At noon today the sun was blazing overhead, and it was hot enough to be excruciating. I was riding my bike across campus. As I hurried along, I happened to see a couple by the roadside, embracing and looking at something. Following their gaze, I glanced over and saw that it was the automatic sprinkler in the landscaped area, spraying water. I had complained about this thing many times before; it was truly a waste of water resources. Besides, it was just sprinkling grass, not putting on a decorative fountain display—what was there to look at?
Just as I was about to ride out of that stretch of road, I heard the girl say, “You can really see it!” My heart stirred, and I suddenly woke from a dream—so that was it! I more or less guessed what they had stopped to gaze at: a rainbow. Under such brilliant sunshine, beside such a sprinkler, you really could see a rainbow! And when the spray turned in a certain direction, the curtain of water would also reflect a dazzling seven-colored shimmer. How could I have forgotten things I had once seen?
Since when did my first reaction on seeing this sprinkler become hatred for wasting water resources? Since when did I become less and less willing to stop and linger over the beauty around me?
For more than a year now, I have felt no shame at all about the waste I have made of my studies, work, and social life. But when I discovered that I had begun to forget what moved me, I felt sadness and fear.
Reflection, critique, and “finding fault” are indeed part of philosophy’s style. But pointing out flaws does not mean hostility, and even less does it mean that one should only gaze at ugliness. On the contrary, I want to embrace ugliness, I want to gaze at beauty, seek beauty, and create beauty. This was set down from the very beginning, in my philosophy of the starry sky.
I will come back.
Let us stop in our tracks and take a look at the rainbow around us!
September 8, 2007
Latest comments
Yiwu
2007-09-08 20:42:23 [Reply]
Same here.
But someone asked whether this conflicts with senior year of high school?
Answer:
Based on my junior high school experience.
Without these things, basically there’s nothing much left to hope for in life…… Of course, specifically speaking, the feeling of being moved in such a state is different from that in ordinary life. If I were to explain further, I still couldn’t say what the difference is.
Anyway, let’s all keep trying.
And don’t forget the sky. And the rainbow.
JA
2007-09-08 22:51:41 Anonymous 124.17.16.139 [Reply]
A life that is too rational, compared with those fragile joys, is somewhat pale.
Guchu
2007-09-09 00:57:52 [Reply]
I don’t know what exactly is meant by “a life that is too rational,” but I suspect that only extremely irrational people would long for such a life~
mist
2007-09-09 01:45:23 Anonymous 124.17.16.85 [Reply]
I’m not sure whether a person who is “too rational” can “long for” such a life…
God perhaps is the most rational of all…
Guchu
2007-09-11 00:02:42 [Reply]
I just discovered that the number of comments has already reached four digits. Worth commemorating~
Translated from the Chinese original with AI assistance. The original text is authoritative.
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