Kaohsiung. I’ve been here since December 1st and this year in my quest to not get too comfortable, too complacent, too mellow, too boring, too, too, too, what’s wrong with too?
It’s too easy, that’s what!
I’ve been going out into the country looking at old Japanese tombs, old Japanese war tunnels, suspension bridges, architecture from 100 years ago, the Japanese era, the Ming Dynasty era and sometimes with my camera the more modern stuff, taking shots when the light is just right - the golden hour. Riding the slow local train north and south, the high speed one too and everything in between including light rail, which is slower than slow. It’s nice to sit and watch the fish farms and betel nut farms, the factories, the scrubby bushes and the ugly architecture go by.
And I have been writing here, but only for myself, privately and tediously tracking my dry January (too easy), my average step count (pedestrian), my Youtube ideas (brilliant) and results (unsatisfying.) But I care not, not for any of it. It just is. It is what it is. What is, is. And what isn’t, just isn’t. Sometimes things can be boiled down to their essence.
The missus arrives and knocks me out of my non-routine routines of picking a spot on the map and going there, eating only when hungry, laying on the sofa listening to an album, long moments of living in the moment. Heaven is a place where nothing ever happens, which would make Hell a place where plans are made, plans are followed, marks are given for attendance and the final exam is three hours long and held in an overly heated gymnasium.
And I have been writing on Slowly too, connecting with strangers one at a time, sometimes only once or twice, sometimes sharing more than a moment with deeper results. This is a project, ongoing and interesting in its noteworthy singularity of randomness, intimacy, anticipation and frustration, rolled into one, like an extra-beany, shredded chicken burrito, with corn and onions.
I’ve been avoiding the news, anything to do with US politics, that idiot Trump and all of his pathetic people, programs, crimes, misdemeanours, misdeeds, the whole wazoo can dangle as much flashy glitter designed to entice me in, to incite anger, outrage, scorn and disbelief and I will not bite. Fuck that. I check a book on Zen practices out of the local library.
Living in K-town I find very agreeable, but really I could be living anywhere. I jettisoned my belongings, the baggage of others, my old identity, my material aspirations (not that they were ever very great.) My needs are basic and easy to meet. I’m never angry and I’m never bored.
Hope you are doing well too.
Bob
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