interpretation

We humans are a story-loving species, from a child asking for a bedtime story, to a startup company needing a "good story" to attract investors, to the super hero movies of Hollywood, and the creation myths of ancient civilizations... good stories entertain, inspire, and pass our legacies on.

Then we like to ask "what does it mean?" Aesop's fables spell out at their endings the morals that convey ageless wisdom; dynastic Chinese history commissioned by its subsequent ruler is more of a victor's op-ed piece than unbiased reporting; the Bible is a series of relational operas between God and people that take theologians forever to interpret.

As a conscious being, I cannot help but have thoughts and ideas about what I experience (the givenness I receive) and what they mean to me.

Interpretation is the voice that goes before and behind every experience, saying, “Wait, there’s more,” giving it meanings.

It takes language and art, symbol and metaphor, image and concept, to approximate and communicate what we personally and collectively experience.  

Humility abiding, I interpret myself as witness to what gives, rather than as lord of what I think.

All experiences are part of a whole story that never ends.

The best interpretation is not so much explanation as it is description.

Conflict of interpretations causes discourse and debate that brings out the truth.

"Who do you say that I am (after your experiences with me)," Jesus asked his disciples. A prophet, a teacher, a revolutionary, or God? He means what you interpret him to be.

A religious or spiritual worldview can preempt and pre-assign interpretations to all life experiences as "rehearsals for eternity", "training for the soul going up next level", for example.

Or, just live well, laugh often, and love much. No interpretation needed.

australia

The land-down-under is about half the distance from Taiwan than from California, and only two or three hours time zone away versus eighteen or nineteen from California, so we decided to take advantage of such geographical givenness and went on a 9-day trip visiting the east-southeastern coast of Australia, specifically, the metropolitan areas of Gold Coast, Sydney, and Brisbane during the Christmas holidays.

​Gold Coast is a collection of small townships with beautiful beach parks and high-rise dominated skyline along a 60 kilometre long coastline. It boasts a spectacular network of navigable waterways made up of five main rivers and many creeks, lakes, and canals. 

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We took a boat along the coast to a shallow shoal where we caught little crawfish in the sand, then used it as bait to catch fish, which I did in less than two minutes! I don't imagine I would have had such fun or luck at my hometown coast in Southern California!

​Going inland, we visited an eco-friendly zoo where we saw many native animals of Australia up close and personal: kangaroo petting, koala holding, lorikeets (Australian parrots) flying overhead, brushturkey and gecko roaming around, as well as enjoying the very original and powerful dancing of the aboriginal people.

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​But nothing beat the excitement of taking a hot air balloon in the early morning, blasting off to thousands feet high, watching the sun gold-glimmering at the edge of a white bubbly clouds ocean in its early rise, the pastoral plain and lakes with resting cows below, the surrounding hills and mountains of the valley, and even the silhouette of some high-rises on the far away coastline.
 

​Sydney is an hour flight south from Gold Coast. Its jagged-edged harbor with a long-spanning coathanger-looking steel bridge alongside the waterfront facing Opera House makes for great looking views from all angles.

​We took a tour inside the Opera House and learned of the engineering and design marvels such as self-cleaning tiles, pipeless drainage, exquisite auditory control, dynamic stage/room configurations, etc. that make the Opera House not only a distinctive venue for performing arts but also a multi-facet facility providing rooms for theatres, studios, restaurants, conferences, ceremonies and social functions.

​Brisbane is yet another nice, neat city of Australia. It has a white-sanded public pool sitting right at the city center against the high-rise backdrop, a street mall where boutique shops and trinket stores and pharmacies and open cafes are all just a few steps away from each other, a city square that features a statue of King George V sitting majestically on a stallion opposite another bronze sculpture featuring a pioneer man on a work horse striving forward with his children around (and a couple of kangaroos in front) ... Perhaps this is the "Aussie Spirit" that I am beginning to sense now, of equal access, and paying respect for both the old world order and the frontier spirit.
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​This was a small 13-people tour group we joined from Taiwan. Though we mostly kept to ourselves, we gradually got to know each other after a few days traveling together. Norman is a man in his mid 50's taking his wife and mother-in-law and aunt-in-law along on this trip, he works as an executive account manager for a semiconductor equipment company headquartered in northern California; Han and Xiu are both semiconductor engineers in their late 40's working at a major fab company in central Taiwan, they have two teen-age daughters whom they left at home for the first time for this trip; Bo, a fun-loving young man in his mid 20's who just got married to a sweet young lady accompanying him on this semi-honey moon trip of theirs, works at an AI startup in Taipei; and FC, the only single person in the group in his early 40's, works at the marketing department of an old school steel manufacturing company in southern Taiwan ... What a perfect dissection of the social, demographic, and industrial reality of modern day Taiwan!

​I enjoyed talking with each of them on occasion during the trip, and on the day of Christmas Eve when we happened to have an Aussie steak dinner at a restaurant, I opened up the red wine (after paying the expensive cork fee to the restaurant) we got from the winery we visited on our first day in Australia to share with everyone, as well as a box of chocolates we bought at a mall in Sydney that day. I think we all had a memorable Christmas Eve in the summer in Australia that evening!

Just as memorable as this whole trip would be!

* For more photos and notes for the trip, go to

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1BxMgpPTMz/

givenness

Now try twisting your head a little, and take this as a premise:

Everything gives... The sun, the tree, the cat, the building, the desk, the tea, the atom... they emanate light, color, shape, smell, sturdiness, elusiveness... all kinds of quality, that the more we bracket our anti-nature attitude, the more their givenness floods into our consciousness.

Then come these inferences:

Givenness is happening all around us.

Givenness comes from a gift that keeps on giving.

Givenness is received to the extent your heart seeks it.

My knowledge of things is initiated not by me but by the things that give themselves to me.

"What gives?", or rather, "Who gives?"... there must be a source that gives, a Giver.

The Giver notices me, so It gives, I notice, so I receive.

A most fitting response to the generosity of givenness is the reciprocal generosity of giving away.

Nothing is lacking where everything is given.

Here is a gracious Chinese song titled "Dedication", that I like to translate to "Giving", with lyrics:

長路奉獻給遠方　玫瑰奉獻給愛情
Long road gives itself to the remote, rose gives itself to love 

我拿甚麼奉獻給你　我的愛人
What do I have to give you, my love

白雲奉獻給草場　江河奉獻給海洋
White cloud gives itself to greenfield, river gives itself to ocean 

我拿甚麼奉獻給你　我的朋友 

What do I have to give you, my friend   

我拿甚麼奉獻給你
What do I have to give you 

我不停的問
I keep on asking 

我不停的找
I keep on looking 

不停的想
I keep on thinking 

白鴿奉獻給藍天　星光奉獻給長夜
White dove gives itself to blue skies, star give its light to the long night 

我拿甚麼奉獻給你　我的小孩
What do I have to give you, my child 

雨季奉獻給大地　歲月奉獻給季節
Rain gives itself to the ground, time gives itself to the season 

我拿甚麼奉獻給你　我的爹娘
What do I have to give you, mom and dad?

Merry Christmas!

bracketing

Do you live a forensic minded life? Do you observe things like a police blotter report, "male, Caucasian, 5 foot 8 inch tall, brown hair, blue eyes, age 35..."

In our haste to "get a quick grasp" of things we encounter, we categorize them with canned ideas and set parameters to stipulate what we think they are, skipping the peculiarities and the subtleties that constitute the whole.

Starting the days when "natural philosophy" became "natural science", when Enlightenment thinkers such as Francis Bacon and John Locke encouraged people to treat nature as an object to be studied, experimented, then conquered, we have gotten better and better slicing nature thinner and thinner, reducing it to nothing but a working mechanism of chemical and physical actions and reactions.

That analytical, indiscriminating mind eventually turns its head on its own kind, treating humanity's "other people" as "the other", the object.

Does knowing the how's and what's lead us to understanding the why's? Do all the detail, technical deconstructs of things and events explain away the mystical sense we feel at heart when we experience wonder and awe?

To quote the conclusion of a short true story I once heard:

"When we fall in love, there are surges of hormones and chemicals and processes that produce the euphoria. So should we just shrug it off and say 'no, love is not worthy of poetry, because it's all just biochemistry', or should we embrace the joy and marvel at the experience?"

Say we try "bracketing" (withholding) such anti-nature attitude for a moment, leaving all our sensory faculty all open, receiving all natural data as they come, with no categorization, no precalculation... like when I swim, instead of forcefully exhale and inhale every time I bob my head above water lest (I thought) I should lack oxygen, I just let go my breath smooth and easy as I row my body through the water, feeling the thrust of my palms against the flow, body slivering through the stream, then inhale smooth and easy when I raise my head above the water; and when sitting in the cool-down well after a hot bubbling one at sauna, instead of counting "one alligator, two alligators, three alligators..." and missing out the ultimate pleasure of feeling my body heat and the surrounding cold meet their perfect equilibrium, I just loosen up my body and quiet my mind, enjoying all the sensations that come and go as they do...

That's Phenomenology 101.

switzerland (+)

Switzerland's railway system is ranked first among national European rail systems for its intensity of use, quality of service and strong safety rating. It's the sole transportation we used during our three-week travel in this mountainous country, through the valleys, around the lakes, to urban cities, and rural villages. A quick check with its mobile app can tell you all the available routes to the destination you want, the exact times of arrival, the stops along the way, the platforms to board, even how crowded each train is.

The train itself is nice and clean, comfy and roomy, with designated spaces for bicycles, luggages, child seats, etc.

On the second day of our trip, I left my phone on the train. As we stood at the platform of the station we just deboarded, wondering who/what to contact for help, another train arrived, and down came a woman conductor for routine check. We told her what happened and she invited us to the train as it must leave on schedule, where she asked for the details of my mishap, and my friend's phone number for call back and assured us they would let us know if they found the phone. We got off the train at the next stop, and decided to go to the customer service counter there to report the loss just to be doubly sure that someone would look for it. As we approached the counter my friend's phone rang, and we handed it to the customer service agent so they could talk in German. Moments later, "they found the phone, and will bring it to this station by one of the next trains coming in. You can come back here to pick it up in about an hour," the customer service agent smiled and told us. And I did get my phone back an hour later, in the middle of nowhere, in rural southeastern Switzerland!

I couldn't be more impressed by and appreciative of the diligence and efficiency of the people and the system there!

The other pleasant surprise thing I encountered in Switzerland was their food. It was in general a good mix of German, Italian, and French cooking—no surprise, as it is the country's population composition—with quality agriculture ingredients (great bread and potato, freshwater fish from the lakes, happy cows on green pasture 😏), homey taste, at reasonable prices. (Average dish at formal dining was about 20% higher than in the US, but then you didn't have to tip, so it's a wash.)

Last but not least, the most pleasant thing of this trip, however, was to be accompanied by Joseph Chou, my best friend from high school, and his wonderful wife Peipei!

They were the ones that planned every detail of the trip: studying the places to visit, setting the itinerary, booking the hotels, reserving the train seats, etc., and led every step of the way as we moved up and down the country. When I said we took on this trip as a self-guided tour, what I really meant was a "Chou-guided" tour!

And I got to enjoy many precious moments with Joseph: in the train, at the summit, on the trail, sharing thoughts and memories of the old and the new. Joseph was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer two years ago and went through a major surgery and chemo treatment last year from which he was still recovering. I am so grateful that we had such a wonderful trip together to reunion and reconnect!

Thank you, Joseph and Peipei, God be with you, and let's do it again sometime!

switzerland (3)

Lausanne is a hilly city on the north shores of Lake Geneva, in the French speaking southwest of the country. It’s home to the International Olympic Committee headquarters, as well as the Olympic Museum and lakeshore Olympic Park. A grand cathedral in a busy old town district, and a street musical festival we bumped into whose charismatic singer and rappy but melodial singing still play back in my mind.  

Bern, the capital of Swiss Confederation, is a modest, everything-within-walking-distance town. It has an "Einstein Museum" (Einstein lived in Bern for seven years, 1902-1909, while working for the Swiss patent office) that not only details the life and stories of Einstein and his times, but teaches you easy-to-understand Special Relativity Theory in ten minutes.

Geneva is another shore city, sitting at the southwestern end of its namesake lake, bordering France, from where John Calvin, a giant of the Reformation Movement, escaped to preach in the city for 28 years before he died. A "Reformation Wall" built on the old fortification walls of the city, depicting key Calvinist and other Protestant figures, represents the significant roles these people and the city played for the success of the Reformation Movement nearly half a millennium years ago.

We took a side tour out of Switzerland to Strasbourg, France for two days before the end of our three-week trip. Strasbourg is a border city in northeastern France across the Rhine River from Germany. It's been historically a contested territory between the two countries for hundreds of years but is now the peaceful seat of the European Union Parliament.

It's also a charming tourist town with a 600-year-old cathedral and a river/canal surrounded old town.

And six Michelin one-star restaurants, one of them we visited.

switzerland (2)

Located at the heart of Switzerland, the Berner Oberland (Bernese Highlands) region is famed for its natural beauty and alpine charm. We rented a three-bed-and-two-bath-room apartment house at a resort tourist town Wengen for four nights to explore the area.

A young woman (Jungfrau), a monk (Mönch), and an ogre (Eiger), all standing 4000+ meters tall—yes, these are names of the famous triumvirate of peaks in Swiss Alps we went to see, at a summit that's 3000 meters tall itself.

Another bigger name peak, Matterhorn, the one Disneyland emulates at its theme park in Southern California for bobsled roller coaster rides, took us a day trip to its access city Zermatt, where besides seeing the 4478-meter tall big rock from anywhere in town, we also watched a short movie at the city museum that documented how the first ascent to the peak was accomplished in 1865, with tragic ending (some climbers died) and unresolved suspicion (was the rope cut intentionally?).

Back at Wengen, I spent one morning taking a cable-car lift to a 2200 meter summit, then a one-and-a-half-hour hike in the snow with my traveling companion Joseph. Worth every bit of my sore feet later that evening!

There are two major lakes in the region, we managed to visit two cities by one of them. At Thun, we saw people surfing on the river, at Spiez, skiing on the lake with some self-propelling gadgets. Eye-openers for a dude from a Southern California beach town!

It was snowing when we left town. The first of the season, said the driver who picked us up for the train station.