It might just be my frame of mind, but it seems to me that there is nothing of great significance happening which grabs my writer's mind. Oh, sure, there was Christmas and then New Year, but being in Taiwan did not make those particularly significant events. There is the potential for war in Iraq, but that potential has been going on for so long now, that that does not seem that significant anymore. There is the potential for nuclear threat in North Korea, but CNN has been covering that so exhaustingly over the past few weeks that it hardly ranks as a significant headline anymore.

For something to be significant it has to be felt on a personal and emotional level. Watching something on TV seems to be as significantly removed from me as it can possibly be, like the recent snowfalls we've had in the mountains in Taiwan for which people endured a 30 kilometre traffic jam to see, but there are times when what I see on TV touches a chord in me that suggests it has significance. I learned from the Discovery Channel the other day that we are unable to tickle ourselves. This arbitrary fact has some subconscious significance for me I suppose, because I marveled at it. I was even more impressed by the presenter's passing comment that it's a good thing we can't tickle ourselves, because otherwise we would jump every time we touched ourselves!

And then the thought occurs to me that while I may not feeling anything of particular significance, the same cannot be said for my neighbours. The other day one of my neighbours asked if I would like a pot plant mounted on the wall next to my gate, which would cost NT$300. I said "Sure" because that didn't sound like a lot of money, but only realized afterwards that she had asked all the neighbours in the street and now we all have the same blooming pink pot plant mounted on our walls, which this neighbour has taken upon herself to water everyday. She has single-handedly beautified our lane in the most insignificant way, by making all our homes look conformist. Nonetheless, for her this is a particularly significant thing.

Perhaps the significant thing for me is that I have not felt anything significant.

5 January 2003

Dion Marc Delport

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