A Town Is Saved

"A Town Is Saved, Not More by the Righteous Men In It Than by the
Woods and Swamps That Surround It "

“A Town Is Saved “

With 43 color photos. by Marvin Mort, an essay by Charles E. Little,
captions by George U. Jones, and an introd. by John G. Mitchell.
The design is by Charles Curtis.

“A Town Is Saved “ is another USA Sierra Club book with its first
edition printed in 1973. It is one of the several Sierra Club books I
purchased at our local library's book sale many years ago. It is one of
those books which we may wish to read through from the beginning
to the end, or we may want to wander more freely or randomly ,
returning later to sit and meditate in some chosen spots.

Marvin Mort, a freelance photographer, recorded the woods,
swamps, shores, hills and deserts that surround suburban and urban
America. Charles Little's essay explored the literary and
philosophical roots of contemporary conservation.

While Mort examined the natural landscapes, Little did the literary
and philosophical roots. Their pictures and words are "another way to
scour the mountains, to apprehend the immortal hand and eye."
I am particularly impressed by George Jones' captions or his
philosophical dialogue. Here are some of his captions:



“The eye is not so candid as we like to think. Nor the camera. For what
appears to be a picture of rock and water is, in truth, a picture of time.”

“Redwoods still grow in abundance in a few communities of Northern
California. It is nice to know that some people nowadays are keeping
good company.” (By the way, I am one of them.)



“Neither Ottoman nor Oriental ever contrived a carpet as exquisitely
woven as that of the pine,"the woof and warp of conifer needles". It is
an ancient texture and good underfoot.”

"One can never tire of the shore. The sea is always working there,
resculpting the sands, exhibiting montages between the tides."

“A poet once observed that fence make for good neighbors.
He neglected to add that space helps, too.”

“October in deciduous country, the month of the golden light.”

“Snow and pines seem suited for each other. Yet something is
missing. Is it the howl of the wolf ?”


Yeh Tze

夜來風雨聲

夜來風雨聲


空山新雨後 清泉石上流

First Autumn Rain

Yesterday evening we were expecting the long-anticipated first rain
of the season.

Early this morning I woke up to the sound of rain tapping on the roof
and the sound of wind blowing through the trees, the lovely and
soothing sounds of Nature I had missed for a while.

"風聲雨聲流水聲，聲聲入耳"

Fall rains have finally arrived.

Certainly, the rains are greeted with much pleasure, especially in our
area where water is considered to be the most precious resource.

Rain inspires thought and literary.

"片雲頭上黑 便是雨催詩"

It inspires poets, 中外 alike.

Now some of the rain inspired Chinese classical poetry:

“涼風吹夜雨 蕭瑟動寒林”

“騰雲似湧煙 密雨如散絲”

“微雨池塘見 好風襟袖知”

“細雨魚兒出 微風燕子斜”

“細雨濕衣看不見 閒花落地聽無聲”

"三秋細雨愁楓葉 一夜扁舟宿葦花"

“澗底松搖千尺雨 庭中竹撼一窗秋"

My children,when they were young, used to sing this
Nursery Rhyme Poem :

Rain rain go away,
Come again another day.
Little Johnny wants to play;
Rain, rain, go to Spain,
Never show your face again!

Sidney Lanier (1842 – 1881), an American musician and poet,
wrote this rain poem:

Souls And Rain-Drops

Light rain-drops fall and wrinkle the sea,
Then vanish, and die utterly.
One would not know that rain-drops fell
If the round sea-wrinkles did not tell.

So souls come down and wrinkle life
And vanish in the flesh-sea strife.
One might not know that souls had place
Were't not for the wrinkles in life's face.

And this evening:

"空山新雨後 天氣晚來秋(?冬)"

Yeh Tze

楓葉荻花秋瑟瑟 霜葉紅於二月花

楓葉荻花秋瑟瑟

"The falling leaves drift by my window, the autumn leaves of red and gold ... "

"日暮秋風起 蕭蕭楓樹林 "

Autumn is my favorite season and time of the year. The air begins to cool and the days start getting shorter. Autumn has arrived! Deciduous trees and shrubs put on an autumn show in all shades of red, yellow, purple, and brown. I notice the leaves of the maple trees around our house have started turning red. While I am enjoying the colors of autumn leaves, I wonder how and why a fall leaf changes color? Why a maple leaf turns bright red? I turn to “Science Made Simple” for an easy answer: “Leaves are nature's food factories. Plants take water from the ground through their roots. They take a gas called carbon dioxide from the air. Plants use sunlight to turn water and carbon dioxide into glucose. Glucose is a kind of sugar. Plants use glucose as food for energy and as a building block for growing. The way plants turn water and carbon dioxide into sugar is called photosynthesis. That means "putting together with light." A chemical called chlorophyll helps make photosynthesis happen. Chlorophyll is what gives plants their green color.

As summer ends and autumn comes, the days get shorter and shorter. This is how the trees "know" to begin getting ready for winter. During winter, there is not enough light or water for photosynthesis. The trees will rest and live off the food they stored during the summer. They begin to shut down their food-making factories. The green chlorophyll disappears from the leaves. As the bright green fades away, we begin to see yellow and orange colors. Small amounts of these colors have been in the leaves all along. We just can't see them in the summer, because they are covered up by the green chlorophyll. The bright reds and purples we see in leaves are made mostly in the fall. In some trees, like maples, glucose is trapped in the leaves after photosynthesis stops. Sunlight and the cool nights of autumn cause the leaves turn this glucose into a red color. The brown color of trees like oaks is made from wastes left in the leaves.

It is the combination of all these things that make the beautiful colors we enjoy in the fall.

霜葉紅於二月花

Observing leaves inspires scientists, philosophers and poets alike.

"Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower."

- Albert Camus -

Now the Autumn inspired poetry:

《山行》 唐 . 杜牧

遠上寒山石徑斜，白雲深處有人家。 停車坐愛楓林晚，霜葉紅於二月花。

《蘇幕遮》 范仲淹 碧雲天，黃葉地，秋色連波，波上寒煙翠。 山映斜陽天接水，芳草無情，更在斜陽外。 黯鄉魂，追旅思，夜夜除非，好夢留人睡。 明月樓高休獨倚，酒入愁腸，化作相思淚。 

 《西廂記》 王實甫 

 碧雲天，黃花地，西風緊，北雁南飛。 曉來誰染霜林醉？總是離人淚。

 《天淨沙 秋思》 馬致遠 

 枯籐老樹昏鴉，小橋流水人家，古道西風瘦馬。 夕陽西下，斷腸人在天涯。

《天淨沙‧秋》 白樸 

 孤村落日殘霞，輕煙老樹寒鴉，一點飛鴻影下。 青山綠水，白草紅葉黃花。 

 《天國的消息》 徐志摩 

 可愛的秋景！無聲的落葉，輕盈的，輕盈的， 掉落在這小徑，竹籬內隱約的，有小兒女的笑聲； 嚦嚦的清音，繚繞著村舍的靜謐， 彷彿是幽谷裡的小鳥，歡噪著清晨， 驅散了昏夜的晦塞，開始無限光明。 霎那的歡欣，曇花一現似湧現，開豁了我的情緒， 忘卻了春戀，人生的惶惑與悲哀，惆悵與短促---- 在這稚子的歡笑聲裡，想見了天國！ 晚霞泛濫著金色的楓林，涼風吹拂著我孤獨的身形； 我靈海裡嘯響著偉大的波濤， 應和更偉大的脈搏，更偉大的靈潮！

《野步》趙翼

  最是秋風管閒事，紅他楓葉白人頭。

Yeh Tze

"Two Down Under"

"Two Down Under"



The term "Down Under" is a colloquialism referring to Australia
and New Zealand. It locates Australia and New Zealand as "the
lands down under" because they lie entirely within the southern
hemisphere.

While our NTUMC68 classmates in the United States are together
planning our next trip to Australia and New Zealand, I recall a book
entitled “Two Down Under” I purchased at our local library "Annual
Book Sale" many years ago. It gives me a different feeling and
thought this time when I flip through the book again.

“Two Down Under” is a book which, I believe, can not be found or
bought in any book store, for it is a book of privately printed letters
and was only given by the author to “the circle of friends” who had
enjoyed her accounts of previous "rambles”. One of her “circle of
friends” must have dropped the book in our local library and it
eventually went into the “Book Sale”. Inside the book cover, there
is no indication of name of the publisher, or the name of this book’s
owner as one of the author's “circle of friends”. There is however a
greeting card inserted inside the book: "This Log of our 1958-1959
journey brings Holliday Greetings from the McNamaras 1959"

The book (or the printed letters) was written by an American lady,
Helen McNamara, who, in the fall of 1958, had a pleasurable trip with
her husband to Australia and New Zealand, the two lands “Down
Under”. Whether on the land or sea or in the air, she found time to
record events; as she planned, for home or business families. It was
a daily to weekly journal recording their journey from October 1958
through January 1959. I am particularly amazed by her delicate and
detailed descriptions of their adventures. She even recorded the
approximate mileages of that trip for the “statistically minded”:

By ship………………………….7,800 miles
By motor………………………..5,000 miles
By plane………………………..15,200 miles
Total 28,000 miles

In the “Preface”, the author's husband wrote:

“Her undersigned companion, ever a devoted admirer, admittedly
shared in the experience, but his sense of observation fell far short
of Helen’s ability to note and to describe the day-by-day, week-by-
week happenings. Even such a comment, be assured, fails to take
into account, acknowledge the obligation, or give adequate applause
for the hours she labored at the typewriter while her husband
resorted to daydreaming or other less worthy pastimes.”

During our many previous class trips, I noticed a spouse of one of
my classmates did that just as delicately as Helen McNamara had
done. She even made a CD recording our entire trip to Greece and
Turkey a few years ago. Of course, it was distributed only to her
"circle of friends".

Yeh Tze

Lungs of the Earth

Lungs of the Earth



Every time we visit Palo Alto, the first thing we notice is the “trees”.
The city is named for the El Palo Alto (the tall trees in Spanish).

Palo Alto is endowed with a large population of trees composed of
magnificent native and non-native trees on public and private
properties. Trees are a source of shade, air conditioning and other
environmental benefits providing quality of life.

The City of Palo Alto is distinguished by the State of California and
National Arbor Day Foundation as a Tree City-USA. As a matter of
fact, the tree is depicted on the City of Palo Alto's official seal, and on
the seal of Stanford University as well.

It has been said that trees are “Lungs of the Earth”.

In her book, “If You Love This Planet”, Helen Caldicott, an
Australian Physician and passionate advocates of citizen action,
wrote:

“All trees are precious. They are more than just heavens for animals,
birds, insects, and humans; they are also the lungs of the Earth. Just
as we breathe oxygen into our lungs and exhale carbon dioxide, so
trees breathe carbon dioxide into their leaves and exhale oxygen.
Trees are really upside-down lungs: their trunks are equivalent to
the trachea, their branches to the right and left main bronchi, and all
their branching twigs and leaves to small bronchi (bronchioles) and
alveoli, or air sacs, where oxygen and carbon dioxide exchanged.
Tree trunk and branches may appear solid, but they are really rigid
channels that transmit water and nutrients to the leaves, the way
the trachea and air passages transmit air to the alveoli in human
lungs.”

Trees are an organic necessity to the biological health of the planet.
As human beings fill the air with carbon dioxide and destroy the
ozone layer with human-made chemicals, trees offer an excellent
means of buffering these effects. They replenish the atmosphere.

Per Dr. Caldicott, we need to plant billions of trees to save the
atmosphere, noting the fact that, in Papua New Guinea, as just one
of the countless instances of rain forest destruction, a five-year study
of satellite images demonstrates that almost 10 millions acres of rain
forest has already been destroyed by illegal logging.

We have numerous trees, both young and mature, growing around
our house, and I believe I have inhaled plenty of oxygen given out
by them every day.

Trees are precious. Plant more trees, if you love this planet.
They are the lungs of the earth.

Yeh Tze

海上生明月 天涯共此時

海上生明月 天涯共此時




The Mid-Autumn Festival, also known as the Moon Festival, or in
Chinese 中秋節, falls on October 3rd this year, which is today.
It always brings forth sense of nostalgia.

露從今夜白，月是故鄉明。

My childhood memory of 中秋節 is eating moon cakes under the
bright round moon and watching the lantern display in the temple.

Every time we talked about 明月, these two ancient classical poems
would arise in our minds:

靜夜思 唐 李白

床前明月光, 疑是地上霜。
舉頭望明月, 低頭思故鄉。

and

水調歌頭 宋 蘇軾

明月幾時有？ 把酒問青天，
不知天上宮闕， 今夕是何年？
我欲乘風歸去， 又恐瓊樓玉宇，
高處不勝寒， 起舞弄清影， 何似在人間。
轉朱閣，低綺戶， 照無眠，不應有恨，
何似長像別時圓， 人有悲歡離合，
月有陰晴圓缺， 自古兩難全，
但願人長久， 千里共嬋娟 !

There are also poems of 中秋夜 by the ancient poets:

中秋 宋 蘇軾

暮雲收盡溢清寒，銀漢無聲轉玉盤。
此生此夜不長好，明月明年何處看。

八月十五夜月 唐 杜甫

滿月飛明鏡，歸心折大刀。
轉蓬行地遠，攀桂仰天高。
水路疑霜雪，林棲見羽毛。
此時瞻白兔，直欲數秋毫。

十五夜望月 唐 王 建

中庭地白樹棲鴉，冷露無聲濕桂花。
今夜月明入盡望，不知秋思落誰家？

中秋詩　唐 晏殊

十輪霜影轉庭梧，此夕羈人獨向隅。
未必素娥無悵恨，玉蟾清冷桂花孤。


八月十五日夜湓亭望月 唐 白居易

昔年八月十五夜，曲江池畔杏園邊。
今年八月十五夜，湓浦沙頭水館前。
西北望鄉何處是，東南見月幾回圓。
昨風一吹無人會，今夜清光似往年。

Of course, we need to mention 嫦娥:

嫦娥 李商隱

雲母屏風燭影深，
長河漸落曉星沈。
嫦娥應悔偷靈藥，
碧海青天夜夜心。


Yeh Tze

Northern Lights

Northern Lights

By LeRoy Zimmerman (Photosymphony)

Aurora Borealis, also called the Northern Lights, is one of the most
spectacular celestial phenomenon and an amazing nature’s art.

In early July this year, we took a trip to Alaska. As it was still the
land of the “Midnight Sun”, we did not have the chance to see the
fascinating display of colored lights at “night”. We however were
able to have a reminiscent of the aurora experience at a Theater
Museum in Fairbank. It was called “The Crown of Light”, which is a
“PhotoSymphony” production by LeRoy Zimmerman, a renowned
professional photographer for over forty years. His theater program
is the only panoramic aurora presentation anywhere, a show that has
been seen by thousands.

Before the show, we were able to be personally listening to his
presentation. He had traveled the globe capturing images with his
unique perspective and interpretation of the moment light and nature
collide. On October 1st 2007, the United States Postal Service issued
the first ever domestic Aurora stamp. LeRoy Zimmerman of Ester,
Alaska was honored to have one of his panoramas selected.

In the book “The Singing Wilderness”, Sigurd Olson, a nature
writer, wrote his observations of the Northern Lights:

“The lights of the aurora moved and shifted over the horizon.
Sometimes there were shafts of yellow tinged with green, then
masses of evanescence which moved from east to west and back
again. Green streamers of bluish white zigzagged like a tremendous
trembling curtain from one end to the other. Streaks of yellow and
orange and red shimmered along the flowing borders. Never for a
moment were they still, fading until they were almost completely
gone, only to dance forth again in renewed splendor with infinite
combination and starting patterns of design.”

Olson’s description of the Northern Lights is what I saw in the show
“The Crown of Light”, the Aurora Experience at Theater Museum
in Fairbank, Alaska.

Sigurd Olson also had a beautiful meditation of the Northern Lights.
While he was skating along a frozen pond in wilderness lake country
of the Quetico-Superior, he had the incredible experience of seeing
the swirls of color both above and beneath him. He wrote:

“At that moment I was part of the aurora, part of its light and of
the great curtain that trembled above me.”


Yeh Tze