I’m very sad. One of the best restaurants in my neighborhood has been demolished! The “Red Door Restaurant” is gone. I was just there on Tuesday, but now it’s gone. No warning. I realize that may be because I don’t speak enough Chinese to know “this building is getting demolished so we’re moving to doko soko.” I’m pretty heartbroken. This loss is like a friend died.
A friend and I walked by at 3:30pm and all was normal. Then when we returned from tea, the wrecking was almost all done.
I’ve got to have my students track down the family who owned this place and find out where they’ve moved to. I can’t imagine life here without chicken in bread pockets or their other specialties.
I leave you with this poem by Elizabeth Bishop ~
One Art
The art of losing isn’t hard to master;
so many things seem filled with the intent
to be lost that their loss is no disaster.
Lose something every day. Accept the fluster
of lost door keys, the hour badly spent.
The art of losing isn’t hard to master.
Then practice losing farther, losing faster:
places, and names, and where it was you meant
to travel. None of these will bring disaster.
I lost my mother’s watch. And look! my last, or
next-to-last, of three loved houses went.
The art of losing isn’t hard to master.
I lost two cities, lovely ones. And, vaster,
some realms I owned, two rivers, a continent.
I miss them, but it wasn’t a disaster.
—Even losing you (the joking voice, a gesture
I love) I shan’t have lied. It’s evident
the art of losing’s not too hard to master
though it may look like (Write it!) like disaster.
Is there a special place you’ve lost recently? What was it?
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