Day of Surprises and Revelations


Everyday / Monday, April 30th, 2007

Today is the day for which Birdie and I came to Sanya. Birdie’s birthday! And today is the day that has left me in a strange paroxysm of rage.

I know I am a bit of a strange head, if I may call it so. I act crazily, stupidly, and weirdly and add all the ly’s that you want. But I believe in one thing – there is just one day that we can call our own. Our very own. And that is the day you were born. To me, this is the one day we have to show how blessed we are to have a beautiful person in our lives. Just one day a year. And by gad, I would like to make it speeeezial for the people I love.

I don’t think I failed at the end of this day to make Birdie’s birthday special. What failed me was the people around the circumsphere of her life. I cannot understand and will never understand how a father cannot wish his daughter for her birthday. I cannot understand and will never understand how anyone who claims to love a person can be anything but stamping at the bit, waiting for the hours to turn their ticking so that they can wish that person. People are beyond my understanding – that I always knew – just the same as I cannot understand myself – but some actions are out of understanding – they require no understanding – just the urge to crush the bugs of decrepitude love from pretenders to the throne.

But oh! What a day otherwise. A visit to Yalong Bay. Mighty resorts. Pristine sandy beach. Two hours in a deck chair owned by Holiday Inn. A ride back in a double-decker bus with open windows. The view of southern China so lush and green was quite breathtaking. Coconut palms swaying in the air. Thick clouds of dark rain hiding behind the hills. Water buffaloes roaming in the fields. Farmers with cone-shaped hats sewing green patches into a bald earth. And then surrender to blessed sleep in the hostel room while a storm raged outside. The rain never ceased through the evening. We arrived dripping with its perfume to this supposedly Western restaurant. And I was the bad egg even fighting with Birdie on her birthday. The food was great but overly priced. The waiters were rushing after the whites – racism in China – when will it ever be uprooted?

The call of the waves was enough to make Birdie happy on her birthday. And it made me wonder how the sea, no matter how much it rages, never hurts as much as the follies of man.

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