09-12-24 Walking on the Ice of Weiming Lake

1,907 characters2009.12.25

Back when I was an undergraduate, I used to wander around Weiming Lake every few days. Over the past two years I’ve clearly become lax about it—not because I’ve gotten lazy (laziness has always been my constant), but because of changes in my surroundings and in my state of mind, I suppose. Of course, the change of residence is the main reason.

I had long planned to return to Weiming Lake. By “return,” I mean not only finding time to come back and circle it, but also, crucially, circling it in a particular frame of mind. Though I haven’t exactly never gone around it during ordinary times, I also haven’t done so with that undergraduate-era mood: carefree yet slightly lonely, impassioned yet faintly sorrowful—in short, one might also say, the sentimentality of someone who is comfortably full and being self-indulgently melodramatic.

Today, all of a sudden, I felt like it again. On this dark, windy Christmas Eve, my phone received a blue alert for strong winds from the meteorological bureau. When I stepped outside, sure enough, the gale was raging. The security guard, with a look of admiration, helped me open the gate to the bicycle shed.

I must also thank this biting wind, for there were almost no people by Weiming Lake. I only saw one jogger in thin clothing. I parked my bike under Boya Tower, walked down to the lake and all the way to the Marble Boat, sat there blankly for several minutes, and then made my way back the same route.

I am not a romantic, but I suppose I do have a thing for ritual. Now and then one must do some simple yet distinctive little thing, and then one endows it with ritual significance.

The meaning of ritual does not lie in some supernatural force, but in awakening and marking certain unique emotional energies.

As I return to Weiming Lake, perhaps I should also return to blogging. The habit of keeping a blog can likewise sustain a certain emotional current. Of course, although it has been rather quiet for a while, the blog will certainly not be neglected; it will enter a new cycle. Please look forward to it.

00:00, December 25, 2009