One of the most stark truths about the future is that it remains unknown until the moment when it happens. We project, we plan, we dream, we wish, and almost always we are surprised by what unfolds. If it is the past that holds sway on our emotions, then it is the future that triggers our imagination and creativity, and the now is the bridge we build to take us into the great unknown.
A new year unfolds, and so do many contemplations in my mind …
No one is allowed to see her hair until she marries, each Yao woman can carry around her head up 1.9 meters of hair wrapped around like a crown. If a young man happens to catch sight of a girl’s hair, then he must invite her to live with his parents as a bride for 3 whole years. Another of our wonderfully colorful human traditions and another chapter in the mystery of hair.
Thinking of those that carry the weight of the world on their backs today…
With every passing year, with each journey into the far away places, I pray that these colorful people of the world are still there, being celebrated, appreciated and not become integrated into a characterless soup of grey humanity.
Despite China being the largest rice producer in the world, the process of cultivation and harvesting remains extremely labor intensive with very little automation. It is people working to feed people, just as it was perhaps meant to be.