A Trip That Might Be

China, I gather, is an interesting place. I've known people who visited, and at least one who lives there presently. That much I would not do, but a visit would be very stimulating, I'm sure. The sooner I could manage it, the better, partly because I suspect I will get something different out of it while I remain young and vigorous, but also partly because China is a place which curiously seems to value the past and also readily obliterate it in the name of some kind of progress.

The big cities (of which there are many) would be interesting to see. It would even be interesting to be there on a bad pollution day. They say it is sometimes so bad that you can't see the buildings across the street. That would be a hell of a thing to witness. There are also undoubtedly good aspects of the cities, and I'd be open to those. I can't say what those would be just now, but if I ever go I'll be sure to issue a full report.

I'd really like to see the countryside as well, even if there too a dark side looms. I'm given to understand that there's dreadful poverty there, and while it is surely there in the cities too, it's to the cities that the rural poor migrate in hopes of something better. This is what I understand to be true. I could be way off. Still, I would venture to guess that there is some tremendous beauty in what remains of China's unspoiled nature. If there's not, I'd still enjoying finding out for myself.

Maybe most of all I would relish trying the food. I have no illusions about the Chinese food I've grown up with being entirely faithful to the real thing. Maybe I would find some of it to be the same, but I don't think it would be much, and I know that some things we eat here (such as chop suey and fortune cookies) are purely American inventions. I would like to find out for sure, just as a person ought to eventually progress to a real guitar after playing Guitar Hero.

This trip I speak of is purely fantasy and aspiration, but it could happen someday. If I really want it to, it definitely will happen, so really it's just a matter of will power and desire Even if those things fail, it still might happen. People go all kinds of crazy places for the sake of things like work and weddings. I didn't have it in my mind that I would ever go to Jamaica, but a reason manifested itself, and so I went. What will send me to China? It remains to be seen.