每个周日去跳广场舞都会经过一片空地。一年四季，除了春天花开时，我会停下来多看几眼，或停下车站在路边对着茂密的花田拍几张照，其余的三季我大都不会驻足停留。不过匆匆经过时，总会从车窗往外看，顺着这平坦的空地一直望到视野尽头的山峦，不管有没有花，不管山是不是青绿，心中总是有一份舒坦和宁静。我享受它的存在，习惯它的存在，也深知那片空旷在日渐拥挤的城市有多珍贵。
来这里二十多年了。这是我来美国居住的第一个城市也是唯一的一座城市。二十多年里，我见证了它的安宁，它的开阔, 它兼繁华城市和宁静乡村于一体的美丽，也目睹了它的发展，人口的急剧上升，交通的日渐拥挤，农田、果园、草莓地的一一消失，取而代之的一个个新社区新居民楼。。。
今年三月的一个周日，我在右拐时注意到了插在路边的一个牌子“Future Retail Center“, 就知道这块地也将不能幸存了。
今日（6/9）见推土机已经就绪，铁丝网的栏杆上已经用黑布遮住，路边电子屏幕上不停地闪烁着“XX road will be closed from June 12 to October 23“。 这就要破土动工了。
锻炼结束后回家的路上，我路经空旷的田野，停下了车，再折身回来，只为了最后看一眼这片田野。阴郁的六月天空下，我第一次走了进去，双脚踏过早已被割草机铲平如今已经枯萎的荆棘草丛，脑海里再次浮现去年三月盛开在这片土地上的鲁冰花，和今年四月的那一片黄色花海。今年的黄色雏菊花，在鲁冰花缺席的情形下，如此排山倒海，如此倾情奉献，好像知道这将是它们的last show, 好像是在告别这个世界，大有要把芬芳留于世间的架势。
再贴一次这两张照片，纪念即将消失的美丽：
人生就是在告别，一首首离歌有情无情。大自然原本可以四季轮回的，却因着人类贪婪的追求，也一样香消玉殒。
不敢想象，城市化的发展，越来越多的钢筋混凝土建筑，还有若干年后可能充斥大街小巷的机器人。这个世界会变成什么模样？人类的发展有时候是不是在作茧自缚，把自己困在了越来越狭小的空间？
特此记之。
另附今日公园里拍的花：
A vanishing field
Sunday’s group dance gives Em the chance to drive by an open land that adjoins to the park. Em thought that the land would be preserved for good like the open areas in New York’s Central Park that provides city dwellers an escape of squeezed city life. Not until this March, when a billboard suddenly erected by the corner that says “Future Retail Center”, did Em realize that soon this open field, like many others she’d witnessed in the years, will be gone and replaced by more concrete jungles.
On her way home, Em decided to take a walk on the field, as the road would be blocked from June 12 to October 23 for constructions, a roadside digital billboard blinking on with the message. The sun hadn’t come out, a rare June gloom that lingered after May grey in California this year. She stepped for the first time on the field that she used to take pictures from afar, of the blooming purple Lupines or yellow daisies that thickly carpeted and stretched to the end of her sight. But now, hearing the lifeless dried thorny remnants that crushed under her shoes, seeing the bulldozers ready to plow them, Em felt her farewell as blue as the Blue Jacaranda under the downcast sky in the distance.
She felt lucky that she didn’t miss the beauty this field once offered her. From now on, it only lives in her memories, along with the vanished orchid farms, sprawling strawberry fields, or the orange trees that the county is named after.
***
TJKCB's comment on a photo of a bulldozer: photo of a bulldozer = open-mouthed tiger
"Looking at this bulldozer, I can't help but see it as the embodiment of an open-mouthed tiger, both sad and scary in its relentless power. Its gaping maw seems hungry for destruction, yet behind its formidable exterior lies a sense of melancholy. It's a reminder of the often conflicting emotions we feel when faced with the impact of human intervention on the natural world. This juxtaposition of strength and sorrow in the image is both captivating and thought-provoking."
