My little experiences with the truth: The fourteen exploring expedition...

Dear readers,

Yesterday I went out into the city again to explore. It is the west side of the city, just wet of the river. I came across few different landscapes in my expedition. From public museum, to small scale factories district, to huge condo complex to small homes district then last to the old furniture factories district. It was another roller coster ride between and through all these different landscape.

I remember as a child, I always loved to go to museums. Even though museums are full of words and phases that I don’t know but just the parts with all the pictures and artifacts are enough to make me fall in love with them. Now, as I grow older and my knowledge of words grow wider, I grow to love museum even more. I love the history that all those museum holds. They are so precious to me as they let me know what is the past and my past. I love history. I love to get to know how others had lived in many years ago. I love to see the progress that we had made, the changes that we had created. What I love more than the history which museums hold is the future that it envisioning. I love walking out a museum and knowing that that exact moment was linked and in a way somehow the creation, the outcome of the history before that moment, and by living that moment, I further contribute to the creation of the future. I love that link from the past to the future that museums can provide to me. I love that place that museum able to create for its visitor to be caught, reminded, that we are living between the past and the future. I love museums. Progress is measured by the differences between the past and now, then what about the differences between now and the future? Possibility?

I walked away from the public museum to an area in where I thought it was a bit more run down and rustic. At first I did not understand why I felt that way but then suddenly something clicked in my head - there were no trees, flowers or bushes in front of the buildings or by the side walk. The streets look so bare with nothing but its grayish, concert skeleton. It is so interesting that without the colors of the plants, a street looked inadequate and a bit run down. It did not surprise me after I discovered it since plants have the power to give off this atmosphere of peace, of growth and of harmony, and when a street is lack of that atmosphere, surely it would looked a bit run down and bare.

Another observation - the street is quiet on a Saturday morning, which actually was a bit surprising to me. I should investigate about that. I also came across a lot of empty parking lot yesterday morning, which is not surprising since it is the weekend and people don’t have to drive in to work. When I saw that, the first feeling was, “What a waste of those spaces.” So many vacant spaces in the weekend. Is that an efficient way of using valuable land of downtown, a place where people can gather and form community? I wonder what it would be like if those spaces can take on a different function when downtown do not need all those parking spaces. What can those large, hard, smooth surface can be used to help form better community in the mean times while they are not in use? Maybe open for a fleet market, a big garage sale or even a farmer market, the possibility is unlimited.

This is what I marked on my map: