What tiny slice of this place fits into my frame of reference?

Today Sally and I paid the big bucks to hire a driver and an English speaking guide to take us out of the city to a place where the Great Wall goes through the mountains and then to another mountain called Panshan. Through the windows of the backseat of the shiny black 4 door sedan, we witnessed the hazy, foggy concrete and metal city of 12 million fade into blue sky, sunshine and a mountainous terrain of rock and dry vegetation. The farms of green wheat sprouting in the valleys watered my parched spirit with serenity and offered a brilliant constrast to the dusty mountains rising in all directions. Villagers dried sliced hawthorn berries and ears of corn by the bushel on drying racks on the sides of the road and on rooftops. We chit-chatted with "Susan," our 23 year old guide, about matters of culture and history, finding her English to be nearly impeccable (aside from the mysterious misuse of male and female pronouns, which seems to be a particular Chinese quirk.) Our conversations included many important topics, such as : homosexuality (accepted within the younger generation), modern day concubines (not uncommon among the elite and government officials), the one child law (they tie the woman's tubes afterwards), and the government's protection of ethnic minorities (they are allowed more than one child). Of course, Susan's perspective is but one of over a billion, but what else do we have to go on for making any sense of this nation in our little American heads, other than our first impressions?

The sunshine, mountains and fresh air gave me the psychic space to both laugh freely and to think (an ordinary, everyday task which seems to come only with strained effort amidst the respiration of this city, 12 million souls moving their way through their world, collectively inhaling and exhaling a grey, coal powered breath of smog and strangeness). My mind wandered to the phenomenon of "first impressions." When a place is entirely new and foreign, what ability does my mind have to perceive the place the eyes are seeing, the nose is smelling, the ears are hearing and, perhaps most importantly, the pulse the soul is sensing? How can my mind possibly register any part of this place other than the parts that are perceived as familiar? I go back and read my very first impressions of China, and what I wrote about was the way I felt I could relate to the movement of people through space here and to the perceived demeanor of the people. Other first impressions are most certainly comprised of a series of comparisons of my perceptions of this place to what I know of the place that is my home. My standards for comprehension are entirely based upon what I know. What tiny slice of this place fits into my frame of reference?

That led me to ponder one of my big life quests: What does it take to know a place? Maybe to know a place requires remaining in that place long enough that I merge with the place. That the pulse of the my life attunes itself to the pulse of the place- its seasons, it schedules, its music, its gods, its demons, the waxing and waning of its life forms- its very breath. And living with this pulse with continually renewed awakeness. I hope I can do that in my home. I surrender hope of doing it anywhere else.

(Jesus, I should start a seminar at Greenlife Community Center. It could be called: "The Soul's Knowing of Place: Continuous Renewal of Awakeness." It could be a sliding scale cost of $135-$480 for a half day, and maybe it could be facilitated by someone named Shanti Imari Flying Eagle Watersong...)

Monday morning, Nov 30

Monday morning, Nov 30 in China means Sunday night November 29 at home. I am recovering from either a case of food poisoning or a 24 hour stomach bug. It wasn't too bad, but did include a fever and lots of discomfort. Soooo, ole Dane is home alone at the "gongyu" (apartment) today, keeping her own company. Sally got here last night, which is great. Momma and Poppa Nagle and sick Dana and Sally had a funny night in this small apartment, with various combinations of people being up and down all night and conversing for various reasons. I was in the weird world of fever, Sally was in the weird world of jet lag, and who knows what weird world the parents were in. Probably the weird world be of being super excited for another English speaking person to talk to. Fresh blood.
After I write for this blog I will probably entertain myself by sitting in the back window and watching restaurant
Sally and I are going to try to hire a driver to take us to a place called Shanhaiguan pass. It is the place where the Great Wall goes into the sea, and it's about 3 hours north of here. It will be nice to get out of Tianjin, which is very industrial and grey and ugly. I hate to call the home of 11 million people ugly, but it just is. Lots of days there is a haze of smog or fog or a combination of the 2 so thick it makes me feel like I am half awake all day. You can't see very far and the sun weirdly filters through (if it filters through at all). I am surprised Mom and Jenna are not suffering vitamin D deficiency for being here 3 months.
I am including photos of the city. I like a blur and foggy aspects of some of the photos, because that is sort of how it is here for me- foggy and blurry- the days smush into each other in a cold bizarre haze. The street shots are of the walk from the apartment to the hospital. The big pink building at the end of one of the photos is the hospital. It is actually called the First Teaching Hospital Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine International Medical Rehabilitation Mansion. I kid you not. I am also including a picture of the hospital at night, with the name all lit up in red. Did I already mention that they treat 4000 outpatients a day and there are 1000 inpatient sick beds? More people cram into the elevators there than I would have to a party...
The picture of the hazy skyline is the view from Jenna's room.

Fo-Pas and such

Today I was in the elevator at the hospital and I tried to say "12" to the elevator attendent in Chinese, and everyone in there (I mean everyone and the elevators are crowded) looked at me and repeated what I said and cracked up. Later I was trying to say "bye bye" to Jenna's helper Lulu and I accidentally said "dumpling." Lulu and I spend our down time in the room teaching each other words such as "apartment" and "God bless you" and "carrot."
Today was Sunday, Jenna's day off, and Jenna and I came over to the apartment for the afternoon so that she could get the hell out of the hospital room. (The doctor almost didn't let us because "many people on the outside have H1N1".) We sat in the "sun room" and watched some people in the alley down below cut up some bloody meat in a plastic garbage bag down on the nasty ground and then put it in a big vat to take in the back of the restaurant that is there to cook.
Last night I was looking out the window and I swear I saw a ferret run through the parking lot. I guess it could have been a cat. Also, dump trucks worked late into the night delivering loads of asphalt fixins to the road next to the apartment. And there is a little girl directly upstairs who alternates running crazily through the apartment, playing the piano very badly and having temper tantrums.

My Chinese treatments

We are at the First Teaching Hospital of Tianjin, which is the biggest and most famous Traditional Chinese Medicine hospital in China. It is a teaching hospital, where doctors receive their training. Every morning, the doctor, who looks like a combination of Dr. Spock and the antagonist Jade Fox from Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, comes in the room with about 8 trainees. They are wearing masks. We (whoever of the Nagle family is wanting a treatment) are expected to be lying on the beds and ready when they come in promptly at 9:00. First the doctor needles Jenna all over her head, face, ears, and legs. Then she pulls down half of my pants to needle me in the butt, hip and low back (because I am getting treated for what has become chronic hip pain). My needles stay in 10 minutes, and Jenna's stay in 20 minutes. Once my needles are removed they haul in this device called a "Computer Fumigate", which I lie down on and put my butt in a large basin that has small holes in the bottom. Underneath that basin is a pot of steaming herbs. My butt and hip are steamed from this device for 30 minutes. After that a nurse comes in for "cupping." This is where many glass cups are suctioned onto the body using a heat vacuum (from a small flame). Jenna gets 12 cups over her lungs for 5 minutes, and then I get 8 or so cups over my butt and hip and low back. This leaves many round bruises from the suction. The cupping improves circulation and such. After that, the nurse brings in a hot herbal compress wrapped in a towel that is placed on my hip for 20-30 minutes. Then the nurse pulls down half of my pants again and rubs some black salve all over my hip and puts a heat lamp over it for 20 minutes. Then for the rest of the day I take herbal pills and drink nasty bitter hot herbal tea from a plastic bag. It is quite intensive. Jenna gets acupuncture again in the afternoon and also tui-na massage. She also gets physical therapy (called "functional exercises" in China) and drinks herbal drinks and such. Sometimes a translator comes in and says things like (to my Mother) "The doctor says you elder daughter probably has pain because your elder daughter does much hard labor." Or (to my mother) "The doctor says perhaps you have stomach pain because perhaps you should wear more clothing." The doctors, physical therapist and massage therapist all answer cell phone calls while treating the patient. The physical therapy has been great for Jenna, but maybe more on that in another post.

Today my hip is starting to hurt less and last night I did not wake up from pain at all (first time in months). In fact I slept so hard Mom had to kick the bed to wake me up after 10 hours. Either my hip was better or I was having some sort of delayed jet lag...

Dear Readers: (from China)

Dear Readers,
I am happy to report to you that I am safe and sound in China. Tianjin to be exact. I am also happy to report that Jenna, my mei mei (little sister), is doing well, gaining weight and improving her balance and working really hard on her health program here. I am less than happy to report that China does not grant access to my blog, which means I cannot update it from here. Don’t you worry, though. I have connections in USA who will transcribe tidbits onto the blog for me so that you, Dear Readers, can be “in the know” (or “in the no” however you want to look at it…)
First of all let me tell you that it is really cold and crowded and dirty here. There are frozen phlem balls and other such nasties all over the streets. There are people and cars and bikes everywhere, a constant flow of movement of humans. It is very different than the atmosphere I prefer. But having said that, let me notify you that my first impression of the people here and the way they move through their world has been surprisingly pleasant. They seem practical and industrious, traditional yet curious, modest but confident, non aggressive yet assertive. They seem like a paradoxical and complex bunch. These are just first impressions.

Let me provide you with 2 lists:
First, Things in China that Delight Me:
*Steamed Dumplings
*Crimped Hair-dos
*Older women doing some sort of dance routine in a courtyard early in the morning with red fans when it is 20 F degrees
*The commonplace use of medicinal herbs everywhere and seemingly by everyone
*Tea
* Weird shit that’s in fashion like the belt buckle in photo
* Quail eggs
* Jenna’s caregiver Lulu who stands in the window and gazes out over the city and sings to herself very beautifully and quietly

Things in China that do not Delight Me:
•Being a foreigner who does not understand jack for shit
•Piles of miniature dog shit
•Having a doctor pull down my pants in front of a bunch of interns to stick
Acupuncture needles in my hip (ass showing to all)
•Concrete jungle


Those are a couple of little listy-poos for you. Other than that I am just staying busy being with Jenna, getting treatments myself, walking to and from the hospital, trying to learn some Chinese, manhandling family dynamics, etc. Thanks for checking on me and keep checking. If this post works I will try to do more through USA friends.
Love, Dana

Big Day #1

I like to buy beautiful, serene, and remotely located land from my good friends, and then eat chocolate truffles and drink toddies out of lovely china. Then a few days later, I like to go to China, to a crowded and dirty city that is, pretty much, the polar opposite of the land I just purchased. But that's just me.

Cornflower Blue Mix, in some detail

Rosemoon (see Moonmeadow Farm blog link) recently did a blog post which was a sort of an ode to the color blue. I found out she had never heard the Kate Wolf song Cornflower Blue, so I decided to make her a mix cd that starts with Cornflower Blue and then contains a set list of songs that I feel compliment it. Here are the songs I selected and maybe a little something about each one:

1) *Cornflower Blue by Kate Wolf: This song is not only the most beautiful musical ode to a color that I have ever heard, it is also the sweetest and most sentimental of love songs. Kate Wolf takes her sweet time in the delivery of this song, which makes the quality of sweetness top notch.

2) *Southern Moon by the Louvin Brothers: This ode to the South, the moon and old times, delivered in the classic harmonies of Charlie and Ira Louvin, does country music justice, big time.

3) Wagon Wheel by Old Crow Medicine Show: This song is perfect for driving or dancing around the kitchen. It is incidentally also about coming home South.

4)*In the Great Beyond by the Primitive Quartet: sweet Western North Carolina gospel about life after death (in Heaven of course)

5)*Trouble in Mind by Roscoe Holcomb: This man lived and sang and played banjo in Kentucky. His voice is excrutiatingly high- very exhilirating

6)*Pale Moon by Uncle Earl: This song is a dear waltz by an old time girl band. The lovely fiddle is played by my friend Rayna Gellert.

7) You are My Flower by Willie Nelson ( a Carter Family song)

8) *We Will Pray by Eliza Lynn: a waltzy, lullaby-like song that is so comforting you might cry

9) *Rush of the Fall by Eliza Lynn: so sad, so beautiful; another waltz

10) Rambling Boy by the Del McCoury Band (a Carter Family song)

11) I'm Thinking Tonight of My Blue Eyes by the Carter Family: call me crazy, but I think Carter Family love songs are kind of creepy, but in a way I like...

12) My Rose of Old Kentucky by Bill Monroe: Songs about roses are quality. Period.

13) Mother Pray by Ben Harper and the Blind Boys of Alabama: This is an a capella rendition of an old spiritual that I can listen to over and over.

14)*What Would You Give in Exchange for Your Soul by the Monroe Brothers: Emily Staton put this song on a cd for me and when it came on the harmonies almost made me gasp. I listened to the song over and over.

15) Van Lear Rose by Loretta Lynn

16) Love is a Rose by Linda Ronstadt: I'm partial to rose songs, obviously.

17) *If the Devil Wrote a Honky Tonk Song by Lance Mills: I heard Lance Mills play (accompanied by Will Straughan) at Trail Fest this year in Hot Springs. The music was so beautiful I bought a cd. I have practically worn that thing out over the last 6 months. This song is a catchy and clever blue grass tune about good old fashined sinning.

18) Dear Someone by Gillian Welch: I admit this song is sort of cheezy. But it is a waltz and it is sweet and lullaby-ish and I like it pretty well.

19) Gold Watch and Chain by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band (A Carter Family song): "Oh the white rose that blooms in the garden, it grows with the love of my heart. It broke through on the day that I met you. It will die on the day that we part." Very nice arrangement of this song, including what sounds to me like an accordian...

20) *Telluride by Kate Wolf: This, ladies and gentlemen, is my idea of a perfect song. It has everything a song should: it tells a story, it has sentimentality at an almost unbearable level, it conveys a strong sense of place, it has real characters, it has a lovely instrumental section, and the harmonies are perfect. Once again, Kate took her time delivering this song, and even so, it always ends too soon. Because it is a perfect song.

* These are songs/artists that I highly recommend listening to if you haven't before. Of course, I think you should check out everything on this list, but particularly the marked ones.