Read A Thousand Books, And Your Words

It Used To Happen In Villages And Towns In China That They Would Have - I Guess You'd Call Them Beauty Contests - Where All Of The Women Of A Particular Village Or Town Would Be Seated Behind These Screens Or Curtains With Only Their Feet Showing.

Mama Used To Tell Us A Story About A Cicada Sitting High In A Tree. It Chirps And Drinks In Dew, Oblivious To The Praying Mantis Behind It. The Mantis Arches Up Its Front Leg To Stab The Cicada, But It Doesn't Know An Oriole Perches Behind It. The Bird Stretches Out Its Neck To Snap Up The Mantis For A Midday Meal, But Its Unaware Of The Boy Who's Come Into The Garden With A Net. Three Creatures—the Cicada, The Mantis And The Oriole—all Coveted Gains Without Being Aware Of The Greater And Inescapable Danger That Was Coming.

My Heart Is Empty & My Life Has No Value Anymore. Each Moment A Thousand Tears.

In Our Country We Call This Type Of Mother Love Teng Ai. My Son Has Told Me That In Men's Writing It Is Composed Of Two Characters. The First Means Pain; The Second Means Love. That Is A Mother's Love.

And Often It Would Be A Woman Who Was In Her 70s Or 80s Who Would Win The Beauty Contest, Because Bound Feet Never Age.