The Uncarved Blog

The title of this new blog suggests this is another one of those”the Dao of fill-in-the-blank” sites. It’s not. I’m really not concerned with Daoism at all–or at least only very minimally so. The Daoist metaphor of the uncarved block, however, seems to be a pretty fitting one for this next stage of my life, so I’ve adopted it as my theme here.

In the next six months or so (around the end of August–after the Olympics are over, I hope), my husband, Ben, and I are planning to move to China for a year. I will study Chinese language, and he will . . . well, we’re not exactly sure what he’s going to do. Write, because that is what he does. Explore, because that is what he likes to do when he is not writing. And maybe teach some English. We’ll see how that goes. We kind of have to wait and see where I will be studying before we can be sure about what opportunities might be available to him.

I’m excited about this next year, and I’m really looking forward to spending time in China, getting to know the people better, gaining a better understanding of this culture I have committed myself to studying. Having lived in China before (I have spent a total of a year there in several shorter stays between 2000 and 2004), and having spent the past year and a half studying Chinese language and culture in an MA program, I know that it is difficult, even impossible, for a Westerner to fully understand the Chinese people and their approach to life. There are certainly elements of living that all humans share, simply as a result of being human. But there are also certain assumptions that we each take for granted regarding the way we ought to relate to one another, the way certain situations should be handled, that depend largely upon the culture in which we have been raised, and the approach our home culture takes toward those issues. These assumptions differ greatly from East to West, from culture to culture.

This is where I think the metaphor of the uncarved block comes in handy. I could go into this experience with a rigidly defined set of expectations, completely based on what I have been taught by my home culture, regarding what is good, what is right, what is appropriate. It seems that approach would lead to a very disappointing and frustrating experience overseas, because I would constantly come out of each daily experience feeling angry and let down by the things I experience on a daily basis.

On the other hand, I have the opportunity to go into this experience as simply, unexpectantly, and openly as possible–like an uncarved block, with no preconceived design. If I approach the year in China ready to react spontaneously and naturally to whatever I might encounter, open to each experience that comes my way–well, then the possibilities are endless, aren’t they? The potential is limitless, just as it is for Laozi’s uncarved block.

So, this blog will be the story of my encounter with China (and, I guess, the months leading up to the encounter), an encounter that aims to be as uncarved as it possibly can. I have no doubt that there will be moments when I am more carved than uncarved, more dependent on prior assumptions than open to new experiences, more focused on what I know than ready to spontaneously go with whatever comes my way. But I plan to aim for the latter.