Current mood:	feeling lonely
Current music:	Always Be My Baby - David Cook

flowers in adversity
"a flower that blooms in adversity is the most rare and beautiful of all," said the emperor in "mulan".

about four or five years ago, when the world, china in particular, was besieged by the sars epidemic, the philippine daily inquirer had an interesting banner photo (shot by reuters) with the caption: "intimacy in a time of sars is problematical for a couple saying goodbye at a train station in china's capital, beijing. nearly half of the world's sars cases have occured in china where official statistics show that 92 people have died and more than 2,000 have been infected."

the picture was a tight shot on the couple's faces. the guy wanted to kiss the girl goodbye as he held her face and the girl seemed frustrated that they couldn't as she closed her eyes. they were both wearing face masks.

it caught my attention when i first saw it and cut it up when i got back from school. i kept it along with four more photos that i thought was a good example of photojournalism. for one reason or another, imagined or real, i felt a strong sense of affinity towards that picture; it's like i can feel the frustration and the longingness. i always thought that was a real picture of romance; something i only wish i could have.

then again today, i read yet another romantic story on the paper - another portrait of romance in a time of crisis and again in china. it's a story by the new york times news service titled "a story of love in the ruins," which tells the story of a couple trapped in the rubble of their apartment for 28 hours. they lay entwined on their sides under slabs of concrete. the guy said he wanted his wife to make it out to raise their daughter (the story didn't tell where their daughter was or if she was safe as press time).

the couple's background made it more romantic. the guy had just returned two days before the earthquake after travelling around china for half a year, trying his luck at small business investing and had lost a lot of money. they rarely spoke and the guy missed spending the lunar new year with his family (needless to say, the lunar new year is china's most important holiday, especially for the family). the wife was always telling her husband to have a rest and stay away from business, "just try and enjoy life for a while," she was quoted saying (most probably in chinese).

"the only thing we had was each other. we encouraged each other to live on and we said once we got out, we'd live a good life and care for each other. now we have a new start," said the guy. sigh. makes me all the more wanting. sigh..