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Is Feng Shui superstition or a science? I was taught that Feng Shui was people’s superstition when I was growing up. But for some reason, I was drawn by its mysteriousness. Upon the added experience in life, I’ve learned to think of Feng Shui as the wild western frontier to the established science.

In my opinion, if something cannot be proven by scientific methods, it cannot be rendered as superstition. In a scientific way, this thing is only unexplainable at the moment. Perhaps, at a later time, our science will have the capability to prove its validity. What really irked me is a lot of the so called science based people would simply dismiss the possibility that such item can ever be an object of science. I think such behavior is indeed an unscientific way of dismissing a lot of the future potentials. It is also a disrespect to our ancestors. Thousand-year-old practices such as Feng Shui has to have some validity to have many nations’ top scholars in the past to study and utilize in their every day practice. Call it a superstition is simply renouncing the way how our ancestors used to live!

Feng Shui is a science of the invisible “luck” element which is so visibly present in everyone’s daily life. Our ancestors discovered that there are ways to increase our chances of better fortune by aligning ourselves with the universe. One analogy I read about which I thought was quite astute describes the science of Feng Shui roughly as follows:

In driving, the red traffic light tells you when to stop at an intersection. In an average person’s life, there is no traffic regulations, one simply keeps on living one’s usual routine even if one is up against odds. Feng Shui helps one to navigate more efficiently and successfully through the streets of life.

Why there are a lot of people don’t believe in it? Because, a true Feng Shui master is hard to come by. What we see in bookstores, or most often we encounter a so called Feng Shui master, is not the genuine Feng Shui. Feng Shui science is too “holistic” or too complicated for everyone to understand. The true knowledge of Feng Shui cannot be learned by books alone. For those who blindly follow these kinds of Feng Shui, it is a practice of superstition.

Recently got a circulated junk email regarding an art contest. I was intrigued by the clever paper art - all work was done on a single sheet of paper. Upon checking it further, I found out it was all created by one artist - Peter Callesen from Denmark.

His humor, cleverness, attention to detail and his philosophy in general really appealed to me.

Several years ago I got BeBe’s CD Pafuera Telarañas and was instantly attracted by her songs (albeit the lack of understandings of the lyrics). Recently when searching things on youtub, (I am liking this video idea more and more), I came across BeBe’s songs. I then found out that Pafuera Telarañas is her only CD to the world. She’s moving onto other things since 2006. Viewing her MTVs, I got a sense that she has a very strong personality as a woman. At times, I thought she really looked like a man. I am wondering what is she doing now… at the age of 30.

A lot of people think artists are cool. But I actually think only cool artist is cool. There are quite some uninteresting “artists” which muddled the soup a bit. Lori McKenna, as a Boston local musician, as a mother of 5, is very cool.

Here is a sample of her song written and sang by herself. The title is called “unglamorous”. At age 39, she’s just been “discovered” about two years ago. All this time before, she was doing her music as a side thing while raising 5 kids (from 18 to 2), working at a glue factory, married to a plumber. But her talent was discovered. The music video was shot at her home in Stoughton MA. Her coolness shows when she achieved something that’s not easily reachable at that age and when she is very much buried by the burdens of life.

I am not a country music fan, but I am still touched by Lori McKenna’s talent.

When I was studying German, I was given a very cute German’s children’s book talking about a little Tiger and a little Bear, their little adventure to find Banana in Panama. The fact how it also rhymes in German makes the book very fun to read. From the one item of Banana, they further derived that “Oh, wie schoen ist Panama”! (How beautiful is Panama). It became the title of the book. They went about looking for their dreamland- Panama.

Today, I heard differently on the news. The Panama disease is THE deadly disease for all bananas. 50 years ago, it already wiped out many better grade bananas due to the Panama disease. Our current banana from the super market is the most inferior kind of all bananas. (No wonder I do not care for it at all). 50 years ago, the growers had to choose our current brand due to its hardiness and the fact that it can survive the Panama disease. We now are faced with a mutated strand of the disease which will wipe out our current bananas in a matter of 10-30 years!

Since I am not very much a fan of the current inferior kind anyways, it didn’t really bother me much. The part really interested me is the fact that the most popular and profitable banana was not the best kind. (With the current surviving variations, the ones in the Philippines are suppose to be the best among banana aficionados.) That further supported my theory - the most popular choice may very likely to be not the best choice one can possibly get.

Banana may be extinct in Panama soon. For the little bear and the little tiger, that will be such a dream crusher!