the Earth Shattering Force

For the past week, every time I turned on TV, my eyes start to swell up with tears, without even identifying the emotions. The most heart wrenching picture has been this one: the school bags being lined up neatly on the ground but their owners will never return to claim them. I cannot bring myself to post more horrific images.

The Chinese culture has been very good at channeling emotions towards something collectively viewed as positive and progressive. That’s how in the long history of China, when someone won the love from the mass of people, he became the emperor to be worshiped. Then he was destroyed by the same people if and when he wore out the affection and became corrupted. Today, with broken-heart, everybody alive pours their emotions towards the heart land of the country. There, tens of thousand lives were taken away because the heartless and evil dragon made a turn in his bed – a Chinese way to describe an earth quake. Besides tears and emotions, we pour in the money, something considered as very useful collectively in the recent two decades.

I went to donate one of the husband's paintings for an auction for the people in the quake-stricken. While I was stepping into the building, all the people already came down to have the moments of silence as a way to say farewell to the deceased. With a heavy heart, I joined them. I am very proud to be part of this collective force awaiting us upon our return.