Distance and Feelings

“Grandpa, when do birds sing the loudest?”
“I guess it would be in spring?”
“I mean what time of day, Grandpa.”
“It would be at dawn.”
“I’ll ask one more question, Grandpa. What can eliminate distance?”
“I would say a train or an airplane.”
“You are right. But you are not answering my question.”
“What is your answer?”
“It is our feelings.”
“Well, tell me about it.”

Continue

Monkey King and Xuan Zang

“Grandpa, we have a riot of a time at school today.” Nancy is jolly when she gets home.
“Nothing bad, I hope.” Grandpa asks automatically, showing no alarm.
“Everyone was interested in the feat of Monkey King. Imagine one single summersault can take him from Toronto to Tokyo. And he was playful and naughty and wise when he faced danger and harm.”
“Ah, you must be talking about the famous novel ‘Journey to the West’?” Grandpa settles down to hear what happened in Nancy’s class.
“Yes, Grandpa. There is so much the monkey could do when he escorted Xuan Zang the wise teacher to India. There was Pigsy too. I like him a lot.”
“Tell me what Mr. Shaw said, and may be I can tell you what I know. I have read the novel three times and still love it. It is one of the four great novels in the history of Chinese literature.”

Continue

Dreams

“Grandpa, what are dreams?” Nancy asks enthusiastically.

The question was discussed at school, with a visiting scholar invited by Mr. Shaw. His name is Edward Grim, a philosophy professor from Heidegger University who has come to Toronto to attend The International Conference on Dreams. Mr. Shaw met him at a dinner party hosted by Dr. Wei and invited him to visit Nancy’s class.

Professor said at the beginning of class, “When the Emperor of Heaven invented dawn, he was surprised to see its brilliance and beauty.”

Then He told the class that the quotation was from an ancient Chinese book. It set off a 6000-year heritage to have the Chinese people believe that dreams can come true.

“Grandpa, do dreams really come true?” Nancy asks.

Continue

Memory

“Grandpa, do you have good memory?” Nancy asks after school.

“May be I have.” Grandpa answers hesitantly. He says after a moment: “I can remember my Mom very welland a lot of things when I was growing up. I also remember how thrilled we were when we brought you home from the hospital. You were such a tiny sweet little baby. But, I often forget where my glasses are; even I had put them down moments ago.”

“But you have me, Grandpa. I can always find your glasses for you.”

Continue

Development and Competition

It is an early summer day, when people realize that the school term is about to come to an end. Nancy and her classmates are talking about what they will do during the summer holidays.

Many of them have their summer programs set already. Their parents have engaged tutors to teach them do a variety of things, such as swimming, tennis, dancing, cycling, painting, piano, violin etc. These are in addition to tutorials on school subjects. Dianna says her parents had arranged her to learn modeling, so she can earn lots of money.

Mr. Shaw learned about the sharing of plans. He asked: “Who will have a summer free of tutored learning?”Nancy raised her hand, together with eight classmates. The rest of the class all had summer tutoring programs waiting for them.

Continue