It must be heaven

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Wangfujing – a famous with both the foreigners and the locals, who love the brand names and the opportunity to mingle with the foreigners

Journal Entry: December, 12th, 2013
Commitments, imperatives and obligations, all products of social engagements, are becoming moribund in my life. I can see clearly the functions and uses of these elements and of each person in my life. I can see with equal clarity their uselessness in their absence.
So many things have become clearer for me. It seems that the path is……ironically, although wider in regards to perspective, yet narrower in regards to choices. It is not because my options are fewer, but instead it is because my election has become more refined; distilled. I have more insight, thus more resolve; a more exact specification.

Is it the removal of myself from all encumbrances, or is it the restorative effect of fresh environs, I know not for sure, but it is pleasant and stimulating, and I refuse to burden my mind with the incessant inquiry.
Beijing: clean, orderly and disciplined. A by-product of communism/ feudalism? Don’t know, and don’t care. What is extant though, is that for the first time in a very long time in my life I have found peacefulness, a sanctuary of sorts. A place where I am allowed to just be, regardless of race, colour, creed, status, and all the other societal stigmatism we bundle under ”civilisation.”

a passenger train snaking its way through the city: view from my window, Pingod, Chaoyang, Beijing

I reside in Pingod, and international community in CBD, Chaoyang, Beijing. I am on the 26th floor, my apartment is complete with everything one needs in life – air, water, and peacefulness – and then some. I am self-contained. My employer provides housing, transportation, meal allowances, and four months of paid vacation. And all I do is speak for sixteen hours weekly. I must be in heaven, yes, I am up here amongst the clouds, so it must be heaven!

*view from my window on the 26th floor of Pingod, Chaoyang, Beijing*

The view from my window is as far as the smog allows on a clear day (well, you can’t have it all!). Often I can see into the vast eternity of China’s great future as a world power, but most often this is obscured by the veil of ignorance that lays thick as the industrial clouds that blankets the city. Karl Marx it was who said that capitalism stunts the creative mind, well, something along those lines. As an instructor here in Beijing, I can lend credence to the statement……but I’ve digressed. My focus here is to educate not to adjudicate. I must remain focused……..ah, yes, focus…….often a Sisyphean task in the face of life’s absurdities! And being in China does not grant you immunity from that!