It's All About Heart

"Formosa Musings" by Lillian, writing from Tokyo, Japan

I love my language. It is so beautiful, not only in pronounciation, but in writing, too.

I wrote some Chinese words down and divided them into two groups. Then I outlined in pink the symbols that share an affinity in each group (see picture).

The words were:

Group one	Group two
Stable/stability In love Peaceful/silent Longing/miss	Happy Cherish Pleasant Sex Memory/memorise

The common factor in these words outlined in pink is the meaning for "heart". My Chinese ancestors taught me that love needs heart, being peaceful needs heart, missing someone needs heart, cherishing something needs heart.

Sex needs heart, too. "Body" isn't even mentioned in its vocabulary.

I should add a side note that my analysis is over-simplified. I also missed out words that hold the heart emblem, but have negative meanings. My teachers from junior high and senior high might give me an E for this analysis, but if I follow and explain the rules of structure for Chinese words, it will be too complicated and boring. In this way, it becomes kind of romantic, doesn't it?

I chose "stable/stability" as the first example in the first group, because I was inspired by a post of Ali's in a conversation with his friend 'B'.

"I thought women always wanted stability in a man," he said to his friend.

She had replied, "A woman wants a man to make her tremble as she waits for him to walk across the room and get into bed, not knowing what position he'll give a whirl tonight."

I thought something was missing between these two lines at first, because I thought Ali's "stability" refered to heart/love, not sex.

Stability needs heart, said my ancestor. To love and keep loving, how hard is it?

It's so simple really, but usually, the most simple thing is the most difficult thing. It needs not only one heart, but two, and on the subject of sex, I think that how two hearts feel is just as important as how the two bodies feel.

I loved what Ali said about slow sex between lovers, once. It was in a poem of his, and I still remember the consonance inside my heart.

So why not stablility? I vote for that.

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