Living Generations

忍耐 Endure

This photograph I love. I found this lady last week at the Summer Palace in Beijing China. What a tremendous contrast. The tree has lived through many generations from the Qing dynasty forward. Certainly the tree saw many amazing stories of royal intrigue and modern people's lives. What stories could it tell, if only it could talk?

The old woman has skin to match the tree and probably has lived through similar ages. She has seen amazing changes through her life - war with Japan, civil war in China, consolidation by Communist Party, starving and poverty through the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution, and the opening up of China by Deng XiaoPing and his successors. Her face shows the lines of her endurance, her strength, and her character. Her eyes hint at the amazing stories she must have. Her expression shows her watchfulness and care gained from years of endurance.

Passing by the old woman are two young fashionable women of today's world. Dressed in their fashionable clothes and armed with text messaging mobile phones. I wonder how many changes and generations they will see in their lifetimes? Will they also have the amazing stories of strength and courage of China's older generation? Many years from now, will they also sit and enjoy the shade from this same tree? Will the tree remember them, by any chance?

If only trees could talk.