郎心如鐵, 柔情似水

I read about heart breaking stories from blogs and remember one told by a dear friend of mine.

故事在解放後的上海開始. 這個小女孩的爸爸在她几個月大就去了香港發展. 從小爸爸的印象都是從照片及媽媽口中聽來. 她媽媽老是說爸爸怎樣聰明本事, 溫柔瀟灑. 又如果他見到女兒這樣漂亮可愛; 一定會痛她要緊. 小女孩從沒見過爸爸. 可是媽說的當然是真. 何況每年爸寄錢回家, 她就會有新衣服, 新玩具. 這不是最好的証明嗎?

一年又一年. 女孩快要十歲了. 她還記得媽朝朝暮暮想著遠遠的爸. 有時對著照片發呆, 有時一個人流淚. 但她知道媽是有勇氣的人. 終於她決定獨自帶女兒偷渡去香港千里尋夫.

對一個未到十歲的女孩, 屈蛇偷渡的經驗當然難忘. 但能見到愛慕的父親, 什麼都值得. 她終於見到她父親; 正如她想像中高大英俊. 他安排他們在洗衣街一間房住…可是他沒有跟他們一齊住. 日子更久, 她見父母吵, 父親就越來越少來. 最後失了蹤. 媽不懂廣東話, 無親無故, 生活艱苦得很. 小女孩不但要做家務, 也要做散工幫補家用. 她媽媽沒說, 她也沒問, 但她早知爸爸另有一頭家.

我在大學遇見那女孩; 她已亭亭玉立, 正在念博士. 她母親不幸早故, 沒有机會看到她女兒事業光芒.

Mother Teresa is not a mother

What is more shocking: Carole King is not a king or Mother Teresa is not a mother?

Well, it is shocking enough to learn that, for 40 years, Mother Teresa lost her faith in God from the time she started the mission in Calcutta to the day she died. "Jesus has a very special love for you. As for me, the silence and the emptiness is so great that I look and do not see, listen and do not hear." she confessed to another priest. And for her famous smile: "The smile," she writes, is "a mask" or "a cloak that covers everything". She called herself hypocritical for speaking of God in public but not believing a word she said herself.

I have always admired Mother Teresa (and still do). I have a collection of her teachings from which I found wisdom and humanity. She wrote about God all the times. Now it only confirms how fallible we all are, and despite of all that, we are still capable of good deeds.

Leona Helmsley's Dog

The infamous NY billionaire Leona Hemsely died last week. When she was on trial for tax evasion in the late eighties, her maids and other workers had their days coming forward to testify how she terrorized the “little people” as she called them. The news media coined the nickname “Queen of Mean” and it stuck (she portrayed herself as the queen of the luxury hotels she owned in her TV ads). In her will, she left her dog $12 millions but nothing to two of the children of her late son. It doesn’t take a Sigmund Freud to figure out what she loved or who loved her.

Hello, world.

Hello, world.