HM was a Teaching Assistant in our department in the early 1970s. Sometimes she invited students to her home. Her family had come to Taiwan from Central China in the chaos after WWII. Her mother died from food poisoning when HM was little. Her sister had died a few years before in an accident. She lived with her father.

Her father was a gentle, affable man who loved company. Whenever HM brought friends or students home, he dived into the kitchen, and loaded the table with delicious food from his hometown. If you could stand up from the table, you hadn’t eaten enough, so pick up your chopsticks and eat! eat! 

A couple years after I graduated, HM married a Christian. Her father gave the happy couple traditional gifts, including a gorgeous red blanket embroidered with a dragon and a phoenix, sure to bring good luck all around.

When her new mother-in-law saw that red blanket, she shrieked and raced for her sewing kit. She sewed a piece of white cloth over the dragon, telling HM that the dragon stands for Satan, and a good daughter in law had no business bringing Satan into a Christian household. 

When HM had been married for about five years, her father died peacefully. HM collected some keepsakes from the old home, including a beautiful porcelain teapot her parents had brought with them from the mainland. It had probably been made in the early 20th century. 

It was decorated with a carefully hand-painted dragon and phoenix. When she took it home, her father and mother-in-law ordered her to smash it because of the dragon: a good daughter in law should know better than to try to bring Satan into a Christian household.

HM couldn’t bear to smash the beautiful pot. Instead, knowing that I was a hardcore tea freak, she entrusted it to me, along with some cups and a slightly cracked pot her family had brought to Taiwan in the 1940s. Her husband had earned a scholarship to do graduate work in Georgia, Georgia Tech I think it was, and they planned to put some distance between themselves and his parents. 

He was intelligent and worked hard, and did so well in graduate school that he quickly found a good job in Georgia. His parents decided to visit. Visiting the USA was no small undertaking in those days, but they boarded the plane and set out for the Land of Freedom.

They were appalled by what they found. They discovered that the state of Georgia was a godless pit of iniquity, that the people of Georgia had betrayed Jesus and strayed from the True Path and were living lives of sin! They decided that it was their holy duty to help the poor sinners. They returned to Taiwan, sold everything, and set forth to preach the True Word of Our Lord Jesus Christ to the benighted heathens of Georgia.

HM wrote to say that she and her husband had both found good jobs in California, so they were fleeing to the West Coast, as far as possible from Georgia. 

Keeping in touch in those days before email was not easy. I never heard from her again. Every time I use the dragon phoenix pot, I send good thoughts to HM, hoping that her husband’s parents never visited California, and that they are living their lives in peace and quiet. 

🦍

I have changed some details about HM to keep her unidentifiable. Everything else is the truth. The gospel truth, you could say. 

HM是我大學時系上的助教。有時候她會請同學到她家。她家在抗戰後大亂時從浙江來臺。HM小時，媽媽食物中毒身亡；我上師大的幾年前，她姊姊意外過世。她與父親相依為命。

她父親人很溫和、友善，氣質高尚，又好客。HM找朋友、學生到家來坐坐，父親遁形到廚房，端出一道一道香噴噴的江浙菜。如果你還站得其來，你吃的還不過，動筷！動筷！多吃！

我畢業後兩三年，HM嫁給了基督徒。她父親送他們一床喜氣洋洋的大紅被，龍鳳刺繡精緻優美，顯得福氣滿滿。

婆婆看紅被一眼，立即拿出針線，用一塊白布蓋住龍，申誡媳婦，龍就是魔王撒旦，乖媳婦絕不允許帶撒旦進基督教廷。

HM與老公結婚五年左右，她父親安祥仙逝。HM蒐集家裏一些老物件，包括一把父母從大陸帶來的白瓷茶壺，大概是清朝末年作品。白瓷茶壺手繪龍鳳，筆法活潑、畫法精細。帶回家，公婆命令她把壺敲碎，媳婦怎麼可以把撒旦帶進基督家庭？妳頭腦到底在想甚麼？

但這把壺太漂亮，又是家裏故物，怎麼忍心說敲就敲呢？她知道我嗜茶如命，一定會珍惜，所以她拿了龍鳳壺、幾個大陸帶來的瓷杯、一把有裂縫的壺委託我好好照顧、好好泡茶。她老公拿到了Georgia州的全額獎學金，打算去念研究所，離父母遠一點，他們才能喘過氣。

她老公聰明用過，研究所念的有聲有色，畢業後很快找到當地一分理想的工作。父母決定飄過遠洋去看兒子。當年沒有觀光護照，想要到美國可不是那麽容易的一件事。

結果，公婆到了Georgia，發現太可怕！整個Georgia州邪氣瀰濫，找不到正確信仰的基督徒，所有的教會業已背叛了主耶穌、偏離了耶穌的正確信仰、所有Georgia的基督徒都散播撒旦的妖氣，墮落入萬丈罪淵惡藪！他們看見了神賜給他們的神聖任務：他們必須到Georgia拯救罪孽深重的迷途罪人。

HM 寫信來說她與老公要逃到加州。他們都找到很好的工作，想離Georgia越遠越好。

那個年代沒有網路；

要保持聯絡，實在很困難。從此HM杳無音訊。多年來，我每次用龍鳳壺泡茶，總會念念他們，希望他們平安，希望父母忙的傳教，沒閒工夫到加州玩，願他們寧靜如意。

問：老虎的窩是甚麽顏色？

答：藍色的。

問：怎麼知道？

答：自古說，不入虎穴，分明是藍色的。

🦍🦍

天氣炎熱，給大家降溫一下。

 The writing block

Shakespeare had a writer’s block. He wanted memorable lines for his play about the Prince of Denmark, but he could think of nothing. 

His friend Richard Burbage stopped by. Will complained about his lack of inspiration. Richard said, “My friend, your mind is stuffy because this room is stuffy. Outdoors, the green leaves quiver with the cooling wind. Let us put aside your cares and go forth for a stroll.” 

Shakespeare put on his hat and they went for a stroll by the burbling brook. He pointed to a pretty scene, and said, “There is a willow grows askant the brook, but see, smooth runs the water where the brook is deep.”

Richard stopped and turned his head to a verdant brush nearby. He said, “Hark.”

Shakespeare listened and said, “I hear a buzzing in the underbrush.” 

Richard said, “Bees. There may be a bee, there may not be a bee, there may be two bees, I know not.” 

The rest is history. 

 一粒籽 

數百年前，華北土壤蘊著一粒籽。籽發芽了，經過多少歲月、風吹日曬，冉冉長成大榆樹。

樵夫看在眼裏，知道是好料。某年冬，他拿了大斧利鋸伐了樹。去了樹枝、樹皮，木料堆放好了，又等了數年。

客人需要一張桌子，請了木匠師傅做。價碼、設計談妥，師傅選了幾塊上好榆木料，憑著多年功夫，斲、刨、磨，慢慢成形，設計樸素高雅，厚重桌面加四支有弧度的腳。師傅用熟練的技藝準確地做了榫卯，將腳裝上。桌子成了。送去給客人。

客人用了幾十年、上百年。時日已久，桌子略晃，腳用鐵釘固定住了。

又過多少時日，不知如何因緣，桌子入古董傢俱商人的手。二十幾年前，臺北天母開古董家具店的王先生，本身也是技藝超群的木匠師傅，看上了這張歷經風爽的榆桌，買回臺灣，放到店裏了。

之前朋友介紹王先生，我在他店裏物色了幾件上好家具，有空也去逛。

那天我進去，王太太抓住我，說，「有老件，你要買。」這張榆木桌真的漂亮，價錢合理，我就請他們送到我家。

放客廳。桌子藏著很多故事，造型、木紋優雅寂靜，天天看，是很日常的一張桌，且有它安穩脫俗的氣勢。

王先生過世了，店收了，王太太失去聯絡，桌子不移。

糟了，去年發現桌下有細粉。持續觀察，蠹蟲進攻了。帶到陽台防蟲處理，轉位時，腳脫落了，蛀壞了。想盡辦法，最後只能認命，四腳報廢。幸好美麗的桌面無損。

腳鋸成節了，燒。當年吃著華北土壤長大的樹，不知道多少年後，終究歸臺灣的土。成住壞空，因緣起，因緣滅。

乾脆不要搞這些罷免甚麼的，直接將舉辦的錢分給大家，皆大歡喜。
管它的，知道臺灣隊在世界警消比賽稱霸嗎？這才有意思！
Meanwhile, Taiwan's team walked all over everybody else at the World Police and Fire Games, held this year in Alabama. 164 medals, 74 of them gold!

LINK

 有的男人一生的故事

婚前
向她雙膝跪
求婚

婚後
向她雙腳跪
求饒

 又十年了
https://talovich.blogspot.com/2013/10/#4612961912054022171