Maternal Love 母爱？

This is not an uncommon sight in Hongkong. I’ve witnessed parents of all ages and descriptions performing assisted feeding on their beloved kids, so the game may go on. It inspired me to write the article New Age Narcotics (http://guo-du.blogspot.hk/2012/10/new-age-narcotics.html). Last week, I finally couldn’t resist capturing it with my phone. 

Love is a universally positive word in the modern world, though the boundaries between love, care, obsession, indulgence, etc. are not clear. I suppose they are, and should be, a personal definition. However, these boundaries seem to be shifting further and further away from my old-fashioned sense, becoming increasingly incomprehensible. At what point does “love” become toxic, I wonder.

The characters in Man’s Last Song (http://guo-du.blogspot.hk/2013/03/mans-last-song-event-diary.html) used up an entire section to dissect love, trying to discover its illusive nature: While so-called “love” from an enlightened person can be liberating and enriching, blind passion from a fool is annoying at best, murderous at worst. Fervid love chokes us when happening, and pains us with regrets when dead. . . Of course not everyone agrees.

只要够“八卦”，留意周围，这感人场面在香港不难看见。我见过不少衣着入时，看上去颇有教养的年轻父母，不忍亲生骨肉为了两餐把电子游戏中断，也在酒楼餐厅悉心喂饲“中童级”小朋友。这也是我较早的一篇博文“摩登鸦片” (http://guo-du.blogspot.hk/2012/10/blog-post.html) 的灵感来源。

在现代社会，“爱心”被视为文明素质，不容置疑。可惜爱与痴迷，狂热，娇宠，放纵等的界线，除了是个人选择之外，也很难划清。对我这个食古不化的人来说，“爱”在物质过盛，时间缺乏的社会中，变得越来越难理解。中国人都听过物极必反。究竟爱到什么程度才会“作反”呢？可能很值得思考。在 Man’s Last Song (http://guo-du.blogspot.hk/2013/03/mans-last-song-event-diary.html) 的故事中，几个“文明过后原始人” 把酒论爱，希望找出它的玄妙真谛。就是一直还没有空完成中文“笙歌”的最后版本！

Guo Du  31.07.2013

My Hundred-Year-Old Neighbour Mr. Chan

［中文: 我的百岁邻居陈老先生］

I’ve lived in the same building for more than half a century now. Standing twelve storeys high, it was the tallest structure on Robinson Road in 1958, if not all of Mid-Levels. We were surrounded by colonial style mansions and low-rise apartments. Until the mid-sixties, we could pick wax apples just across the street. The neighbourhood, like everything else in Hong Kong, had since changed beyond recognition. The panoramic view of Victoria Harbour has long disappeared, replaced by a barricade of oppressively tall buildings, spotted with industrial-standard windows that never open.

我的百歲鄰居陳老先生

[ English: My Hundred-Year-Old Neighbour Mr. Chan ]

我三歲到現在都住在同一棟大廈。我和兩個女兒都在這五十年代建成的公寓成長。它樓高12層，當年可能是半山區最高的建築物，俯瞰維多利亞海港。周圍都是富有殖民地色彩的古老大宅和四五層高的洋房。直到六十年代中期，我只要橫過羅便臣道路，便可以和朋友攀樹採摘洋蒲桃，現在很難想像。過去半個世紀，香港改變不少。 今天，我的家被高得有威脅性的新廈重重包圍。舉目環顧，無數永不打開的工業鋁窗密麻麻地遮擋著視野。在天台看海景煙花的日子，老早已成過去。