Nature is dynamic opposites, forever turning and changing. Fire is huo. Fire is in lamps and baking ovens. It is in the grey color of a smoky cooking fire indoors. Fire is firecrackers and dynamite, burnt pans, and fiery boiling infections.
Water flows. It carves and smoothes the hardest, most jagged, rocks. Water gives life in the form of grains, beans, vegetables, and fruits. In floods, it kills millions. Its power is awesome. Water is shui. It is life – rivers, streams, and sand. It is washing, rinsing, sweating, and swimming. The three dots of water are a part of soup, oil, wine, and the sea.
Farms in south China and Taiwan cultivate two crops of rice a year. Dry cut fields lie side to side with green growing grasses. This is the character for male – nan. It is a combination of cultivated fields and power. Sprouts and kung fu both have something in common with “man”.
The goddess of compassion is Guanyin. She rises out of a lotus blossom. She is the protector of woman, children, and fishermen. Giving birth and nursing the young is part of being a female. Nu is woman, or female. Goodness and peace, milk and grandma. Mom!
The mouth, ko, is for eating and drinking. You eat rice (meaning food), eat bitterness (meaning hardships), and eat vinegar (that is when one is jealous). Cry a little, it’s not so bad. Besides eating, one drinks soup, drinks tea, and drinks wine. Sing a song, la la la la la…
Mission Azul 