FACEBOOK "LIKES"

What I "LIKE" on Facebook....Shadows, obscurity, abstract photos and paintings, absurdities of life, close-ups of miraculous flowers and landscapes, friends getting together to eat of perform to the camera, students who still have hope and made-it through to graduation, photo art of political and social reality, young animals and kids, non-clichéd paintings and drawings, visionary architecture, simple hard true realizations for the heart and spirit, friendship and love, revolution without murder, dark and dry humor, brilliant unique performers, good and bad singers and musicians who touch my soul, tiny details of life that are beautiful but no one notices,

EGO

An experience to learn from....Last night, I was an "expert" in a professional panel, and treated as important. This morning, I was clumsy in beginning dance class, and treated as someone to avoid. The 24-hour highs and lows of my ego are useful....to put me in my place as part of this massive flood of humanity, all desperately trying to survive, not feel invisible, be treated with respect due all human beings, and maybe even get a little love.

REMINDERS

W  H  A  T     I     L  E  A  R  N  E  D

                      

I was a teacher for the past 5 months. Sometimes I think I was a great teacher. (Some of my students wrote me emotional letters...after I gave them grades.) Sometimes I think I was a bad teacher, because there was so much I wanted to communicate, but could not. (Laziness? Language and cultural barriers? Just Life?)

Most of all, I was and always will be, a student....Paid more than my students. Treated with more respect than my students. With more life experience, self-confidence, and the "wisdom" of age (maybe), than my students.

What did I learn? (Of course, as soon as I learn something, I forget it and must continuously re-learn it.).....

I learned that everybody's pain feels the same.

1st ENGLISH TAIWAN FILM DICTIONARY-ENCYCLOPEDIA

RACISM & ME

Am I racist when I feel uneasy around black people who are poorly dressed in "street" clothes, look uneducated or culturally unsophisticated, and give off antagonistic or angry energy? I also feel uneasy around Hispanic and "white " people who are similar.

No, I am class-ist. I allow my class (not upper) to determine my animal instinctual preservation reaction. Once the potential adversary acknowledges me in any friendly or open way, my "classism" instantly disappears and we become two human beings on the same insane planet.....

BYE BYE

HOME

HAPPY LUNAR NEW YEAR & HAPPY TET

GONG XI FA CAI - 恭禧發財 - CHUC NUNG NAM MOI  !

I just spent a wonderful, difficult, challenging, magical, moving five months in Taiwan, teaching again. ....My TNUA graduate and undergraduate film and theatre students have made this semester happy and meaningful for me, even when they peacefully sleep in class, dreaming of girlfriends and boyfriends! I've given them the chance to practice English, and they've given me a chance to speak English. Almost fair.

We talked about creative passion, real and imaginary artistic blocks, fear of failure and losing face, taking risks in filmmaking and life, interesting and clear unique storytelling, communicating with an audience of over 2, impoverished International art cinema vs. greedy Hollywood entertainment, personal taste and critical judgement, learning from films you hate, and, most important, the best restaurants.

I will deeply miss Taiwan and Taiwanese lovers, friends, students, teachers, and MRT (best in the world), but not Taiwan politics and bureaucracy. As famous General Douglas MacArthur said, "I shall return!" (But he was fired.)

Have the warmest, most intimate, loving, kind new year 2013 with your family, friends, and cute snakes!

Ron

GOODBYE....2010, 2013

This letter was written in 2010, when I decided to resign my teaching positions and return to live in America. I had been living and working in Taiwan for 11 years then, since 1999. After I left, I returned briefly to teach in 2011, and now returned again for 6 months, September 2012 - February 28, 2013…..Re-reading the original letter, it still reflects my true deep feelings, so this time I want to share it on my new blog and Facebook page. I will leave Taiwan again on 228, and expect to always return.

A VERY PERSONAL GOODBYE, FOR NOW . . . . .

一封私密的暫別信

Dear Friends,

親愛的朋友們：

I am leaving Taiwan on 31 July 2010, and going back to America, after 11 years

of living and teaching here. This truly was the most meaningful period in my life.

Taiwan has changed me forever, in only good ways.

我在台灣定居的教學生涯已經有十一年，七月三十一號，我即將告別台灣回到美國。

這段時光絕對是我人生中最有意義的一段，台灣改變了我的一生，而且都是正面的轉變。

                                       

Teaching and living in Taiwan has re-opened my creativity, heart, intellect,

and passion, after a decade of mourning in America. Taiwan, literally, has been

a rebirth, and I have become a better, more caring (hu)man.

在美國經歷了十年的低潮後，我來到台灣定居教學，台灣重啟我的智慧和創意，

更點燃我的熱情和真心。不容諱言地，台灣是我的重生之地，讓我不只變得更好，

也更會關懷他人。

IS ANYONE THERE?

Dear Readers, whomever you may be,
if there are readers,

I've experimented with the 21st Century for 12 years,
and I still don't get the point.....

END OF 2012 GRATITUDE

I tenderly express my deep gratitude to Ngoc, Peter, Michael, Frank, Yen, Wang Toon, Joan, Allen, Lou, Fred, Toni, Peggy, Lee Ang, Rose, Barbara, Bill, Patrick, Bruce, Martin, Cesaria Evora, Khanh Ly, Trinh Cong Son, Daw-Ming, Judy, Kris, Ling-Hui, Jin-Ting, Huang, Chi-Kwan, and all the lovely men, women, artists, and students of Taiwan.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Taipei, Taiwan, 2012

!!!M!!!E!!!R!!!R!!!Y!!!

ART BY RON NORMAN

DRAWINGS (not doodles)

GRATITUDE

BOOK OF GRATITUDE

This Book was started on Thanksgiving Day 2011. Then every day when I wake up, I visualize other vital people and things, feel their influence on my heart and spirit, and ritualistically write their names…..

NATURE

I am grateful for hummingbirds, rabbits, trees, clouds, rain, snow.

HEALTH

I am grateful for breathing easily, seeing, moving my body, crying, making love, sleeping well.

PEOPLE

I am grateful I lived in the same centuries with Bob Dylan,

Jackson Pollack, Walt Kelly, Federico Fellini, Maya Plisetskaya,

Akira Kurosawa, Doc Watson, Jorge Preloran, Ingmar Bergman,

WHY I DON'T LEARN CHINESE

I’ve lived in Taiwan for 12 years.

No one can understand why I did not learn Chinese.

It’s absurd.

There must be a logical reason, so people imagine:

·                    I am lazy.

    I don’t respect Taiwan.
          I have a brain problem (besides age).

ART FROM XINDIAN

DEER & RABBIT

I am the deer and the rabbit
and the invisible bear . . . . .

MY POLITICAL, SOCIAL, ECONOMIC POLITICAL PLATFORM

Nationalize: pharmaceuticals, hospitals, armaments, oil, cable, phone.

American companies must manufacture products in America.

National health insurance.

Guaranteed minimum level of living: money, medicine, housing, school.

No one allowed to earn over $10-million/year.

No censorship of ideas, but no free speech that incites violence.

Gun ownership: only 1 handgun for protection, 1 hunting rifle; no concealed guns or knives.

Arms cannot be sold overseas to undemocratic governments.