the time. He wasn't talking about a peaceful energy. He spoke of some woman with wild hair and crazy eyes that had it and that she was right.

He talked about imagining you are holding up your sword in battle, teeth clenched preparing to strike, and at the same time preparing for the other persons sword to cut your own throat... and meditating like THAT for long periods of time and keeping that sort of energy up throughout your life.

In general I hate the idea and I feel like I would be stressed out. Actually I know I walked around like that for ten years or so, at least during certain times of day and year, with breaks where I did other things. I don't like it. I'm more for peace and love and playing imaginary fantasy....or so I say.

But when I read that sentence, even though I put the book back on the shelf at the library, it stayed with me for a reason... Because I knew exactly what he was talking about. Only I tend to go toward anger and call that the enlightenment.

But imagine blending your peace and love and beautiful fantasy with that sort of death enlightenment. After all Yin and Yang right? You need balance. Blend that sunny pardes and eden and calm oceans with the ability to function in battle and face your work and school bullies like that. You might feel different. Don't be afraid. Don't flip out and kill someone. But never take that off the table either... and calmly answer their question or respond to their threat speaking softly and carrying the big stick in your Mind.

Lion Dance for the Mayor

Today Noah and Jonah performed for ABCD Chinese Church Headstart Brain Building Fair. I'm not sure why the Church is in there but it's part of the government funded Headstart program.
Noah did pretty well, but Jonah wanted to be head too and simply wouldn't stay in the tail. In any case, he tripped and fell out at one point, kicking and screaming in protest. This actually got a lot of laughs.
Noah did his little dance thing but was confused because there was not chiang. I had put a water bottle out there but I guess he wanted the usual oranges and stuff. Then I did some Kung Fu.

Then we were to welcome the Mayor with the fanfare of drumming. While we were waiting we got a picture with Michelle Wu. And then the Mayor arrived. We drummed, we walked behind him. and then Noah got really mad at me for not waiting for him. I was on the drum so I couldn't wait. I knew he would either follow me, or one of the many child care type people would direct him to me. In any case I wasn't afraid he would get lost in a day care building. I could still see him. But he was mad at me all the way to school. I figure it's a good way for him to start to learn that he needs to follow me sometimes.

Anyway we got a picture with Mayor Marty Walsh too and they boys got to give him hi fives and fist pounds. Lots of fun. I heard the Mayor is very personable, but he was even more so than I expected. He spent a good long time with my kids. Well I hope they remember that. Probably the picture will help. Noah was cheerful and happy for the whole time. Then walking back to school he remembered he was still mad at me. Oh well.

Memories of Aunt Anne

My great Aunt Anne, sister to my grandmother recently passed away. I only recently was able to reconnect with her, because I was looking to reconnect with my Godmother, Aunt Dotsy, and they are also sisters.
But since Aunt Anne past some of the memories I have of her have been passing through my mind. Aunt Dotsy and Aunt Anne were living together when I called them, having not spoken to them in about ten years or so. I was not sure they were still alive and was surprised when they were. Maybe this is because my immediate family's life expectancy was 58 for both parents.

My childhood memories are hazy. I remember, thinking I had two Aunt Dotsy's I think this might have something to do with Aunt Anne and Aunt Dotsy looking similar, and then once Aunt Dotsy got a hair cut, which confused me. (So I can see how my children are confused when their mommy puts night make up on. To them she has just become another person.)

So my main memories are actually from when I visited in Highschool. I had over the course of one summer got really into Lion Dance and Kung Fu and then gone to a high school where those sorts of activities were considered foreign. misunderstood, and strange.
And I had this assumption that the older a non Chinese person was the less they would know about it.

But when I tried to explain it to Aunt Anne, she had seen it as a young woman in San Francisco, and had seen it on stilts. (My first real performance was doing Lion Dance on stilts and I haven't seen any one else do it yet except in pictures, and those people are also in a lineage descended from my Sifu.)

Then somehow they asked me to do Kung Fu. At that time I only knew one form. I had only started that Summer, and it was now winter. I had been used to other people seeing my form and not really understanding it. But Aunt Anne said, "Is this supposed to be mimicking a bird?" There are forms that are very obviously a Crane. But Luk Lik, the basic form, is not one of them. So I was surprised that she picked that up. Then she also said when I mentioned that the moves didn't necessarily look strong but-
"But you have to use strength to be able to stop your movements like that." She finished and gestured with her own punches.

She knew exactly where I was coming from, what my issues were, and knew about this culture, my father's culture, that I had just started to really get into and she knew how to express all that to me even though we had not spent a lot of time together.

From that same night I also remembered that she peeled the potatoes faster than I did, doing it a different way, even though I was sure I would peel them faster since all summer I had been peeling them at the Kung Fu school in Horse Stance while the senior students yelled at us to hurry up and to peel it "this way" Not the way Aunt Anne was peeling it. Which actually turned out to be faster even though she was talking and relxing while she peeled them. When my mom told me to peel it like Aunt Anne, Aunt Anne said, "Oh no he's going to peel it his way."

When I spoke to her on the phone, for the last time the very thing she said was, "Well I'm sorry we're not going to get to see each other." And again, she knew exactly where I was coming from, and when I put the kids on the phone and they seemed to be out of control, she actually knew what I should be doing from over the phone better than I did. Jonah wanted to hold the phone himself. "He wants to hold the phone himself." She told me. I handed Jonah the phone. I suppose that some of that comes from Life experience.

"You just take care of your children and spend as much time as you can and love them as much as you can" she said. Comforting ME. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but that was not it. When my mother was going, it was difficult for a long time. And my father went quicker, but there were no last loving words. In fact he squeezed my fingers as hard as he could and asked me if it still hurt to measure how much strength he had. I'm not sure what I will do. But I'm going to try and not do that if possible.

Aunt Dotsy took care of her and was strong, just as she had been for my Grandmother. She had taken care of her too. She had taken care of me and the generations before me apparently, not that I know much about it other than brief mentioning of it from my Uncle Francis.

All that thinking of this and that of the past... well there is good and bad about it. But I suppose (as I mentioned in previous posts) that is the reason I have started bringing my family back to the Catholic Church. It seems round about and strange and perhaps nothing related. But by doing similar things as that generation did, it's like we are closer together. Well, it helps anyway. So I'll probably keep doing it.

Mommy Hulk

The other day Grace took the children upstairs while I did dishes. There was screaming and crying as usually happens when the protest to taking a bath, and as usual Grace called me upstairs because even though the deal was she would take them upstairs and give them baths if I did dishes, I would now have to stop doing dishes leave them, because whatever was going on with them was so urgent that I would have to put off dishes until tomorrow, and I would give them baths. Well when I went upstairs I got an unexpected surprise. Not only did Grace have her night make-up on (which is green) but she also put the Hulk headband she had bought for me to wear for Halloween two years ago.
"This seemed like a good idea" she said to me.
Jonah was crying, "I'm scared of mommy Hulk. I don't like mommy Hulk." And Noah was trying to shoot her with his bow and foam arrows, also occasionally using the foam noodle as a sword to strike her, and then retreat. When I got up there they cowered behind me. Grace dropped something or other and I told Noah to go pick it up for her. He did as he was told, but apparently was shaking and then ran back to me for protection. Jonah was more scared of Hulk than Noah had ever been, and Noah sort of knew it was mommy but still was not sure enough to go near her.
I guess Grace had the idea that they would obediently take their baths if the Hulk told them to do so. But instead they became so afraid as to be beyond reason and Noah simply revolted in violence. So much for that.

Church Day

Me and Noah went back to St. James today. Today was an English Mass downstairs in a smaller room, with guitar playing, and the guitar player turned out to be someone who studied at Woo Ching White Crane when he was a child, all grown up now. Noah's noises were louder and more obvious in this smaller room, so that was a little distracting. I liked the songs, and the fact that the words were up there and I could sing along.
I said a few prayers for my Aunt Anne, who is living with cancer, (probably not for much longer)
Actually whenever I had gone through tragedy in some way of that sort, I would worship Mary and light a candle even before I was really a "Christian" per se.
So I guess today I actually got something out of being in Church because I was there for a reason, other than, just practicing our family religion. I was doing something I had done for a while and for a reason. And the sermons had a more meaning for me too. The part that I heard anyway.

At first I felt myself being back to my old self with some of the prayers and songs that focused a lot on putting your faith in Jesus, and the reading of the Nicene Creed, and proclaiming your faith regarding the divinty of Christ, that he was begotten by God, that  he ascended into heaven.. etc. all this stuff that I used to hate about going to Church because I would have all these questions like, "Why can't other be Divine too? How do we know Jesus ascended into heaven?"
But I figured since I was already here in Church I might as well go all the way and say it and say it like I meant it. If you are going to play pretend, you might as well believe it and play pretend real hard for real, otherwise what's the point of going? So I did. And it felt good, because like I said, I need religion right now.

Actually I simultaneously entertain most of the ideas of the major religions and systems of beliefs.. including Atheism. But while you are in a Catholic Church, be a Catholic. And while talking Science, well be a Scientist that doesn't discount Atheism.

Ultimately the reason why I went back to Church is, I believe in God, I believe in a divine Jesus Christ (because I believe in a lot of divine things, including fictional characters from stories and movies, and I believe that my Faith in them gives them power.) And tacking all of those powerful ideas into One God and getting a group to all worship in one direction gives some power of community faith, and if that is the same faith that my mother took comfort in (though she had her questions as well) and if it is the same faith of many of my ancestors, that is even better.

Saturday class

Well after spending three hours out in the wind I think I may have gotten me and the boys sick. Noah was very disruptive during our little Kung Fu park class, but then he wanted to stay in the park afterward, hitting sticks and ice.. and I figured we haven't been out in so long.... In fact a group of people came by ringing bells and reciting poetry in celebration of the spring equinox. It turns out the trees that we do Kung Fu around are more than 200 years old. And the group was saying how the sycamores have ties to ancient Greek philosophers who taught under them. I thought that was funny because now I teach wheels on the Kung Fu bus under them... which is my philosophy.
I sort of ignored Noah during his break downs because I want him to understand that just because he is having some issue, like he missed one of the moves.. the class has to go on. But then when I stopped and just did what he said, he calmed down. That's okay in a small group, but he did that at little panda, and I don't like to show favoritism in my classes. But I have a suspicion that he breaks down just so I will show favoritism.

In fact he had an issue during my workshop at CM too. I guess he didn't want me talking to all of them.. He didn't want his attention to be shared with the 500 students I was lecturing to. And so I actually had to kneel and tell the story of Taishanese American, Kung Fu, and that sort of thing to 500 students, as if it were some sort of play, where I was telling the story to Noah and they 500 people became the invisible audience. Don't get me wrong. It worked out. In fact it probably made the lecture more interesting. But.. I don't know.

In any case, I am realizing that the class is not too long. In fact, it is not long enough. And the reason why it is not long enough is because it is too packed full of activity, going from exercise to exercise like Sesame Street goes from segment to segment. But they get tired. And I guess they need more breaks. I suppose eventually, as my kids get older, the class may even become more informal. Where there are children just playing there own thing, and then serious students, the team, practicing hard on whatever it is they have to learn because they have to perform. That's my vision anyway. That's right, I have a vision for an actual team. And that team will include heads and drums that fit into Grace's new cars trunk. That's why I am making a Taiwanese style head, and I'll make pole arms and weapons that collapse, and we need a little drum and stuff too. I figure our weapons can even be made out of cardboard. I made a couple of swords. Noah liked them but they don't look all that great. But I still have time for that. Noah can't even do real hand forms yet.

The Truth in Peter Pan and the Little Matchgirl

Before Peter Pan was given life, magic powers, and immortality by J.M. Barrie, he was probably an infant left out in the London cold, exposed, and froze to death. But an author, and countless readers and then later re-tellers of the story and re-listeners have made Peter Pan a cultural hero with the powers of a god. He is a lot like many deities and spirits and of course the fairies that raised him who existed long before him.
Children mostly focus on his powers of immortality and flight, and where he lives, Neverland, a magical place outside heaven. But it is important to remember his powers in death. Peter Pan's job, is that he dies, part of the way, with any child that dies, so that they won't be afraid. He is an angel, but all the more realistic because he is that rascal child of an angel that dies part way, but not all the way, and in a lot of ways, his immortality, his living, with the lost boys, is living for those children that have died. Even with all of our medicine and wealth, children still do die every day, even in America, even among the wealthy. It is a tragedy that happens, and every time we hear about it, don't we  for a moment die part way? That is one way of putting it. Another way is that our feel empathy with the parents and the child.

Peter Pan, a child that does not ever die, and never grows up, but also, knows about that pain because he dies part way with every child that dies, is a very powerful idea, and spirit.

Hans Christian Anderson, also had many stories to deal with this. The Little Match girl is one of the most heart wrenching and difficult stories to forget. It is short. Just read it.

For Hans, the escape was Heaven.
Also for Eric Clapton who wrote about his own child in Tears in Heaven.


Whether it be Heaven or Neverland, or your own version of these places (which are different places) these things are important to believe in. And it is important that we create these places in our minds, our stories, our dreams, songs, and ideas. There is nothing wrong with living in a fantasy world, because in a lot of ways that Fantasy may hold truths that our experience of reality does not. After all our experience of reality is that the sun rises and sets and that time flows like a steady river. But Science and Mathematics tell us that tell us that is not the case at all. The earth spins, (though that is not what we experience unless you are an astronaut currently in orbit)  and the speed of light is constant where as time fluctuates and is not separate from space. So every moment, or point in Space-time, is eternal.

How do you deal with the death of a child? I cannot imagine anything more terrible. And entering an aletrnate reality, a fantasy of belief and faith and pretend, is important. There is nothing wrong with part of staying in that place, throughout the day, so long as you can get everything in the real world done. In fact Religion, is exactly that. Playing pretend really hard together, and creating a True reality, while at the same time, staying organized and functioning in life. Many of scientists were religious, and many people pushing for social change and fighting for the care of our environment and for the rights and well being of fellow human beings are both religious (or believe in a higher being), and either Scientifically literate or perhaps even Scientists.

Working through creativity and stories and art, is not hiding from your suffering. In fact, it will help you face those tragedies.

Authors can do this for us. They create worlds, lives and souls. And when they spread their stories they help those of us who need help creating these worlds, and we help them by making these places of Thought, that much more real, by existing in more hearts and minds.

At my middle School, Nativity Prep, we prayed a lot, and we also did a lot of real work.
I was not a Christian back then, and I didn't like all the prayers at the time. What I did like was morning assembly prayer. We would all line up, standing there, much like an army (as Nativity was run by the Jesuits) there were announcements and then people would raise their hands for people or things to prayer for. We would all then say, "Lord Hear Our Prayer."  together as one unit. And that made us feel strong, while we were praying for those of use who were very vulnerable. We don't feel alone and we feel much stronger when we say things together as a WE and an US rather than trying to face things alone. It helps to think of ourselves as We even if we are alone. And in a way, even when we are alone, we are never really alone.


Let' Pray for Author Joyce Wan and her daughter who went to Heaven last night and for her husband that they may get through this time of suffering.


Lord Hear Our Prayer.

Lion Dance Workshop at Catholic Memorial

We we did a performance/ Workshop at Catholic memorial. I brought my small children, who acted as comic relief mostly. The most striking thing about a predominantly male audience of 500 is that when we did the yelling for with the drum for the "combo" beat, it was really powerful. I think that was the loudest "Hai!" yelling I've heard and it was really cool in unsion. It kind of made me wish I had 500 male students to work with on a regular basis. Imagine THAT team marching with flags, and weapons on Chinese New Year. It would be cool if they could all learn lion dance and Kung Fu well, but even with just some basic flag waving or spear thrusting and the yelling in Unison. That's more like an army than a team.

We covered a lot of the academic and cultural aspects about lion dance. I planned on talking about a bunch of different things, but the stuff I talked about went more with which questions were asked and less with any sort of pre-written speech. There is a lot of information. I tried talking a lot about Canton, Southern China, Taishan, but there weren't really questions about that. There was a teacher who asked if they let the animal die before the skinned it. At first I thought this was a joke as comic relief to see if the kids were paying attention, But then nobody was laughing. Then I realized it was a religious question. The assumption was that China was Buddhist and so, they didn't kill animals.

I only knew this because at Nativity I had learned that Chinese are mostly Buddhist. That's the Catholic text book belief anyway. But actually (and I didn't get to say this) a lot of people on Chinese New Year think it is Bad Luck to see anyone dressed as a Buddhist or  Taoist monk, because these clergy do not produce offspring and the that is the primary thing of importance in the mainstream Chinese Culture. In fact they may even kick these religious figures out of their family home or business. Like literally, with their feet.

So even though Buddhism and Taoism are religions that are part of Chinese Culture, the mainstream Folk religion is a little more complicated. I blahed blahed blahed about that a little bit using Kwan Gung as an example. But that was a subject I was more interested in than the students I think.

But then I think Jonah did something funny so there was laughter, another question, and then other demonstrations of Kung Fu and Lion Dance.

It was pretty fun. Grace came as major part of the team and acted more as my assistant. But I definitely could not have done the performance without her. She noted that I did not introduce myself or her, but only introduced the school. She also said it would be good to start off with meditation and Chi Gung exercises and I did and I think everyone really liked it.

Now Noah is at a Doctor's appointment with Grace and Jonah is passed out.

Morning Free style stretching

I've been waking up and getting into various positions. You could call them Yoga positions or Kung Fu moves, or Chin Gung. But instead of doing the moves in a predetermined sequence and in fact instead of doing the moves "properly" I've kind of been stretching like a cat and crawling around like an animal, then turning over and getting into positions that stretch or work out the abs or the arms, or then doing some punches. But without "reps" or holding this for a certain amount of seconds or any sort of order or streucture. Obviously I move into moves I am familiar with and I started to count to 100 for the punches, but then, since the kids were up, I had to grab something for Grace, or let the kids ride on my back or whatever. So instead of getting frustrated that I had been "interrupted", I just went with the situation and tried to go with what the kids were doing. At the same time, I didn't just stop and "forget about it." I still did something. The Mein lay jum in the morning was nice. But it doesn't work if the kids wake up. And I guess I need something that does. A few stretches were also positions that look like you are shooting an arrow way up high. That's cool because as I mentioned before Noah's really into bows right now. Jonah likes his bow, but he isn't as attached to it. I was planning on making a better bow today, and I think maybe I should make one that isn't so much for shooting, but is more for strength training. I guess that's what those old fashioned stretchy things were for. But even though the bow is bigger, it makes for a cooler prop. Especially with kids. Maybe I could make an "archery yoga" Different stances while gripping the bow and pulling it. Shooting each other with the pool noodles has been fun too.
 

St. Patrick's Day

When I went to buy the materials for these bows, the guy helping me happened to be from Southie and asked me if I was going to the parade. The truth is I've only been once, and it was okay. Actually there was a lot of racism (not directed at me) and I could feel my mindset changing just from those few minutes of being exposed to it. I was a teen back then. Well now my kids are really young and I just don't think it's a good idea and the guy at Home Depot from Southie agreed with me. Although a lot of people come in for the parade and see it as a very family friendly event. But I think it would just be too stressful with Jonah, who likes to run off into crowds. The fact that a lot of people are drunk doesn't help either.

But you know Chinese New Year used to be a very family UNfriendly event. With local thuggish types (who we all thought were cool) lighting firecrackers on themselves and punks throwing them at others and blowing up various things that should not be blown up. (I'll admit to being on the fringes and somewhat participatory in such activity. But it was because there was not much else to do. You couldn't go right up to the lion heads the way the audience can now with many teams. And I believe eventually CNY will have a ton of kids with their own lion heads, more like Halloween, and eventually the monetary take away for the teams will probably be mostly coupons, produce, pennies, and candy and not as much cash.

St. Patrick's day surely has more to offer than just drinking and violence. Or perhaps there is another way to go about such traditions. For instance plenty of drinking games can be changed into child friendly versions. And come to think of it you could brink back traditional Shilleagh (sail eille)fighting in a no-violent manner with pool noodles. There's Gaelic football, and why does the focus in the parade seem to be on cars. Often times not particularly interesting or different cars. Maybe I miss all the interesting stuff like Marching Bands and bagpipes that are at the beginning.

You have seen a change in St. Patirck's day specials. I think that came after Riverdance took off. Maybe someone should make a little fair that has someone presenting, performing, and maybe even teaching all of these Irish Cultural things, like for small children.

It was back to some half hearted stretching and animal poses this morning. The kids woke up at 6:30 so my warm up for a pre-workout ending up being my workout. But it was good, I sort of got everything I needed out of it. Noah has been less into Kung Fu since I made the bows, and archery was going to be our St. Patrick's Day activity, but I think it might be a little cold for that. Maybe we'll venture out for a little bit anyway. And today at the library there is St. Patrick's day arts and crafts.

Maybe I'll blast some Irish music or something.

Bow and arrow

After watching Brave, Robin Hood and the Chronicles of Narnia Noah has been bugging me to get him a bow and arrow. I made a really crappy one late at night out of PVC pipe, but it sort of worked. This morning I started looking up how to do it online and found Nick the Backyard Bower, who makes real bows out of PVC pipe.

Anyway, I decided to make these bows. And then when I got to Home depot and found that they didn't have the fiberglass rods, I decided to make child sized crappy bows (I didn't know they would be crappy) with another substance that bent more than pvc pipe. Unfortunately that meant that they didn't snap back. So it didn't really work in the woods. Which is probably a good thing because Noah was constantly aiming his "arrows" at me. I really liked these grassy reeds because they were straight and went sort of far but are hollow and don't do much damage. Again, Noah ever actually hit me and I did try to get him to shoot out into a frozen pond, but it's nice as a back up that the thing is not an arrow in anyway. At home we were shooting our foam noodle swords. As it so happened I brought along the crappy original bow made of a thinner pipe than in the video. My main problem was I tried to tie the string to a wire which was duct taped to the pipe. I tried to do it the way Nick did in his video and ended up with a sort of real bow.  I mean I actually shot some sticks even though I have no idea what I am doing. Noah was much happier with his child sized bow that didn't work and didn't even want to try mine, which is good I guess. I don't feel so bad about buying that pipe now. Plus the main reason I wanted to sort of do archery is that archers have a strong upper body and I figured doing that sort of practice was more useful than exercises  that were only to strengthen and not to shoot and otherwise entertain... especially for four year olds. You will notice that although Nick does not look in shape at the waist, he is jacked when it comes to the upper body... most noticeable that lats (lats?) the muscles that form the "iron fan" in Chinese terminology, or when you add it to a thin waist, then the "Tiger waist and bear back" Fu yew hung bui. Nick definitely has the Hung bui. This muscles are what we go for in White Crane and then we work on our horse stance of course, which if you use a Long Bow, I think you also use (though I know nothing about archery really) 

But anyway, we have a functional kiddy bow in the house now, and I still hope to make Nick's simple bow. His other stuff looks really cool too, but realistically, it ain't happening for me anytime soon. I mean what was great, is Noah actually helped me make the bows today. I got so excited about all this and all my childhood  memories of trying to make this stuff with no guidance came rushing back. My mom had tried but Youtube didn't exist back then, and to be fair, the pretend bows are a lot like what she made, though hers looked better as it was made of wood. And me and my friend definitely came up with something similar to the functional bow we now have. Though we had no place to shoot it. And we actually ended up putting hole in my room's wall. But Noah has an early start on me. He has his bow at age four. In any case, this was a fun Sunday afternoon activity, and something to continue for the next two days, as he will have no school on St. Patrick's Day or a teacher's professional day or some such thing. Apparently Nick has written some books too. I might have to check those out. Though I bet all I will end up making is the bow I have now, with thicker pvc. 

An early Saturday morning

Noah woke up at 6:30am this morning to go see Gong Gong. But Gong Gong was asleep. Amah was up and in the bathroom. "Hey how come she don't wear any pants?" Noah said. From my peripheral vision I did indeed note this to be true, but instead of answering I quickly walked into the darkened living room to change the subject as well as my line of sight.

We ended up watching the third episode of Fabric of the Cosmos, the Quantum Leap episode.

"You watch this? I thought you watch cartoon." said a fully clothed A-mah to Shao. She then started fussing over this and that and saying that if he laid on his side under the covers that his eyes would become tilted and he would walk with his head tilted and parallel to the ground. I finally snapped at her.

I noticed that when Noah or Jonah go to her to play, she will ignore them and send them off to anyone else. But once we actually engage in an activity with them and are in the middle of it, she will come an interfere. You are watching a movie? watch this movie instead. You are playing a game? Play this one instead.

Anyway Noah commented that some Atoms are small and that some Adams are people. I tried to explain that there was a difference in spelling. He did get very excited when he started hearing about Adam's for the first time on this show. It's a process.

He really does like this Fabric of the Cosmos series though. Their are plenty of visually pleasing aspects to the show. Plus I also like watching it. I'm sure he is picking up something. And I always pick up something upon re-watching it. I wish I had been exposed to all of these ideas in such a way as a child. After all, Quantum physics is really pretty old at this point. And the stuff in the series (which may even be outdated by now, about the quantum computer amazed me. If we can have computers that computer things simultaneously and have "brains" the size of a grain of sand imagine all the devices that will come out?

Anyway, me and Noah will be off to the Kung Fu park soon. Jonah will stay inside today I think.

Gripping the ground.

I've been focusing on gripping the ground in my stance recently. Oddly enough I suppose one of the reasons I have been doing this is because it's "easier" than focusing on running around for long periods of time, or doing other sorts of focuses that are not practical to focus on in a house while watching children. But pretty much I can focus on gripping the ground while jogging along side Noah while pushing Jonah in a stroller as Noah runs down the street, while spotting Jonah at the playground (because to actually practice at this time means taking at least some attention off of Jonah and putting it into my strike of other type of move) and even when I do have time, because the children are accounted for, gripping the ground is sort of a yogic type of focus that doesn't have to be done in a very low stance (it should be but doesn't have to be) and is something that you can ease into. It's better than focusing on speed in your basics right off the bat, because you can pull something. It's like taking it easy in a very hard, powerful way.

Well I did that while I did a morning session of basics. I usually start off with Mein Lay Jum but today I did 100 basics each. Not sure which one I prefer in the morning. I guess normally I don't have time for all those basics, but since the grandparents were here, Noah was off my back and eating breakfast, and Jonah was still sleeping.

Book of the Mind

I have been looking for good books to help teach Noah Chinese, or help Jonah learn ABC's or help learn Kung Fu, or help explain why the earth goes around the sun. What I have come to realize is the best book is the book you make yourself.

For instance, Noah and Jonah both have journals, and Noah also has some books that he made. Even though he hasn't looked at his book for a long time, he was able to "read" it to Gong Gong. What I mean is based on recognition of some of the letters of words Grace wrote for him, and of pictures he himself drew, he was able to read what was written. Once he read the meaning instead of the words that were there but then corrected himself, somehow realizing that he had made a mistake.

Those pictures and those words have more meaning to him than any other book with popular tv characters or just plain beautiful illustrations that endear you to a book. Because these pictures are pictures that Noah drew himself, and therefore they must be ingrained in his brain differently. Also the things he drew were important to him at the time and probably are still important, and so they come from a part of his mind that is more important and therefore probably easier to memorize as well.

He showed his journal to Gong Gong and I told him to ask Gong Gong to write the Chinese words, Gong Gong for him next to Noah's picture of Gong Gong, to indicate their arrival.

First of all, most of the books have Ye Ye for the grandfather because the books are not made specifically for the Chinese Language, but for any "foreign" language, with pictures and what not that they think you might need to know. Noah's Ye Ye is not alive which makes things confusing.

However in his journal, he has his own picture of Gong Gong. He has a mental image and memory of who his Gong Gong is and the memory of their visit and indeed the memory of showing the journal to Gong Gong and then drawing the picture with Gong Gongh. Then Gong Gong writes the Chinese words in front of Noah and now when we read the book he will regularly see that character. That's a lot of ties to a character than a normal book you buy can imprint on you.

Art Projects

Noah has been making "books" the first one was really cool. But now they have become sort of ungainly and clumsy. For instance, he came home with three of them the other day, stapled haphazardly in a way that you could not actually open them and turn the pages like a book. I asked if he wanted me to reorganize the three books into one book that would be easier to carry around instead of the monstrosity of paper, fanned out and staples together at odd angles, that he is now carrying back and forth from school everyday. Of course today I forgot to put it in his cubby. But back to the book, he would have none of my suggestion. I asked how he even got his hands on a stapler and who helped him to staple this. He also wanted to hang it up but this also proved difficult because it is heavy and not at all symmetrical.


Meanwhile Jonah has been drawing on the walls. There is a new scribble in the dining room that Grace is mad about. But the more I looked at it, the more it looked like a tree. He drew it right next to our world map. Yesterday I took a picture of it because it has the freedom of a scribble and yet it is a tree. I want to use it or a version of it as a symbol one day I think. Grace's parents are coming up today and I know that Amah may very well take it upon herself to wash it off the wall. So I pt tape under it and wrote "Tree of Life" and then I actually wrote in quotations under it, "World Tree."
There I have labeled it. And once you label something it becomes important. Clearly it is a something instead of a nothing or a scribble, with an important label, words and titles of importance, and therefore less likely to be washed off the wall when I am not looking. Well we'll see how that works.

Spring Panda Kung Fu

Today was a Springy type of day. They type of day that is warm enough for the Little Panda children to go outside to do our little Kung Fu class. I forgot how much more enjoyable it was to do the class outside. There is more space, the warm light is great, and there are trees in the courtyard. The classes seemed to go by much faster and the hitting drills (I had them hit a ball, perhaps i should start bringing the pad again because it is easier for me to hold. Plus one of the girls hits the ball so hard I almost drop the ball every time.) anyway the drill was less difficult because I didn't have to make them stand on the wall.
Dai Dai was not as well behaved. He is definitely doing the whole terrible two thing. After both classes we went to the playground. I realized that I used to work out a lot more than I do now because I used to work out at the playground hard everyday. I did not do that today. Instead I occasionally gripped the ground with my stance and I followed Jonah through the  structure, because he wanted me to. It's just easier that way. I think I'm going to stick with my light morning work out and an after school workout as well everyday.

In fact this morning, after pulling teeth practically, Noah did do 100 Kung Fus (but Jonah was crying because he missed something or other) and then when we were going to school Noah said he wanted to practice harder than Nathaniel. Nathaniel is in our group and is younger, but bigger and stronger. I told Noah it was possible for Noah to maybe be stronger than Nathaniel if he practices harder than Nathaniel. This is sort of true because even if he isn't physically stronger, by practicing harder he may be able to use his strength better, and thus be stronger overall, but in a different way. He would probably still lose though in something like an arm wrestling match. But would be better at say push hands. That is my personal experience. Of course, it is possible for him to win at the arm wrestling match too, just less likely. But either scenario would require more training to overcome a naturally weaker body.

The point is, Noah ran for the last sidewalk stretch to Stony Brook and while he ran, we did the different Kung Fu animals. After we did all ten we started over. He didn't do the moves martially really. But he had fun, and he was a lot more energized on the train and in a better mood... until he found out that we still got to school after 9:00am. But still we got there at 9:15 which is earlier than we were  doing all winter.

A Chinese Catholic Sunday

Well yesterday was the first day I ever brought Noah to Mass. And in fact I guess it was the first time I had ever been to mass in a community Catholic Church. All the other times I had been to Mass or Church, was when it had something to do with School. Nativity, and then Groton. We got to St. James a little bit late but still found a whole pew to ourselves somewhere in the middle. This was going to be a Cantonese mass, or so I thought. It turned out to be Cantonese/Mandarin. I thought we could follow along with the reading and that would help me and Noah learn Mandarin. But there didn't seem to be any, "turn your pages to page" etc. And there was something on an electronic sign but I was too far away. So basically my plan of simultaneously picking up Mandarin at church was a failure. Noah was creating his own little imaginary world in the pew, which is probably good training for something, but sometimes he was too loud and I had to tell him to be quiet. "Do you want to leave?" because I didn't have a problem with leaving. But for some odd reason, he didn't. I looked at the pictures and statues on the walls just as any illiterate Medieval Catholic would have done during Mass in Latin. So I felt I was being true to my roots.

There was a flyer letting us know about a collection, which I had never experienced before. Wait did they have a collection every week? Oh yeah. Well when they did come around for collection to build a church in Africa, Central and Eastern Europe (I would prefer the money to be going for something like food, and last time was there, Central Europe had a ton of Churches. Maybe they aren't Catholic but so what?)

Well the collection plate was not a a plate at all, but around twelve men with baskets on sticks, dressed in clothing that told me, they could possibly have been in the states for more than a decade, but they still dressed more like people dress in China. In Massachusetts, the distinction between that style of clothing and the style of clothing an ABC where's is clearer. They went down aisle by aisle with don't mess with me faces passing the basket on a stick to everyone with skilled Gwan faht. I coughed up a dollar for Noah to throw in, which made our stick man crack a smile.

After seeing this I recalled that Fr, Hicks from Nativity had commented to me all those years ago that I should go down to St. James when I got a chance, just to see that system of collection which he said was amazingly efficient and impressive and that he hadn't seen it anywhere else. Perhaps it was a Chinese thing.
Fr. Hicks, a Jesuit priest had been to a lot of places in the world, but not east Asia. He taught Algebra in the middle East for a long time and after the second Iraq war broke out, he deliberately went back over there. He is one of the reasons why I had a respect for Catholicism even when I was a baptized non Catholic. Now that I have coughed up a dollar I guess I am Catholic, if anyone asks me to fill out a multiple choice questionaire.

I could tell when they were reciting the Nicean Creed. I recognized the words Satan and of course Yeh So (Jesus) Adong (Adam) and then there was a lot of Mau Gwai this and Mau Gwai that. Which means evil demons. I don't recall evil demons being used in any of the sermons I had ever been forced to listen to, ever. So that struck me.

Well, then came Communion. Noah was pretty mad that we weren't lining up. And for the first time I felt left out. I never received first communion or anything but baptism so I have never eaten the cookie in Catholic Church. I sis stay at a camp from some other sect where it didn't matter, and I actually made the bread that they used.

This other group of children all obediently lined up to receive communion and I wondered if they were all siblings and suddenly recalled that contraception is not allowed and it dawned on me why Catholicism was not popular in China.

The parent or leader told all the kids to fold their hands over their chest as they lined up, kind of like when you play "Bum" freeze tag. I don't know what that was about. Then I saw people coming back from communion with their hands pressed together in a prayer/namaste/meditation pose. That was weird to me, even though I have my hands like that all the time when I meditate. What did they do at communion at Nativity? Usually the kids you get the communion and then walk back to their seat in that slow sort of street walk, perhaps cheap shotting enemies they passed in the shoulder quickly (though seen by everyone and of course later lectured by teachers) the victim doubling over in pain but trying  not to cry out because that would be disrespectful in church. Although I was never a part of that behavior because I didn't line up for the body and blood of Christ, nor was I anyone's enemy in a way that would require them to punch me in church, I found that behavior familiar and therefore comforting. While the folded prayer hands I saw yesterday kind made warning bells go off in my head.

Later I saw one of the acolytes (I actually performed this duty once at Groton, not by choice, and to the laughter of the other acolytes when I explained that I was Buddhist. I guess I still am Buddhist. But every monk or nun I have met has given me the creeps, or just seemed sort of weak or off.) Anyway, this teen acolyte had his hands in the prayer pose real strong like, with thumbs crossed, kind of like Naruto  would while summoning his chakra. I guess that was cool, and weird to me at the same time.

There were a lot of songs that were very Chinese in melody, and I thought that was cool. I just wished I could have followed along or sang them. That was one thing I liked up Groton's Church. Of course some of the melodies bothered me later in life, when I heard them played as a Nazi theme with different lyrics (still the German National Anthem today btw) and of course the one about slaves being obedient were always particularly f-ing annoying and some teachers would also whisper that they hated those hymns in my ear.


But William Blake's Jerusalem (which he was accused of treason for writing but later became one of the main Nationalistic British hymns) has a very awesome melody and even the lyrics are pretty could if you are a Brit.
Personent Hodie was cool. It was fun to be able to belt out in public. Maybe we will try to just go to the English Masses. Okay that will be my excuse. The real reason is I think I only want to do this once a month. Watching "This Sunday Morning" is important too, as is relaxing and going to the playground. Plus as a guy with no job, coughing up $12/$24 a year seems very palatable whereas $48 or $96 seems less palatable.
Plus it was a long day for us, what with Church, then Mar Brown at the Library and then the Leurng's Association Banquet lion dance. Eventful, but tiring for a day of "rest."

A new flat faced Lion Head

Yesterday I made a flat faced lion head with Jonah. Yes Jonah was actually able to help me because all I did was make handles for the head first, the head being a flat board, and then we pasted color paper on to make the face. It was sort of a test, but ended up looking pretty good. In fact, it looks cute which is good for a child's head. It is also light, which is also good. I could figure out how to make handles before becaus ethe first flat faced lion head I made, oh so long ago, was painted onto cardboard. I painted it first and then I couldn't make handles that stayed on, or which didn't cover the painting of the face. But by starting with the handles first, we were able to then just paste the colored paper right over that. Plus the crisp lines and bright colors of cut out paper really makes the face pop. Now I just need a tail, but I won't have that by tomorrow. I plan on dying on old sheet red. Maybe when other people see how simply this one is made, and how it is two dimensional and therefore won't take up any space, the will make their own and we can have a few of them for the wake up the earth parade in May. Of course after Noah saw the Lion Head he wanted to make one with me too. So I will have to try and work that in either today or tomorrow. I really won't have time once he gets home from school so that project will probably be a Saturday activity. Plus Jonah created a Gordian knot with the string I was using, and the handles were kite handles (so was the string) from Kites that had become stuck in a tree or broken, and were therefore trash, so I didn't mind Jonah experimenting with it.

Well it's about nap time now. Let's see if Jonah will go down.

Little Kung Fu Class In JP 2

Casting something away.

Last night was "Moh Goon" Night for me and Shao and Jonah. Basically on Saturdays I have a Kung Fu Playgroup in the park and on Wednesdays I try to get Noah to do basics and Luk Lik, the first form, at the Kung Fu school. It should only take about 15 minutes to do this, then do Kung fu Journal, maybe some lion dance with David, so a total of 30-45 minutes including snacking and all that, and then get out of there so we don't get home too late. That's not how it went down last night though because Noah just kept on eating and eating and wouldn't listen and started crying and promising he would do whatever I said every time I threatened to leave. Basically He did most of the games and drills quite well. Nothing new there. And the Basics, which he had been doing okay, he refused to do. Actually it was just the 10 basics each that he refused to do. He did quite well with counting to 100 and doing 100 chahp saus, toi jerngs, or punches.

Why am I so married to the basics as I learned them and to the forms as I learned them? The kids keep telling over and over, we will do the games that you have made up, the songs you have made up, the 100 Kung Fus, the 100 of one basic and various drills, but we won't do the ones you did every day when you were first learning. Those basics are a lot like those paper mache lion heads I just threw away. The trash men looking and admiring them before dumping into the garbage truck to be compacted and smushed into nothingness.

It was difficult to throw away those things because I had worked very hard on them, and they had a lot of potential to be used, when the kids were older. But they can't use them right now and they can't work on them right now, so they are just taking up space.

The basics that I studied are similar. I spent a lot of days and years doing those basics. I am partial to them. I like them. I want my kids to do them and do them well. But perhaps they are not ready for them. But they are ready for wheels on the bus,  the monkey kind game, fighting drills, and doing one hundred of one technique. Maybe they don't do those 100 punches well, but they are willing to try, where as to do ten each basic is a battle.

I promised myself we wouldn't be doing this Wednesday Kung Fu night anymore until June. In June, not only will there be daylight savings and all that, but Noah will no longer be going to school. So we could do a Kung Fu afternoon, like from 3-4pm, and still get home. Or maybe even 1-2pm or something like that. That would be fine. Plus it would give Noah something to do. But right now, the time is too late and the battle to eat all the old Uncle's sponge cakes while they try and drink tea and converse in Taishanese about everything from farming, cattle, and village politics while Jonah stick his entire face in their sponge cakes and makes cookie monster noises when they are distracted.

This morning Noah and I did a Kung Fu routine and again i tried to make him do it the traditional way, but as soon as we did noodle swords, 100 of one technique (which is a pretty traditional way of training though simplified) and the Monkey King game, he did it. So I guess I have to put my basics and forms to the side.

A conversation with my Mother

Last night I dreamed I had a conversation with my mother. It was strange because it was meant to be nowadays and yet the conversation took place in the apartment where we had been living. I don't remember much about the conversation. I think we were talking about Wills and oh yes, she was going to be married to a man called Mr. Self. And the thing is she knew that in a week she was going to die and when they were getting married they were asking her and Mr. Self (who I think was also going to die soon) about Wills and whether it is a good idea that they should be getting married. All the people in the conversation came in and out of the upstairs part of that apartment, Her bedroom, the hallway and my bedroom. But the walls were only vaguely there. I explained what I had written in my will. That everything goes to Grace, then Jonah (because Noah is all set thanks to Gong Gong) and then Noah. And after that... well who cares after that?
Only in the dream I told my mother that the stuff went to her. That's weird and disturbingly Oedipal. I woke up thinking of what I was going to go and tell my mother before she died (as the week was almost up) and then it slowly occurred to me that she had already died. In fact she hadn't just died, but that she had died a long time ago. In the dream Noah and Jonah were also running around that old apartment.

Some people would have sorrow attached to such a realization. I didn't  because I used to have dreams like that all the time. Where my mother would suddenly be alive again, but sick and I would need to file paperwork to confirm that she was now back alive, as if such a thing happened often. Last night she may have been sick, but she was definitely at the stage where she could move around, laugh and speak freely.

Part of this dream is probably because my Great Aunt Anne is very sick. I spoke to her on the phone and she mentioned that she had just been talking about my mother. She was remarkably together and calm. My Aunt Dotsy was also remarkably together and calm and it occurred to me that she took care of two of her other sisters (one of whom was my Grandmother) while they were both dying of cancer. She also gave me a call right before I moved out of that old apartment after my mother had died. I remember she gave some good advice and we exchanged kind words, but that conversation was as dream like as the one I just had with my mother last night. She is so strong to always be the one taking care of everyone. I heard from my Uncle Francis that she also cared for his generation and of course she was is my godmother and took care of me as well. I suppose reconnecting with Aunt Anne and Aunt Dotsy was one of the reasons why I wanted my kids baptized all of a sudden. It hasn't happened yet but it will. And basically eventually I will be a srt of Catholic mainly because of my desire to continue the traditions of the Western side of my family...in a Chinese way at St. James. It's like by doing the stuff they did, we are closer together. Now today is Ash Wednesday and w aren't doing the ashes on the forehead today because, even though I'm moving back toward doing those rituals, well I'm not doing them yet and there are rules and stuff that I am not familiar with. It's Ash Wednesday, which frankly I'm not even completely certain about the significance of the ashes, other than that they represent some sort of sorrow relating to Jesus but he doesn't die until Good Friday right? And then there must be other meanings in that ritual as well. All I can remember is reading a passage where King David put ashes on his head and wept because of his son's death. And of course a few other passages about ashes poured on owns head in mourning.

Last scene of the Jungle Book

Noah and I borrowed Disney's Jungle Book from the library. We were pretty excited about watching it and we enjoyed most of the movie as the family. Jonah was afraid during the fight scene with Shere Khan. And though he watched the last scene perfectly quietly, when I tried to watch it again to show it to Grace he started flipping out and I had to turn it off and that was that.
That last scene is so great and so loaded. Again maybe I don;t agree with everything it says, but I still love the scene. There is such a strong pull from the Jungle, a world where magical animals sing and dance, where there is danger but it is also adventure and everyone is fine, until they are not and you don't really think about that because you just keep moving forward, and in the Disney world, in song and dance.  Then there is world of man, which is our world, a world of reality... but that world has girls and for Mogli the there are no girls in the Jungle. And it is the girl who draws Mogli into adulthood and the world of man which in the Disney movie ,is a world from which he can never return.

There is something beautiful about this scene for adults, who are already in the world of man, in the world of adults, and the movie represents a little trip back into childhood. But for children, watching it is perhaps unnerving and disturbing and yet there really is no explanation why. Nobody dies. The whole goal of the movie is to get Mogli to that village after all. But Jonah was freaking out about having to watch that scene again so much. Because in a way, the entire Jungle dies for Mogli once he crosses that threshold, no more of Baloo singing the bare necessities and any of that. Not for Mogli anyway.

The Croods, a Genesis for our time.

Yesterday me and Noah went to the library for their Sunday Movie. We weren't actually sure if there was one. On the schedule I did see "the crooks" listed. It turned out to be The Croods, and this is now my favorite movie. Of course tit isn't perfect, and there are political implications for having a caveman family etc. etc. After all, why are these sort of Neanderthals the "typical American white family" And couldn't Homo habilis already control fire? And didn't we learn to control fire before we learned to sew clothes?  But I liked how they acknowledged that the story must be completely fictitious by having fictitious animals and plant life. By making it more fantastical, it makes the story that more real. And the audience (and the creators) have to sort of identify with the characters as being one of them. And making everyone white is less complicated politically, after all Avatar got a lot of flack for being racist and this movie is almost like an improved version of Avatar, which was visually pleasing but other than that was poorly done. Also I'm sure feminists would love this movie. Well maybe they would have some issues with it too. But again, by embracing itself as a fiction, i.e. by going really out there with what the animals look like, it makes the story more realistic and pleasing.

In fact there are two versions of story time in the movie itself, and there is a sort of battle between the fictitious impossible story, and the realistic story, and how the fiction can lead you to truth (or death) but that it is worth the risk.

I love the movie not just for it's entertainment and it's ideas but for it's message, even though I don't necessarily completely agree with that message. Basically this story turns the Adam and Eve story completely on it's head. Instead of humanity falling from grace by gaining knowledge, the opposite is true. By going out and doing what is forbidden they gain life, and thrive and become the humans we are today.

Of course one can't help but think that this is a little rosy since it once humans started going places, they also started conquering and destroying places, and we have gotten ourselves into a mess with the environmental situation of the planet, and had we been more cautious about some of that stuff, a lot of the world's problems might not exist.

There are some great scenes where people are leaving the cave at night and what that signifies, and what caves signifies. I disagree with a lot of how caves are represented in the story too. Because after all, I believe shamans and scientists are often people who seek out caves to work things out and the writings on caves are important and should be followed. The is an art scene that sort of speaks to this and at that point you really do feel that the animators and the cave painters are on in the same as in a way a movie theater is a lot like a cave. I guess that part is in there to show the positive aspects of caves because it is after this that Ug comes up with his "idea" which was even greater and more powerful than any of Guys. Anyway, I really want to buy this movie. because like I said earlier it is a Genesis story for our time.

Oak Tin Association

Last night was the Oak Tin Association in Chinatown. This Family association includes people with the last names Chin (and variations) Woo (and Variations) and Yuen (and variations.) Basically these three family names can trace their ancestry back to one ancestor, I think it might be an emperor but I'm not sure about that.. which is okay because my last name is Cheung anyway.
Well in Boston, this is the most powerful family association. If you know about Chinatown you will recognize the names Frank Chin or Uncle Frank, Paul Chin, or Uncle Paul, and Billy Chin, or Uncle Billy. Basically once you become Uncle to an entire community you are probably a man of influence. But if you don't recognize those names you might recognize some of the guests, namely, Elizabeth Warren, Michelle Wu, and Billy Bulger. I'm not in the know enough to have recognized him but when he came in there was a an aura about him and I could tell he was important. Seeing Senator Warren there was cool, like having someone powerful and famous, but Billy Bulger being there was like someone stepping out of a history book.
Right after he walked in, Uncle Chucky Ng came in as well. He was a friend of my father's so I always try to say hi whenever I see him. An of course countless teachers (both mine and Noah's were there as well, and also friends, like Jason Chan, who I believe will be the next generation of movers and shakers.

But all this was background for me, and Noah, because we were there to do a lion dance. They used the small stage this year because they were packed in with tables at Empire Garden (is that the English name for Dai Yuen?) so there was really only space for two big heads and Jing told me we ought to edit out the small baby head. I said we should just keep the baby head off to the side because a) the kids care more about doing a dance than being seen and b) Noah will be able to do this dance easily and then David could do the dance where he actually had to Choin chiang, which was going to be right after this at China Pearl.

So we went out. I saw Michelle Wu cracking up as I held Noah back out of the way by the belt. (By the way I had seen Michelle Wu on the subway the other day but then decided I must be mistaken. But seeing her at the banquet confirmed it for me. Michelle Wu actually rides the subway to work just like the rest of us.)

The dance was good. It was weird to be kneeling on the floor next to the baby lion, while people like Senator Warren stepped into place to receive oranges. There was a dream like quality because when would you ever see people from that angle except as a four year old? And not only that, because it was during a lion dance, nobody thought it was odd that a grown man was kneeling there on the floor.

The dance ended and the guests of honor received their lettuces and oranges and Noah was crying. I thought he had been hurt. But it wasn't that. "Baba! I want an orange!" I quickly stole one from the people who had received them as tokens of good luck. That's right, to please my son, I will snatch oranges from Senators if necessary. (Actually she had already put it down. After all it's a ritual orange and nobody ever carries the thing around with them.. unless you are a kid and put real value in oranges.)

"No Baba! I want the Lion Head to get the orange!" Now, this was one of those awkward situations where actually Noah was right. He should have gotten an orange. Those are actually the traditional rules. But we did it this way just to keep things less complicated. But indeed, it wouldn;t have been that hard to tell the heads to reserve one orange for Noah, even if there wasn't space for him to have a whole plate. But I wasn't thinking in terms of what Noah would want, just what would work easiest as a plan right before the lion dance started. And Noah has to learn too that sometimes, a "not as good" order from above sometimes needs to be followed for the benefits of an event running smoothly and for the sake of the team. But also I learned that there were ways that I could have gotten what Noah wanted done without throwing a wrench in the machine.

We went over to China Pearl, where David would do the dance. I followed the heads in and sat  or knelt on the floor by the chiangs. An old coworker from Kwong Kow saw me and she was laughing. Not so much at me, but you know, at how there I was sitting on the ground in front of a baby head.

At the last moment I asked David to let Noah eat one of the oranges. It occurred to me that I had been unfair to David because Noah had done the lion dance inside the school (because it was okay to mess up there) and at Dai Yuen (because that was supposed to be easier) and now he was taking one orange from David's Chiang. But then Noah hadn't had the opportunity to have his lion eat the orange. And David didn't seem to mind. After all that there was food provided in a private room at China Pearl. Noah and David seemed to have a ball there. I guess Noah likes this Chinatown lifestyle. In fact he kept asking why we can't live in Chinatown. I explained that our house would be smaller and that it's nice to live near the park and various playgrounds and after all, it's pretty easy to get to Chinatown.

Oishinbo, rice and vegetables

I had previously blogged about Oishinbo, fish adn the Izakaya pub food book. When I went to the library with Jonah a few days ago I saw the vegetables and rice books. One interesting, confusing, and cool thing about the series is the relationship between Yamaoka and Kurita. I think the books are organized by food type and not by chronological order, so you will read one strip where the two are already married and have kids and then read another strip after that where it appears that they have just started maybe dating. Also you never get to know these characters beyond a professional setting, as if you were their co-workers. You go into their house and see the kids at the hospital but that is conceivable with a co-worker. But you never go beyond that. The focus is really on the food. I think that's cool.
It's also nice that even though this as written in the 80's there is all this stuff about the importance of organic food as a national pride to Japan. Since I live near a Whole Foods in JP I find the books relevant to my time and place too. I have to say when I lived in Chinatown, I didn't give a crap about organic or anything like that. I rarely heard the words. I still prefer the vegetables sold in Chinatown to anywhere else, organic or not, because the consumers there know what the hell they are buying. After all a lot of the elderly people who are newer immigrants walking around Chinatown may have even done some small farming in their village. They might not know the fancy words, but they know what a good vegetable is and what is crap. And actually I think of all the things that Chinese spend money on, quality vegetables is probably up there when compared to say clothes, or other things. Anyway, food takes a high priority.

Oishinbo, is a Japanese manga, but they seem to agree with this statement. There is constant nods to Chinese cuisine all over the place. But it is still simultaneously nationalistic (in terms of being strongly prideful of Japanese culture) but also criticizes a lot of the stereotypical aspects of Japanese society that we tend to focus on as people outside Japan. I say that instead of just saying Thew West, because Chinese people have a lot of stereotypes about how Japan or the Japanese are. There is no denying stuff that happened in the past. But of course that doesn't mean that those things happened with everybody agreeing that they were right. And of course just because as in any society, there is a right wing war hawk part of society, that doesn't mean there isn't another strong aspect of society that disagrees with that right wing.

In one article supposed to be written by Yamaoka or maybe the author himself (I was confused about this) he claims to perhaps "unravel some of the complicated relationship between China and Japan by (talking about rice." A nice idea.