With Fondness

I was searching through old notes, and I saw that I jotted this in July 2012, a full five months after Opening's last performance. It seems like it takes me a while to get over the things I'm emotionally committed to:

"I used to think that Viennese Ball was right around the corner -- that we would reunite and things would be wonderful again. Now, I recognize that we will never recapture those emotions, never gather that group together, never be in association with each other again. And so anticipation fades, and Viennese Opening Committee moves into the past, into the realm of memory and of pleasant recall, nothing more than shades and sepia photographs and laughter long forgotten. Oh, there is still a pleasant glow about the idea of it, but it is decidedly in the past tense. It is inexorably, unchangeably over, and it won't return. I know that now, so I can say goodbye."

Named at Birth

The next pair of pandas shipped out from China should be called 「自由」 and 「平等」。If they have a cub we'll call it 「民主」。

下一對運出的大熊貓應該叫「自由」 與「平等」，如果有新生的幼仔，叫它「民主」。

* 自由 = liberty, freedom;  平等 = equality; 民主 = democracy