December 8, 2004
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Between Sun and River
There's a bike path by the river a few hundred yards from my office. I was striding along it today, in that irritated jerky way you do when you've forgotten your gym clothes and need to work off the one-slice-too-many of pizza from the employee lunch. I saw a figure on the path ahead. I use 'figure' advisedly; with the westering sun against my shades and the glint from the river, that dark, lithe, slow-moving form could have been anything from a person to a mythical beast of some sort.
It turned out to be my colleague, a new employee originally from mainland China, dressed in a dark ankle-length coat. I stopped for the requisite polite exchange.
"Do you like this river?" she asked.
"Do I like this river?" I asked. I was stymied. I knew this river in its original form, before the Corps of Engineers reformatted it for the convenience of the city. I've known it so over-polluted that children were warned away from it. I've watched it throughout the seasons, walking there, as a peripheral to my mood and the appropriateness of my footwear. I was suddenly having a difficulty with 'like.'
We both laughed awkwardly.
"You know feng shui?" she asked.
The answer was "yes," as in, 'associated with Martha Stewart, and the butt of jokes from the uninitiated;' and "no," as in, 'not as would a native of the ancient civilization that originally defined it.' I choose "yes," for expediency, but I think she knew the whole of it.
"Feng shui is a balance," she said, holding out her open palms, see-sawing up and down. "In China it is very important. Here, the name of our company, with 'sun' in it, and the light on the river next to it ... this is a live river. It is good feng shui. Maybe the company is lucky because of the feng shui."
And we went on in our opposite directions, me with that taste in the mouth that comes from a tantilizingly fleeting touch of the alien.
What more is there to the fortune of any organization, than the work done and the price paid?
I also thought I now knew why my colleague, walking by the river, looked like an amorphous sprite dancing between wave and sky, and I looked like a stolid American marching too fast in the wrong shoes.
Comments (11)
I can't really think of anything to say other than I feel like I just viewed a beautiful painting.
I get a feel for that also where I live. Nice.
Beautiful.
This really is a beautiful and thought-provoking entry here...
--L
1 it is nice to believe in the magic of balance and harmony once in a while, no?
2 it is not too difficult to dance between wave and sky (if only it's not too darn cold outside)
here here. thank you.
Beautiful word art.
Enchanting story, just like most of yours. I'm one of those who makes fun of Feng Shui, mostly because I perceive that it's too easy for a person to claim to be a Feng Shuiite while being in fact a charlatan. Suspicious nature, I know, but that's me.
We can learn alot from people who think of such things. (Also, from people like you who write of such things)
i liked your story.
I liked this alot. You used the encounter to illustrate the idea of balance itself.
And thanks for visiting. I always appreciate seeing your words.
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