The Chinese word spelt in English as 'dong' means 'east', and the word 'xi' means 'west' or happiness depending on dialect or how it is written. When we put both these words together, we get a completely different meaning. 'Dong xi' as we would write it in the western world, means 'things' -- 东西. Sometimes some things can be all too easily accepted into our lives without knowing what such an acceptance could bring, but then again without such things where would we be today?
Throughout life there are things that we expect to come across, we can plan for the things we expect, we can arrange our lives to suit any incoming expectations. There are places we know we need to go, there is a lot we know we need to do, relationships we need to survive through, relationships too we come to trust and build upon. There are relationships that will form to go on and have long lasting impacts on our lives even if they only have the briefest of existences.
Of course, on the flip side of this, and all through our lives, things will happen that we cannot expect to come our way. There will be things we cannot plan for and relationships that we cannot see coming, no matter how sure we can be that they will or will not come into being. We cannot plan for how any of these things may affect us, we cannot prepare ourselves for the impact of such things and indeed truly cannot see them coming but come they do.
Sometimes the unexpected moments can impact us in such a way that such moments could end up staying with us our entire lifetime no matter how brief a time any of these moments take to pass at the time they occur.
Ten days, for example, is just a fleeting moment in time compared to the average length of a full and lived human lifespan. Yeah, with the amount of time a whole life can see through its entirety whether that can be an average lifespan or something like one, it would really take something special for anything that may occur within any given ten day period to have a lasting effect on such a life as a whole.
***
Eric Russell, not one to shy away from a good bargain or two, was out walking one bright warm spring afternoon, walking that is, without having any particular destination in mind. Being free and able to head out to wherever the wind may take him he would walk at a leisurely pace.
So unusual this is, as for everything that Eric does, or at least usually does, has a purpose. Usually that purpose would be one which leads to gain either financially or in some other manner. Coming into his mid-twenties, Eric is really only getting going in life, there is much to do and plenty of time in which to do it or so is the expectation.
That wind, or whatever it may be, that does take him on this moment of wandering, would just so happen to take Eric to downtown Chinatown where there would be many a wonder to fill each and every one of the senses with wonder.
The smell of freshly prepared raw and cooked foods from the numerous outdoor food stalls and from the surrounding array of Asian and Thai restaurants filled the air, as did the scent of a variety of fresh fish lying on crushed ice for sale from the market stalls. Mixed spices and the aroma of the sea, an eclectic and invigorating mix of scents to rejuvenate the soul and make any tummy rumble. Eric politely passed the many invites to enter such establishments or to buy from the stalls, invites which came in both Chinese and English.
Temptation, hell Eric was seriously tempted by all that he saw, and he would at least love to sample a lot of it if not at least succumb to some of it, but with Eric being just who he is, he would hold out for that perfect bargain, the one which suggested to him that he would most definitely be getting his money's worth and then some. For Eric likes things, all kinds of things, be they inanimate or edible but more often than not he has an eye for things, anything, that can help line his own pockets with cold hard cash.
