The kids have gone to California and Paul and I are home alone for the first time ever! It's very quiet here! Even though I've been crazy busy with deadlines and presentations, the evenings feel relaxing. We met up for a 7:30 dinner in Bethesda last night, followed by a leisurely stroll and bookstore time. I was joking to friends that just like teenagers leaving home for the first time, I feel the need to rebel, so no dinner at 5:30! Going out past dark! Alcohol! Loud music! Spicy food! Bring them on!
But it's actually a little strange seeing their beds empty. A part of me gets to appreciate the fullness of life because of them. I am just so happy that they are having a grand time with Popo, Gongong, and Yipopo. Lucky ones, all of us.
Leaving for Cardiff, UK soon. Should be an interesting trip. I just need to get this talk prepared!
Friday, June 19, 2009
Thursday, June 04, 2009
Remembering June 4
Today, the 20th anniversary of the violent crackdown of peaceful student demonstrators in Tianenmen Square in Beijing, my thoughts go to China.
I was 14 at the time, a Taiwanese junior high school kid, and I vividly remember following the movement on TV and on newspaper, seeing the college students from all over China gather for freedom, many fasting and singing or reciting poetry. A fasting girl holding up a sign, "Mom, I love you, but I love freedom more" left an huge impact on my mind. On June 4, the students were met by machine guns and tanks, operated by soldiers at the same age as the students. Thousands were arrested or killed (the exact number remain unknown). In my school in Taiwan, the deeply felt anger prompted the students to sign petitions and gather in solidarity with the students, who wanted nothing more than freedom and democracy.
It was a transformative experience for me personally. Twenty years later, it is so hard knowing that young people in China have no memory of the spring of 1989. Beijing is in virtual information lockdown right now.
In so many ways, China is a completely different place now, but very sadly, little has changed in its tyrannical political control and oppression. Knowing that 20 years has passed also makes me aware of how old I am. I try to sit with my own memories of those days a little today.
These days, we see Tianenmen Square up there with the crackdowns in Burma and Tibet. I feel a sense of consolation when I hear my Dharma friend saying, "I have to remind myself of the causes and conditions associated with such violence and tell myself that our actions now may be somehow creating conditions to differ in the future."
I was 14 at the time, a Taiwanese junior high school kid, and I vividly remember following the movement on TV and on newspaper, seeing the college students from all over China gather for freedom, many fasting and singing or reciting poetry. A fasting girl holding up a sign, "Mom, I love you, but I love freedom more" left an huge impact on my mind. On June 4, the students were met by machine guns and tanks, operated by soldiers at the same age as the students. Thousands were arrested or killed (the exact number remain unknown). In my school in Taiwan, the deeply felt anger prompted the students to sign petitions and gather in solidarity with the students, who wanted nothing more than freedom and democracy.
It was a transformative experience for me personally. Twenty years later, it is so hard knowing that young people in China have no memory of the spring of 1989. Beijing is in virtual information lockdown right now.
In so many ways, China is a completely different place now, but very sadly, little has changed in its tyrannical political control and oppression. Knowing that 20 years has passed also makes me aware of how old I am. I try to sit with my own memories of those days a little today.
These days, we see Tianenmen Square up there with the crackdowns in Burma and Tibet. I feel a sense of consolation when I hear my Dharma friend saying, "I have to remind myself of the causes and conditions associated with such violence and tell myself that our actions now may be somehow creating conditions to differ in the future."
May all beings be safe, be happy, be free from suffering;
May we know a great and lasting peace;
May we awaken and be free.
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