Breath of fresh air??

I would say that sitting in an air conditioned room and having full internet access for the first time in 5 days (not that I'm counting), is like a breath of fresh air; except I realize the undeniable irony behind that statement due to my utter dependence on first-world luxuries. Never did I think I would be so thankful to be sitting before a Celeron processor.



2008/06/05
Linda and I arrived at Seoul airport. Sad but true, the homogenously white-ish/gray-ish sky told us we were in Asia. It reminded me of a story I heard last year in Shanghai: A guy went to print scenic pictures from vacation in Australia. When he got them back, the skies in all of them were white, instead of blue. So he asked the clerk what happened? Perhaps the printing machine had a bad cartridge? The clerk replied: "No, I did you a favor. I edited your pictures to be more realistic!" The clerk had never seen a blue sky.




Later on the 5th, I traveled to Beijing. It must be easy being a whether man there too: you didn't have to tell the difference between sunny, cloudy, and clear sky. At least here, their efforts are commendable. In addition to urging less pollution, their contructive efforts are seen by the 3 rows of trees on each side of every major street.





2008/06/07
FuJian has a national park called "Forest Park", ShengLinGongYuan. It was the perfect day with misty rains and fog-capped mountains. New air was being freshly created by the greenery all around. What would have been a hiking intensive day turned into a tea tasting under a pagoda patio. Had I been thousands-fold more talented and drunk off of white wine, it would have been the perfect occassion to ask for a brush and rice paper and write the perfect 20 word poem.

We learn in medical school that the invaginations of our body (ear, nose/lungs, GI tube) are an organism's way of modifying the outside environment to suit its needs. Have we as humans, over-extended the fraction of nature that is rightfully ours to control? As we live our whole lives in this artificial bubble of civilization, how often do we break the surface and truly take a gulp of fresh air?