In a small town, people like to gossip. We're all interested in what our neighbors are doing. Bow is no different. When he started spelling out words, in the summer of 2007, one of his favorite topics was what the neighbors across the road were doing. He told me some really tall tales, which I am not going to repeat here. Those neighbors have long since moved on, but I don't have any real faith in Bow's veracity, and I think he was telling these stories as a way to keep himself entertained.
Yesterday, when I went into town to get groceries, I heard about a tall tale that someone has been telling about me. Apparently, some guy has been going all over town telling people that I live with a troop of monkeys and an orangutan, and that the interior of my house is constructed entirely of bullet proof glass, all paid for by government grants at the public's expense! The lady who related the story to me laughed, as everyone knows that none of that is true.
The fact that I have an adopted chimpanzee who can spell out words and that I raised him along with my own child using my own money is not sufficiently entertaining. We need a castle made of bullet proof glass,a troop of monkeys and an orangutan to turn it into spell-binding tale!
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There is a saying in Chinese "小隱隱於山，大隱隱於市 (xiao3 yin3 yin3 yu2 shan1,da4 yin3 yin3 yu2 shi4)". It is actually about how someone (a monk, hermit, scholar, whoever)should devote him/herself to the society by living in a big city, instead of hiding in a deep mountain and reading sacred books, and believing that s/he could change the world.
ReplyDeleteHowever, my own interpretation of this sentence is "If one would like to hide from the world, one hides in a big city, rather than in a remote, isolated mountain." In a big city, people just don't care whether you have a troop of monkeys, who were recruited with the grant from whatever scientific institution. Unlike people who live in a hectic city, after "hearing" some animal cries from your house, someone, who is probably your 50 kilometers away neighbor, decided to pretend that he did some investigation as if he were a private detective. After s/he heard the cries the second time, he believed that s/he had big news to broadcast in the small town at the foot of the mountain,hoping to become the focus of the people by talking about a "TRUE" story.
I lived in a small town when I was in Taiwan. People were so interested in knowing what I was doing, while I didn't even have the desire of talking to the neighbor next door for 5 years. Whenever we raised our voice or had some exciting activities in the house, people just came and stood in front of door of the house, listening to us and being judgmental.
Aya, let's move to the Empire State Building in New York. da4 yin3 yin3 yu2 shi4. ^_^
And, by the way, I want to feed the troop of the monkeys before they march on the street.
June, sometimes moving away from the big city is the only way to change the world. My big city dreams at the moment center around seeing The Debt Collector performed on Broadway. Maybe Bow will give me time off to see it open. ;->
ReplyDeleteHowever, Sword recently told me that she plans to move to Chicago after college. Maybe she and Delight could rent an apartment there together? We could sometimes visit them.