Let the Caged Bird Sing

We have walked and walked the past few days. Blown away at every turn with both the unparalleled opulence of the palaces here in Beijing as well as the incredible amount of construction going on in this enormous city as they get ready for "Beijing 2008." We have been lucky to meet a friend here who is teaching English and Business at a local university and we have befriended a few of the students.

It is downright amazing the platform a white-faced person who is willing to teach English has with his/her students immediately. Many social workers around the world would give their thumb for this... We have been lucky to have a few of the students take us around the past two days. Yesterday we went to the most ornate and GIGANTIC temple complex I have ever seen called the Summer Palace had an amazing "Hot Pot" dinner (where the 7 of us ate our fill in a private room for a whopping 14 dollars!) Our conversations with the students were really good. It has been impressed upon me that whatever the beliefs or leadership persuasions here, there are 1.3 billion dearly loved people here.

The students spent 3 hours yesterday presenting us with every Chinese taboo, superstition, cultural dynamic and business practices that they could think about it. I would have given someone 500 bucks for their presentations, but they were totally excited to present them to us. Today we went to the Great Wall and Bei Hai "park" (another enormous palace complex Bei Hai = Northern Sea). Again the students were awesome and saved us a fortune by showing us how to get into places cheaper and ride public transportation as well as good places to eat for a buck!

A brief aside....As we were looking at the menus I notices that the translation of a dish basically said that the meat had been boiled in the urine of a small cow. I laughed quite easily at this. The girls with us said that the restaurant's "ching-lish" was poor!

As I said before, the students are really open about their views when they are away from everyone else. Without going into details, it was clear that the desire for liberty is universal. This was made abundantly clear when the Way was referred to positively by a seeker because it "doesn't seem to be all about rules." a / m / e / n

As for the catchy title: I went for a walk this evening to talk to dad and think about the people here. I ended up on something slightly resembling a street. It was very dark, very narrow and very long. People were passing by on bikes and the occasional car, and there were little shops still open on one side of the street. As I was walking I began to get a bit nervous and question the wisdom of my choice of location for my walk. I came upon a non-descript shop brightly lit with florescent bulbs and the most beautiful Chinese young woman I have seen yet sitting against the door frame. She smiled at me and waved and I politely waved back. As I walked on a few more steps she smoothly extended her arm and beaconed me forward. Now, I don't know for sure what she wanted but whatever it was it most likely wasn't anything good.

I quickened my pace and the place just seemed darker. The only sound was the clack clack of sandaled feet as they walked by and the silent stare of a very confused old man standing on the side of the street exposing himself for all the world to see. I couldn't help but see the brokenness of the situation and think that tonight this poor young woman would probably be abused and began to hope that one day a group of friends would meet on this street. As I walked on a few more blocks in the darkness that was more than what is not seen with the eye; I heard another young woman singing her heart out in a melody that my soul remembers from somewhere deep even if the words were unknown to my ears. I looked and she was silhouetted against a dark building by the open door behind her. The juxtaposition of the two young ladies could not be more clear. The first was bound by a darkness that is so deluded that it's presence is likely only occasionally felt...if at all.

The second woman, silhouetted as she was, singing a melody with uncharacteristic abandon...it literally screamed of freedom. Not the political connotation that is so often associated with this word, but with the soul's longing to be free from the bondage that holds it down. This too is universal for those who are alone, even to those who cannot put words, let alone the remedy, to their situation. Her song wafted through the street like a long caged bird finally liberated from silent darkness that once held her. I dwelt on this as I walked and then I noticed something interesting....the next woman who came by me on a bike was singing. The next man I came across at an open shop was singing, and the next one was humming a tune I almost recognized. The unseen darkness lifted and the thought of this being an "un-wise" choice for a walking location was dispelled as well as the fear that had silently slipped up the back of my spine. I was sure that I had seen what I was supposed to see and the message was beautifully driven home. There is only one light in the darkness, and how will they know unless......

I am grateful for the opportunity to be here this Summer with the one I love and so many at home thinking of us this Summer. We are off to Hangzhou tomorrow and I will be able to access the internet more often to update things as we go, thus avoiding massive posts like this. :-)

Feel free to post responses if you managed to read it all!

Love,

Jonathan (for Katy)