美国的山河和四季：2020年母亲节纪念
2013年夏天从肯塔基中部搬家到亚利桑那北部。作为U-Haul乘客，我记得温润的绿色变为干红色。2014年夏又搬到了科罗拉多州中部。作为司机，我记得我的小型汽车盘旋于崇山峻岭，穿过溪水茂林，滑过牛羊成群的草原，最后来到燥热的半沙漠。2015年夏，作为U-Haul司机，我拉着家当和汽车一路开到弗吉尼亚南部。科罗拉多以东是片片黄花地，美国中部的平原农田布满大型灌溉机，阿巴拉契亚直上直下的山路边藏着秀美的绿地、花园。2016年的夏天，再拉着家当穿越近二十英里的海峡开到马里兰的半岛。海鸥阵阵，江河入海，海风轻柔，阳光亮丽。2017年夏天，我开着我的五年伴侣小型汽车从东海岸到西海岸。记得罗斯福国家公园的牦牛群、秃山和总统一天痛失妻母的故事。
其间2014年冬天我乘灰狗大巴从科罗拉多到肯塔基，换小汽车到弗罗里达，再换乘大巴返回科罗拉多。纬度的关系，我看到了冰天雪地的西部、凉爽的南方海滩和绿植。2016年冬天我从弗吉尼亚坐火车到纽约。一路迷茫的雾和雪、纽约的节日购物人群、毕加索画展我记忆犹新。
2017年春的陆路旅行始于马里兰，西至密苏里，北达威斯康辛，再折回马里兰。南方和中西部的油绿和马群偶尔被威斯康辛的皑皑白雪取代。2016年深秋我开车从弗吉尼亚到肯塔基，看到的是簇拥枝头的橙黄在山间绵延铺展。
另有几次上述路线的重复旅行，加上在居住各州的专门景点旅行和其他旅行，美国的美丽山河、丰富的四季我了然于胸。
中国俗语讲：读万卷书、行万里路。为的是长知识、吸纳自然的涵养。
远方的母亲却在我这些不倦的旅行中渐渐病入膏肓，2018年初与姥姥九天内携手离世。我这些知识也终究没有派上用场。这几年也有师长和朋友离世，我也并没有能够尽我想尽的心。
又值母亲节，想起了姥姥关于她身家后事的一句话：“人老了不走，那些年轻人往哪里放？”我想她的意思是她那些未能得到回报的付出是为了后代也可以为其他人无私地付出。这大概是传承的意思吧。
America’s Beautiful Land and Rich Seasons:
On Mother’s Day of 2020
In the summer of 2013, I moved from
central Kentucky to Northern Arizona. As the passenger of U-Haul, I remember
the shift from the greenness in misty warmth to the dryness of a red landscape.
I then moved to central Colorado in the summer of 2014. I drove my compact car
through steep valleys, shallow creeks, forests, and grassland with herds of
cattle. My new home was located in a semi-desert wrapped in heat. The following
summer saw me drive a U-Haul with my belongings and car attached to southern
Virginia. To the east of Colorado, sprawling grassland was covered by wild
yellow flowers. Massive irrigator machines decorated the central part of the
country. Graceful gardens and lawns hid behind the steep mountain roads in Appalachia. Then
the summer of 2016 witnessed my move to Maryland with the same gear through a
20-mile bridge over the ocean. I saw flocks of seagull and rivers merging with
the sea in the bright sun while feeling a breeze blowing. In 2017, my 5-year
companion car carried me from the east coast to the west coast. The image of
buffalos and bold mountains in the Theodore Roosevelt National Park has
followed me since then. So has the story of the president’s tragedy of losing
two family members in the same day.
The total distance of my trips on
land during this period is well over twenty thousand miles, about the distance
of the earth equator.
In the winter of 2014, I took a grey hound
bus from Colorado to Kentucky. Then a car took me from there to Florida after
which I switched back to grey hound to return to Colorado. Due to the changing
latitude, I experienced the icy west, and went to cool beaches and saw green tropical
plants in the south. I took Amtrack train from Virginia to New York City in the
winter of 2015. I remember the fog and snow along the way, NYC’s holiday
shopping crowds, and the exhibition of Picasso’s paintings and sculptures.
In the spring of 2017, I took a road
trip from Maryland which took me to Missouri, then Wisconsin, and eventually back
to Maryland. Exuberant grassland and horse farms in the south and mid-west were
punctuated by deep snow in Wisconsin. In the late fall of 2016, I drove from
Virginia to Kentucky. Orange and yellow leaves flowed in mountains after
mountains.
During this 5-year span, I repeated
some of the above trips and had other travels. I also visited national and
state parks and other tourist spots in my residential states. The beautiful
land and rich seasons in the U.S. displayed themselves heartily to me.
A Chinese proverb goes like this: one
should read ten thousand scrolls of book and travel ten thousand li around the
world. The purpose is to obtain knowledge and nurturing essence from the
nature.
While I engaged in these tireless
trips, my mother on the other side of the globe gradually fell fatally ill. She
passed away in early 2018, nine days after my grandmother’s death. I was not
able to use the acquired knowledge in both forms to help my mother after all. The
past several years also witnessed the passing of other important people in my
life. I was not able to do what I would like to, either.
Another Mother’s Day arrived since
2018, I recalled grandmother’s comment on her own death, “Where can young
people find a place to stay if an old person never dies?” What she meant is
probably that the unreturned favor to her should be selflessly given to others.
Maybe this is what legacy is about.
