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| May 26-27, 2008
Beijing, China
"To live in Peking then was to come into contact with authentic Chinese society, to see, as it were, ancient China made manifest. The clear blue sky of Peking, the glorious temples and palaces and the gay, cheerful, contented working people gave one a feeling of the sufficiency and adequacy of a way of life. Ages had changed and centuries had passed, and Peking was still there. There the Lying Buddha slept in the Western Hills, the Jade Fountain Hill gave forth crystal-clear springs, and the Drum Tower intoned the watches of the night. What did men want of God? What more could man ask on earth, having the gift of life? Peking was China, authentic China, with its yellow-roofed palaces and terra-cotta temple walls and its Mongolian camels and nearness to the Great Wall and the Ming tombs. It was paganism with pagan cheerfulness and content."
- Yutang Lin, From Pagan to Christian
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| Cambridge, MA
Forget about the transience of life, forget about the unbearable lightness of being, forget about quintessential questions that wear us down. For one season, for one afternoon, for one moment frozen in time, we bear witness to beauty unabashed, spirited, waltzing to its death in brilliance. Set the world ablaze. Let it burn. Our hands are chilly but our hearts are lit by magic. Do not brood! Rejoice and dance and let our hearts melt away. The wind is picking up. The temperature is dropping. We're dazzled. But we're getting closer, closer to the ground, closer to the finale, closer to beauty in its purest form.
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