I first learned the lesson that one shouldn’t taking
everything school textbooks say for granted from experiencing the Hong Kong
spring. According to my primary school textbooks, spring is a welcoming season
because it brings warmth and life back to the land. But my experience since
childhood has always been that spring is a wretched season – an endless stretch
of gloomy, wet and cold days.
Of course, many people have different ideas, seeing spring
as welcoming not only physically but also spiritually. In a recent article
called “Why spring is the season of hope”, Anthony Scioli writes that none of
the other seasons can match the bounty of hope that greets us in the spring.
According to Scioli:
“Spring calls us back to nature, fills our sails with warmer
winds, soothes our weary bones, and lifts our spirits. Spring is full of
psychic potential because it satisfies the four basic motives that underlie
hope.”
The four basic motives he refers to are “light and heat”, “a
bridge”, “a healing agent” and “a harbour”. Scioli contends that just as we
liken hope to these, so too do we compare spring with them.
In support of this notion, Scioli cites this quote from Bern
Williams: "The day the Lord created hope was probably the same day he
created spring."
But I have to say that, for Hong Kong, viewing spring as
such is a borrowed idea. We are near the
end of spring now. To me, this is the time to celebrate.
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