Going where the wind blows
Not anxious. Not excited. Think being emotionally drained is more powerful than the anesthesia that was flushed down my veins. It masks all fears and a little dosage of healthy sense of urgency in me.
But the curiosity to see how I deal with solitude is pushing through my skin. I don't like feeling at home when I am traveling. But to be cosmopolitan is another issue. I like the expected unexpectedness, the speculative discomfort. Having said discomfort, I think I will hate it as much as I will be dealing with it.
My family doesn't celebrate Christmas. But this year's Christmas would be different. Not necessarily better or worse. For some funny reason I think I will miss spending it with my family.
Times like these make me wonder why age makes a person less adaptable to new environment. Maybe age is not the right word. It's the awareness of the environment we have taken into us as we grow. Age simply suggests the time factor built into such an awareness. Being a lot more ignorant as a kid 14 years ago, my family moved to this country. Even being handicapped in mandarin and English, I felt at ease in befriending new peers. But I have grown to appreciate the difficulty that my parents have gone through to adjust to a new environment. They have chosen to leave their friends and families, their work and homeland. I can recall the frequent arguments, my dad's frown and my mum's tears. It must have been so difficult for them.
I won't wish to be 9 again. But I do miss the innocent or probably ignorant bliss that I seem to be entitled to back then.
Speaking of adaptability, I learnt something about the Chukchi in inland Siberia today. They live in extreme human conditions. They are like the Eskimos. They spend their lives in temperatures as low as -25 to -50 degrees. Well extreme to us but not to them, perhaps. Relativity duh! Chukchi is a name given to them by the Russians (for their geographical proximity to them I think), originating from the Chukchi word Chauchu meaning "rich in reindeer". And it is reindeer for every good reason. Their diet consists almost entirely of reindeer, higher in protein than most meat but just as tender. They warm themselves with their skin. They build their homes with their skin. They are nomads for they follow their herds of reindeers where they graze beneath the snow. And the reindeers transport their houses for them too. Even the Chukchi"s physique is adapted to the weather. They tend to be shorter, with stubby fingers and proportionally shorter limbs so as to reduce the surface area of their bodies subject to heat loss. How cool is that? They don"t even need gloves in such chilly winds. I remember taking off my gloves in a Korean winter of -15 degrees. My hands went numb within a couple of minutes and were really painful. Frost does bite.
I am truly amazed.
But the curiosity to see how I deal with solitude is pushing through my skin. I don't like feeling at home when I am traveling. But to be cosmopolitan is another issue. I like the expected unexpectedness, the speculative discomfort. Having said discomfort, I think I will hate it as much as I will be dealing with it.
My family doesn't celebrate Christmas. But this year's Christmas would be different. Not necessarily better or worse. For some funny reason I think I will miss spending it with my family.
Times like these make me wonder why age makes a person less adaptable to new environment. Maybe age is not the right word. It's the awareness of the environment we have taken into us as we grow. Age simply suggests the time factor built into such an awareness. Being a lot more ignorant as a kid 14 years ago, my family moved to this country. Even being handicapped in mandarin and English, I felt at ease in befriending new peers. But I have grown to appreciate the difficulty that my parents have gone through to adjust to a new environment. They have chosen to leave their friends and families, their work and homeland. I can recall the frequent arguments, my dad's frown and my mum's tears. It must have been so difficult for them.
I won't wish to be 9 again. But I do miss the innocent or probably ignorant bliss that I seem to be entitled to back then.
Speaking of adaptability, I learnt something about the Chukchi in inland Siberia today. They live in extreme human conditions. They are like the Eskimos. They spend their lives in temperatures as low as -25 to -50 degrees. Well extreme to us but not to them, perhaps. Relativity duh! Chukchi is a name given to them by the Russians (for their geographical proximity to them I think), originating from the Chukchi word Chauchu meaning "rich in reindeer". And it is reindeer for every good reason. Their diet consists almost entirely of reindeer, higher in protein than most meat but just as tender. They warm themselves with their skin. They build their homes with their skin. They are nomads for they follow their herds of reindeers where they graze beneath the snow. And the reindeers transport their houses for them too. Even the Chukchi"s physique is adapted to the weather. They tend to be shorter, with stubby fingers and proportionally shorter limbs so as to reduce the surface area of their bodies subject to heat loss. How cool is that? They don"t even need gloves in such chilly winds. I remember taking off my gloves in a Korean winter of -15 degrees. My hands went numb within a couple of minutes and were really painful. Frost does bite.
I am truly amazed.
posted by livingfuneral at 6/05/2005 04:30:00 AM
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