George Washington’s favorite apricot sauce

American Urological Association (AUA) 2011 Annual Meeting is presently going on at Washington, D.C. A friend of us coming from Taiwan gave a brief presentation of his research finding.  We went to Washington, D.C. to meet up with him before the meeting and took him to Mount Vernon one afternoon.

We stopped by at the Christ Church of Alexandria, VA to sit on George Washington’s family pew to reflect and admire on the way to Mt. Vernon.  This trip is the reenactment of President Franklin Roosevelt, First Lady, and Churchill’s trip to Mt. Vernon on the New Year Day of 1942.  I’ll write a post about this historical trip during the War when I caught up with everything.

We dined at Mt. Vernon Inn in the evening.  Katy and I indulged on Roast Duck which was one half of duckling with George Washington’s favorite apricot sauce.  We both felt that was the best sauce we ever had.  Now we can claim we and George Washington share the same taste.

I wonder why Pirates has been doing well

With Gabby donning her Pirates fan clothing, Pirates has been lifted from the last-placed standing of last year to a respectable position of 17 to 17.  They are not only the Road Warriors winning more series on the road than they did last season, they are also able to win the series at the home turf as they just did beating the Houston Astros.

Thank you, Gabby; you made it happen!

Lilies-of-the-valley: May flower for May Welland in The Age of Innocence

Many enjoy Katy’s posts of the lilies-of-the-valley from our garden and I’ll take advantage of it by introducing Edith Wharton’s The Age of Innocence to enhance your love and enjoyment of the lilies-of-the-valley.  Katy said lily-of-the-valley is a May flower and I wonder this may be the reason why Edith Wharton named May Welland “May” in her novel.

I read The Age of Innocence only after watching Martin Scorsese’s movie almost 20 years ago; movie is good, but I still like the novel better.  I have long forgotten who played May Welland, but Michelle Pfeiffer, playing Ellen Olenska, was an unforgettable character.

There are numerous occasions that Wharton used lily-of-the-valley to portray May Welland.  I will show you how Wharton used flowers to compare and contrast May and Ellen.

In the Opera House before the announcement of the engagement of May and Newland Archer (the protagonist), Newland watched May from another box,

lilies-of-the-valley from our garden

She dropped her eyes to the immense bouquet of lilies-of-the-valley on her knee, as Newland Archer saw her white-gloved fingertips touch the flower softly.  He drew a breath of satisfied vanity and his eyes returned to the stage. . . And he contemplated her absorbed young face with a thrill of possessorship in which pride in his own masculine initiation was mingled with a tender reverence for her abysmal purity. .

The lily-of-the-valley reminds us of May's innocence and purity. Newland sends a bouquet to May on everyday of their engagement..

As she watches Madame Nilsson sing, she blushes and touches a bouquet of lilies-of-the-valley on her knee.

Mrs. Welland and May are standing by the ballroom door. Couples are dancing beyond them. May is holding lilies-of-the-valley and standing with a group of young people, to whom she is revealing her engagement.

The day of the wedding is beautiful, and all of the old ladies have gotten out their old, smelly furs.  Archer stands with his best man on the step of Grace Church. The carriage with May and Mr. Welland is in sight, but they have to prepare in the lobby once they arrive. While this happens, the groom is expected to stand and wait as a sign of his eagerness, and Archer follows this tradition just as he has followed all the other wedding traditions, with resignation. He has done everything right, sending bouquets of lilacs and lilies-of-the-valley to the bridesmaids and cufflinks to the ushers. He’s packed to leave after the wedding, when they’ll take a train to a destination whose location has been carefully guarded, per tradition.

After meeting Ellen alone for the first time, Newland went to his florist realizing he had forgotten sending the flower to May that morning.  After Newland left Ellen’s house, we read,

lilies-of-the-valley in our garden

As he went out into the wintry night, New York again became vast and imminent, and May Welland the loveliest women in it.  He turned into his florist’s to send her the daily box of lilies-of-the-valley which, to his confusion, he found he had forgotten that morning.

As he wrote a word on his card and waited for an envelope he glanced about the embowered shop, and his eye lit on a cluster of yellow roses.  He had never seen any as sun-golden before, and his first impulse was to send them to May instead of the lilies.  But they did not look like her—there was something too rich, too strong, in their fiery beauty.  In a sudden revulsion of mood, and almost without knowing what he did, he signed to the florist to lay the roses in another long box, and slipped his card into a second envelope, on which he wrote the name of Countess Olenska; . . .

So one can see that May Welland whose “abysmal purity” is like the lilies-of-the-valley whereas Ellen Olenska is as exotic, vivacious, and stunningly beautiful as the yellow rose. 

A gardener’s job is never done

It is a Labor Day for us, not Mother Day for Katy. Apart from making rounds in the hospital, we worked in the garden all day until it is too dark to work. O.K. I have to admit that I took 3-hour off to watch Pirates winning a game against Houston Astros. Katy worked straight through.

Do not ask me what we did in the garden all day; all I can say is a gardener’s job is never done. The photos show the new additions in the garden: a peach tree and a plum tree; we hanged the hot pink geraniums and impatiens hanging baskets beside them to make them feel welcomed.

Gardening is a way of showing you believe in tomorrow

While we’re away for a Mother Day’s dinner for the Taiwanese Americans Association and a shopping spree for the garden at Phipps Garden, Gabriel Brothers (no store without a garden sale nowadays) and WalMart, someone “broke into” our garden and hanged a sign of “Gardening is a way of showing you believe in tomorrow” (see photo); we do not know who she or he was; it must be God send; it must be from an angel. Thanks!

Rapturous and riotous roar: My two-sentence letter-to-the-editor at Observer-Reporter

I selected two sentences from a FB post of my comment on royal wedding and sent it to the Observer-Reporter and the editor must have agreed that it is worth reading.

I am pleased I used the “rapturous and riotous roar” (three R’s, alliteration, that's it); this is a joyful occasion that might even evokes ecstatic feeling on some, thus ‘rapturous’, the fact that the little girl covers her ears, saying it must be a clamorous uproar, thus appropriate to say ‘riotous roar”, given the size of the crowd.  This is also my lighthearted attempt to justify the ‘not-happy-looking’ girl photo to fit the happy occasion.

Emily Dickinson’s and 陳英毅’s flowers: literary work

Emily Dickinson’s garden was her refuge, sanctuary, and the inspiration for her poetry.  Her flowers were metaphors of her own self or religious emblems.  Seeing her tulips and hyacinths came back every spring, signifying the Christian mystery of death and resurrection.  We read “Did you ever know that a flower, once withered & freshened again, became an immortal flower,--that is, that it rises again?  I think resurrections here [in her garden] are sweeter, it may be, than the longer and lasting one.” in a letter she wrote at the age of 21.

I came across a post in Facebook by my cousin, 陳英毅 (an ophthalmologist and a well known photographer of professional caliber) whose work with a title of “re-birth or new birth” (新生)—see photo below—is currently on display (May 1 to May 31) at the Cultural Center in Taichung, Taiwan.

The photo shows a delicate white flower growing from a crack of the rough and rusty metal door.  The hard, jagged, vulgar metal, representing the bygone past, is in stark contrast to the ethereal beauty of the flower, delicate and refined yet with a robust and vigorous future.

The way 英毅 takes his picture is the same way Emily wrote her poems; both are art/literary work.

Is this the first or the second royal kiss?

I commend on Observer-Reporter’s ingenious selection of their headline royal wedding picture on April 30.  Covering her ears, the little girl let us hear the rapturous and riotous roar of the crowd in response to the royal kiss, bringing us closer to the joyful occasion.  If one cannot tell this was the first or the second kiss, one doesn’t pay enough attention; further ‘study’ is in order.  If one looks for pomp and circumstance, turn to England.  The British royalty never runs short of it and they never hesitate to show it if the occasion arises; and this is it.  If the little girl saw what William and Kate were doing, she might even cover her eyes.

Lively Lesson: Tata is on the news at the Observer-Reporter

This is on April 28 Observer-Reporter.  Francis Rafail, the most famous piñata artist in Greene County, demonstrated making piñata in the Youngsters at Morrisville Head Start, in cooperation with Intermediate Unit 1.  The children assembled the globes using newspaper and then painted them, all under the watchful eye of Rafail (the one standing in the photo).

We have seen many of his piñata art work over the years as he is the beloved grandfather of our son-in-law, Sean.

Katy’s report at世界日報: How to raise kids? No need to be a Tiger Mother, following Tom Chen’s 5 As and 1 B

(You may read the online version directly by clicking the following link)

http://www.worldjournal.com/view/wjnjpanews/12853034/article-%E4%B8%8D%E7%95%B6%E8%99%8E%E5%AA%BD-%E4%BA%94A%E4%B8%80B%E6%95%99%E5%87%BA%E5%A5%BD%E5%AD%A9%E5%AD%90?instance=panews

Mr. Tom Chen, the lecturer of “The Happy Life” (幸福人生) lecture series, gave a talk on “How to build up an excellent parent-child relationship” at the Pittsburgh Chinese School on April 17.  Katy’s dispatch to the World Journal (世界日報) was published on April 20.  His highly informative and articulate talk came with a sense of humor and was derived from the breadth and depth of his knowledge in many fields that include traditional Chinese philosophy.  The talk greatly benefited the parents of Chinese School family.

The Happy Life lecture series began 16 years ago.  Chen emphasized he is not an expert in the education field, but he was glad to share his personal experience and observation.

He made an analogy of raising kids to the “Old Cantonese” making soup, all depending on the material available.  It is essential for parents to respect the child as an individual, unnecessary interference is best to be avoided.  All parents love to see their children successful and prosperous.

陳世瑞談教育子女問題，聽眾會心微笑

His advice to the parents are characterized as Five (5) A’s and One (1) B.

The first A is “All”—providing an all around education, not just narrowly focusing on academic education.  The second A is “Accountable”—to be responsible; to have self esteem and self-identity.  The third A is “Accept”—accepts that not everything in life is under our control; do not unreasonably burden your children with the goal that was not attainable by you.  No need to push “straight A” at all times.  The fourth A is “Adaptable”—parents need to learn to adapt to the change of the goal of their children as it happens.  Not everyone is the Ivy League material; some may excel in the vocational schools.  The fifth A is “Appreciate”—to appreciate what the children really are; learn to be content as long as their children are good persons and complaints achieve nothing.

The only B is “Balance—being thrift is a virtue, but excessive frugality and stinginess, bordering on being “cheap” is to be avoided.  Communication is the key; resorting to reproach and blame or being oppressive is an exercise in futile.

In the question and answer session, Chen stated that there is no need to be a Tiger Mother, notwithstanding her making a handsome profits from her popular book and that her daughter has been accepted by Harvard.  Chen also pointed out the likes of Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg are in the category of “geniuses”; mere copycat will not do it.

[伊利華報]的主編蒲英介紹主講人陳先生

Chen also briefly introduced the traditional Chinese philosophy dated back to 3000 years.  There are three schools of thoughts in the field of education.  It is a “positive education” (正面教育) of Confucius and Mencius, “negative education” (反面教育) from Laozi and Zhuangzi (老莊).  These philosophies teach how to see things from different perspectives.  Then the most abstract concept of  “all things are empty”(四大皆空) that leads us to tranquility and equanimity in life.  To pass along the traditional Chinese philosophy to the American-born children is the most challenging and daunting task, indeed.

(The following is Katy’s dispatch)

不當虎媽 五A一B教出好孩子

【賓州匹茲堡訊】 世界新聞網 北美華文新聞、華商資訊

April 20, 2011 06:00 AM

匹茲堡「幸福人生」講座主講人陳世瑞，17日在匹茲堡中文學校演講「如何有優良親子關係」，他談吐風趣，演講旁徵博引，華人家長獲益良多。

陳世瑞推廣「幸福人生」講座迄今已16年。他自稱在家中排行第九，北京大學畢業的父親與「小腳母親」根本不管他功課，任其自由發展。他在實驗室工作20年，娶妻生子。他說自己不是專家，不能教大家如何教育小孩，但願意分享自己的經驗。

他形容帶小孩像「老廣煲湯」，要看材料去決定作清湯或濃湯。父母必須尊重子女是獨立個體，不要干預子女，樂見兒女事業有成。

他建議父母做到「五A一B」。

所 謂五A，是(一)All。給子女全方位的德智體群生活教育。不要只重念書，缺乏其他生活自理能力。(二)Accountable。對自己言行負責，清楚定 位。別不中不西，讓孩子無從適應。(三) Accept。接受自己無法掌控的人生，別把自己達不到的理想寄託到孩子身上。不能要求孩子每次都考100分。(四)Adaptable。父母調整自己去 接受子女人生目標的改變。子女沒能力上長春藤大學，改讀職校也可以。(五) Appreciate。感謝小孩健康長大。沒為非做歹，父母知足，少對子女抱怨。

所謂一B是Blance。父母要生活平衡。節儉是美德，但別過分儉省到被在美出生的子女視為小氣寒酸。他叮嚀父母與小孩溝通，千萬不能動怒責打，不能強權高壓，反徒勞無功.

陳世瑞和中文學校周宏英校長與邵際平

聽眾問答時，陳世瑞同意虎媽的書非常暢銷，女兒入讀哈佛大學，名利雙收。另外，他認為美國一些大學沒畢業，事業卻很成功的人都是「天才」，但一般人不要隨便東施效顰。

他說，中國3000年歷史根基，建立在儒釋道三種教育。可在年少時學孔孟儒家的「正面教育」，及長再學老莊的「反面教育」，老了再學佛道的「四大皆空」。如何把中國哲學傳遞給在美出生的華裔子女，是對中國父母的最大挑戰。

他希望教育小孩，不必像虎媽那樣兇悍，也同樣成功。(張瓊月)

Timeless beauty: The ancient magnolia next to our garden

Everything around the garden has to meet the criteria of aesthetic beauty and this beautiful magnolia is qualified and accepted to be a neighbor.  It is an ancient flower, dated back to 95 millions years ago; in fact, it evolved before bees appeared; thus it evolved to adapt to the beetles as pollinators.  One can see and feel the tough carpels that can stand the crawling beetles.
 

Wild flowers are also flowers—no discrimination, please

The grass was all sprinkled with dandelions (copied from Anne of Green Gables)—you may think it is a pleasing sight, but it is also considered not diligent in cutting the grass.  I personally am not discriminated against the wild flowers; to me a flower is a flower is a flower; and oftentimes I cannot tell a ‘wild’ flower from the so-called flower.  Emily Dickinson loved spring and wild flowers; in a letter to her friend (Mrs. A.P. Strong) she wrote from Holyoke Female Seminary (later evolved into Mount Holyoke College) on May 16, 1848,

“How glad I am that spring has come, and how it calms my mind when wearied with study to walk out in the green fields and beside the pleasant streams in which South Hadley is rich!  There are not many wild flowers near, for the girls have driven them to a distance, and we are obliged to walk quite a distance to find them, but they repay us by their sweet smiles and fragrance.

The older I grow, the more do I love spring and spring flowers.  Is it so with you? While at home there were several pleasure parties of which I was a member, and in our rambles we found many and beautiful children of spring, which I will mention and see if you have found them—the trailing arbutus, adder’s tongue, yellow violets, liver-leaf, bloodroot, and many other smaller flowers.

What are you reading now? . . . .”

While checking out The Garden of Emily Dickinson, I also checked out Dickinson Letters.  One has to be well versed in prose before one can write beautiful verses.  It is a delight to read her letters.  April is the National Poetry Month, last week there was an op-ed at the Wall Street Journal with a title of “What John Keats Can Teach a CEO”, in which several poets, including Emily Dickinson were mentioned.  I think it is a bit over-stretched; nevertheless, a good CEO has to be well versed in prose; that much I’m convinced.

Such a fragrant bloom of hyacinths ("The hyacinths that embarrass me by their loveliness")

I took time to take these close-up pictures of hyacinths in our garden; I was rewarded with such a pleasant fragrance being close to them. I would like to think they exude fragrance to charm me when they heard my step coming. Not only do they want to be seen; they also want you to be close to them to appreciate the whole of their beauty. Juechoo said “我闻到香味了” (I have smelled the fragrance); let’s hope next generation computer can relay and release the fragrance that I am delivering to you all.

Forrest Rubenstein The fragrance is wonderful - esp the purple variety. They make the entire house smell great for at least a week. Wish we could get them to grow in our garden - have to resort to buying potted hyacinths here.

Jer-Yuan Tsai Emily Dickinson’s friendship with Mr. J.D. Clark began in 1882 through the death of one dear to them both; in one of the letters she wrote him in March 1883, “I wish I could show you the hyacinths that embarrass us by their loveliness, though to cower before a flower is perhaps unwise, but beauty is often timidity—perhaps oftener pain.” Emily always treated flowers as her equals. I think she was talking about that beauty can be intimidating and that can cause pain.

The title of this post is probably “The hyacinths that embarrass me”.
 

I read the books my daughters read or sent

I have previously mentioned the many books that our daughters sent me for my continuing education and to enrich my library.  Marcus Cicero said, “If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.”

I now have more than what I need—Cicero couldn’t predict the tablet eReader nearly 2,200 years ago—but I am sure he would argue that eReaders is just part of a library.

Every so often I read the books that our daughters read before they went away to colleges.  I recently read Summer of My German Soldier.  Inside its cover Jo wrote, “Mrs. Banicki gave this book to me for winning the class spelling bee 1990-91”, so Jo must read it during her middle school days.

One day last year Jo called me while I was at Half-Price Books saying she was reading William Young’s The Shack. I didn’t pick up that book that day but read it at Jo’s home while baby-sitting Ben and Gabby last August.

Last year Jo said she read Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1982).  I paid $2 to get the book at Citizens Library (Washington, PA) book sale a few months ago and it is on my “active” reading list.  I do not read one book at a time.

While talking about reading books at Sermo, every so often I would read a young female physician wrote, “I wish my kids would grow up soon” so she can go back to her avid readings days.  Little do we realize many young mothers sacrifice the joy of readings for the sake of their young children.

Joy said she just read Pride and Prejudice and re-read Anne of Green Gables on her iPhone.  I rarely read Canadian authors and Lucy Maud Montgomery would be the ideal one to begin.  After reading the first chapter, I know I cannot put it down.  I recently paid $3.99 for an eBook from Barnes&Noble that contains 81 classic novels, and Anne of Green Gables is one of them.  But I still read it at iPad iBook (it is a free eBook) as highlighting is easier.

Tulips in our garden and Emily Dickinson’s garden and poem

As I promised the tulips in our garden, I am posting this in their honor and praise. They may not be as many as in Phipps but as pretty and proud, if not more so. Emily Dickinson’s floral poems are oftentimes subtle; the theme hidden or implicit. The following is about her tulips and their responsiveness to her affection.

She slept beneath a tree
Remembered but by me.
I touched her cradle mute;
She recognized the foot,
Put on her carmine suit, --
And see!

“Put on her carmine suit” sheds further light that most of Emily’s tulips are red; the same as those in ours, as Kate (in anticipating William & Kate’s coming wedding, I’ll address Katy as Kate in a celebratory mood) is often a Lady in Red and she was the one bought those tulip bulbs last November. Carmine is a natural food red coloring, so “put on her carmine suit” is her blooming red tulips.

Star-of-Bethlehem in Phipps Garden and Emily Dickinson’s

Carnegie Library and Phipps Garden are not adjacent by each other, but with a strong arm, Garden is only a stone's throw away from the Library (I do have strong arms, at least Chia-Lin said I do, seeing how I worked on the infrastructure of the garden). I went to Carnegie Library yesterday afternoon then joined Katy at Phipps. One of the books I checked out was The Gardens of Emily Dickinson; the visits to both places are relevant and essential.

Like Emily’s garden, ours is our refuge, sanctuary, and inspiration for literary expression, however limited though it may be.

We spotted the Star-of-Bethlehem at Phipps and it was no surprise that one would see lots of Star-of-Bethlehem in Emily’s garden as they have a pleasant scent—a favorite of Emily! Hopefully they will be in our garden next season. The name of Star-of-Bethlehem comes from its six-petaled star-like white flowers, each petal being lined down the center with green.