By Lin Dihuan

An Entry to Another World

By Lin Dihuan

One of my friends is an entrepreneur who’s quite fond of going fishing. One day, we took a fi shing tour together. Having successfully caught some small fish, my friend suddenly was mad about fi shing in the sea. His dream has always been to catch a grouper over two pounds.

Obviously, it is no easy task to fish in the South China Sea, for it is suffering from overfishing. However, my friend spared no efforts in studying fi shing equipment, baits, and the like to achieve his dream. Very soon he became an expert in both astronomy and geography, but not a good fisherman. Interestingly, the money and energy he spent were probably worth a ton of groupers.

On another day, we went fi shing off the isle of Zhuhai. We spent a night on a single rock in the midst of the ocean. A small fi sh with black beans and instant noodles, cooked with a portable gas stove, was our supper. At dawn, the sunrise dyed the boundless sea red. Ocean waves slapped on the rocks under us, and there were countless seagulls dancing around the isle. The sun shined splendidly, and the clouds gathered and then separated, over and over again.

Doesn’t it sound poetic? The truth is that we just wanted to catch one single grouper. It was an unsuccessful fishing excursion though, since we did not catch our grouper. However, the sunrise we saw was resplendent and rarely witnessed. For my friend, a single fishing activity was woven into a fantasy. Waiting for the fish on the hook was his dream, and the knowledge of astronomy and geography he learned was the fantasy he truly dreams of.

Much was gained because of his wild dream. He has come to learn so much—such as when the barometric pressure is high, fi sh tend to be hungry because of ample oxygen. High pressure means the fish will be eager to take a bite. He extended this to his business as well. In his business he would always use knowledge of astronomy to pick such a day to make it easier for negotiations select a day during astronomical tides whenever he wants to inspire his employees.

Later I learned that his business was so successful that he could easily purchase ten tons of groupers.

Of course, fi shing is not a high-end sport. However, such a little hobby can be an entry to another world. As long as there is a small matter that interests you so much that you don’t even consider its utility, you might become a useful person in some completely unforeseen way while enjoying the charming and poetic side of life.

For example, you can be fond of carpentry so much as to spend all the time you have in order to make a perfect stool. Or you can be buried into insect photography, crouching for three days in the forest to capture an exuviation. You can also be keen on cooking so earnestly that you take delight in searching Thailand for the perfect spice to cook a delicious Tom Yum soup. What’s more, your passion for calligraphy may drive you to practice Jiucheng Palace, a famous copybook by Ouyang Xun, over ten thousand times. And you might even cover the entire Ancient Tea Horse Road, on foot, just to get a taste of a fragrant tea.

All of those things do not require quitting your day job and getting on the road. You won’t have to save every penny. As soon as you have an idea, you can put it into action. I can’t say that every person that acts such a way is really interesting, but at least they are inwardly rich when alone. They won’t need to feel their existence by being with troops of friends or going to parties and getting wasted, for their mind is already occupied by all those mentallyabsorbing hobbies.

I believe that ‘to wait for a blossom with a great deal of patience and smiles’ is of vital meaning of life.

(From Waiting for A Blossom, Beijing United Publishing Company. Translation: Xu Chaolan)