Here are my two cents on hot weather, and pondering on excerpts from Escapism by Yi-Fung Tuan.
Being on the outskirt of a tropical cyclone, Hong Kong is experiencing ‘persistently very hot’ weather for the next couple of days. The contrast of being inside and outside is as stark as shadow on asphalt. Growing-up in subtropical climate, out of the four seasons I dreaded summer the most. It was a mixture of bodily discomfort (namely sweat and chafing) and the insecurity that flares up with it, as well as, never having to make use of this annual and seasonal source of heat for anything other than to endure it.
‘No animal can survive unless it perceive its environment as it really is. Daydreaming or wishful thinking would not answer. The hard facts cannot be made to go away by shutting one’s eyes. But as far as we know, only humans may withdraw, eyes shut, to ponder the nature of a threat rather than confront it directly, muscles tense, eye open; only they daydream and engage in wishful thinking.’
We moved our walks earlier and earlier in the morning to avoid the scorching morning sun. I take it upon myself, to be responsible for Zee Ma (🐕)’s wellbeing for not getting heatstroke and searing his paws. We are abiding to this invisible agreement between pets and their humans, that humans provide pets with shelter, yet pets are not expected to leave as they please - and here we are, me and ZM fulfilling this agreement, with the added condition of weather. We perceived our environment together this way. When it is too warm in the morning, we cut our walk short and depart before the sun blazes, before both of us trap all the heat in our body. When it is humid or drizzling, we cut our walk even shorter, before ZM gets damped and grumpy.
We perceived our daily walk as it really is outside. Sometimes we are grateful for these hard facts - snoozing through a rain shower. Sometimes, we begrudged it - ZM wishing it would stop raining after three days. I wonder if ZM ever wishfully think he can endure damp fur, or keep his body cool under his shiny black coat. As for humans to be whimsy enough to imagine altering weather, I wonder if we would ever take back the phrase ‘sky is the limit’.
‘…escaping makes it easy for us to forget the destructive preliminaries of almost all creative acts - even one as basic and necessary as cooking.’
Even though me and ZM’s daily walks depend on the weather, there is a shelter we both retreat to. There is the comfort of air conditioned room to escape the heat. Looking out from the closed window, the swaying of trees and chanting of cicadas are persuading me to embrace a warm summer breeze. Birds chirping to convince me of the disorientation I have put myself in for the sake of ‘comfort’. All the while, exhaust fumes, heat reflecting glass curtain wall, light flickering off lacquer car paint drowning out the rustling of green leaves and fluttering of membranous wings, reminding us to go inside. To forget is to give way.
‘…success in modern time has introduced unprecedented predictability and plenitude into human life. This ought to ensure happiness, but it doesn’t; it doesn’t even ensure deep security. Modern men and women, living in their artificial worlds high up on the ladder of aspiration and pretension, seem to suffer from what Milan Kundera calls the “unbearable lightness of being.”’
‘How much is asking too much from a straw hat?’ was what I thought to myself when my mum asked if there are hats that cool ones’ head. When is it our aspiration tempting us to rebuke the nature of our environment with such arrogance (or ignorance)?