UP

When I remember this scene, I think of Kevin, and UP.





For centuries, couples, comrades, writers, artists, lingers, and princes have strolled along Kyoto's Philosopher's Path for pure delight under the sakura leaves - a flash of youthful beautify before our very eyes.



Two weeks, or so - that's how long they last in their glory.
And then
they cry.
It begins to snow...

and the world is back to the way it was.



The fleeting sakura are symbolic of the youthful beauty that swiftly escapes us - sooner than we realize - though we might say more of the beauty of love and lasting memories, more precious and less ephemeral than a mere photograph.

In honor of the great Bart, and a toast to him this past Friday, the 23rd of April, here are reflected the sakura, interwoven in his text:

"Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no; it is an ever-fixed mark,
That looks on tempests, and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come;
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error, and upon me prov'd,
I never writ, nor no man ever lov'd."

Well said, Will.

[Philosopher's Path, Kyoto.]