A Little Anecdote
This charmed me so much I just felt the need to share...
For the last several days, as I pull my bike into the driveway of Uryu Middle School, I've always noticed a little cluster of boys of assorted sizes and ages grouped around a large chrysanthemum plant in the flowerbed near the front door, all clearly preoccupied with something on or near the plant, talking quietly and animatedly and making little exclamations.
Usually they'd have gone inside by the time I parked my bike and came back to the front doors, so for a week or so now, I've been left wondering what on earth was so interesting. A spiderweb with a huge denizen? Some kind of pupa with its progress towards adult being eagerly tracked? A giant beetle? A weird mutation in the plant stem?
This morning, as I walked up to the front door, the boys were for once still there, so I strolled over to satisfy my curiosity.
"What're you looking at?" I asked (in Japanese), peering over their shoulders. All I saw were some very large chrysanthemums, nodding patiently under a load of morning dew.
They looked startled, but then one of them smiled a little and reached out to flick affectionately at the petals of a truly regal flower, soft pink and easily the size of my face--half again larger than any other bloom on that vine.
"Look," he said, with a quiet sort of reverence. "Isn't it huge...?"
Small Japanese boys? After growing up among your American equivalent, and with no offense meant to them...I salute you. ♥
For the last several days, as I pull my bike into the driveway of Uryu Middle School, I've always noticed a little cluster of boys of assorted sizes and ages grouped around a large chrysanthemum plant in the flowerbed near the front door, all clearly preoccupied with something on or near the plant, talking quietly and animatedly and making little exclamations.
Usually they'd have gone inside by the time I parked my bike and came back to the front doors, so for a week or so now, I've been left wondering what on earth was so interesting. A spiderweb with a huge denizen? Some kind of pupa with its progress towards adult being eagerly tracked? A giant beetle? A weird mutation in the plant stem?
This morning, as I walked up to the front door, the boys were for once still there, so I strolled over to satisfy my curiosity.
"What're you looking at?" I asked (in Japanese), peering over their shoulders. All I saw were some very large chrysanthemums, nodding patiently under a load of morning dew.
They looked startled, but then one of them smiled a little and reached out to flick affectionately at the petals of a truly regal flower, soft pink and easily the size of my face--half again larger than any other bloom on that vine.
"Look," he said, with a quiet sort of reverence. "Isn't it huge...?"
Small Japanese boys? After growing up among your American equivalent, and with no offense meant to them...I salute you. ♥