Chinese Version
2023-09-14, Thursday, Sunny

After walking in the Rose Garden for a long time，as the very few shaded benches in the garden were all occupied, I went back to my car, took a folding chair from the trunk, brought it to a shady place, unfolded the folding chair, sat down, took my MacBook Air out from my backpack, and quietly enjoyed the beauty in front of the blooming roses and also inside my memories, I slowly continued writing my story about Lake Cunningham Park which I visited a few days ago.

Suddenly a voice came from my left asking what I was doing. I looked up and saw a man wearing sunglasses, a cowboy hat, and holding a cane standing to my left side in front of a big tree. I didn’t want to be disturbed, so I politely told him: “I am writing a story.” He then asked me what I was writing, how did I connect to the internet, and how did I charge my gadgets. Guessing the people visiting here on a Thursday are likely flower lovers like me, I told him that I was writing a story about visiting an East San Jose Park, my MacBook was online via my iPhone’s personal hotspot, and I used a portable charger only for my iPhone as the MacBook has enough power for a day. Then he said he is also a writer, so we started chatting while he was standing and I was sitting.

After we enjoyed our conversation, he said his name is Rhawn Joseph (I call him RJ), seventy over half, a serious writer who focuses on cosmology. As I didn’t know anything about cosmology, I asked him if he had been to the Lick Observatory on Mt Hamilton and was surprised to hear he hadn’t visited there. Then He said his team had found photographic evidence of fungus-like organisms on Mars. After I got home, I found out: “Astronomy is the study of objects and phenomena beyond the earth, while cosmology is a branch of astronomy that studies the origin of the universe and its evolution, such as the Big Bang, the origin of chemical elements, and the cosmic microwave background etc.”

Chatting about Brain

I didn’t know much about cosmology, but I thought it was cutting-edge science, so I asked him if he hires newbies, because my son, who graduated with a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Kings College London, was studying for a master’s degree in applied mathematics at Santa Clara University, is currently looking for a job. He said he isn’t hiring.

Thinking of he is over seventy, I asked him what else he had studied before. He said that he studied neurology in the 1970s. I am interested in the brain, so I asked him a few questions and felt his answers were concise and easy to understand, and I felt grateful.

I once bought three brain-mind music CDs, because I often felt I did not have enough brain cells to help me process work related information and I wanted to improve the power of my brain. I listened to them for several months, but I didn’t feel any effect on my feeling of short of brain cells. So I had doubt on the music-brain relation. In mid-July, after my granddaughter was born, Alex, the new father, often plays music for her. I wanted to know if listening to music can really strengthen the brain. After hearing my question, RJ said: For example, repeated exercises are always beneficial to strengthening the body muscles; some music makes him happy, and some music makes him crazy. My comprehension is: “Listening to certain music is good for strengthening brain muscles and regulating emotions.” I started to play musics that I feel relaxing and cheerful to my two-month-old granddaughter now.

During the three-year COVID-19 pandemic, I saw and heard that friends around me experienced different types of depression. I wanted to know from the perspective of brain nerves, “Why do people become depressed?” RJ roughly said: People who are depressed may think about too many problems; if I try to think a lot I may feel depressed too; nowadays, too much information on the Internet and a lot of them are negative information, reading too much negative information will easily lead to depression; so he does not read negative information about himself, otherwise he may also become depressed. My understanding is: “Think simpler and read less negative information online will help to avoid depression.” Unfortunately, I forgot to ask him how to self-heal from depression. My personal experience is that the ups and downs of experiencing hardship in life may enhance the power of self-healing of depression.

While living in Waltham, Massachusetts, on the East Coast, I visited Walden Pond often. Every time I walked around Walden Pond I smelled marijuana in part of the wood trail. Now living in San Jose, California, the private use of marijuana has been legalized. I noticed more places where I smelled marijuana, so I asked: “It seems that more people are using marijuana in public park now. Should I avoid taking my grandchildren to those places?” RJ answered: Smoking damages the lungs, and drinking alcohol is not good. The Hawaii fires in August had adverse effects on people’s lungs and skin; the dangers of second-hand smoke are well known. After listening to his explanation, I thought that marijuana also belongs to second-hand smoke and it is best to avoid it if possible. Of course, with my true love for liquor, I said that drinking a little alcohol is good. I also remember what Professor A, who is also a serious writer, said at one of his birthday dinner: “When I was young, if I had an idea but felt writer’s block, I drank a bit of single barrel whiskey, and after that my writing became much smoother.”

Chatting about Rose

Flowers always bring me joy, so I enjoyed chatting about roses with a regular visitor here in my favorite rose garden; I enthusiastically shared all my knowledge about roses, and it was very satisfying.

RJ asked me: “Do you like it here?”

“Yes, I like this place a lot. I used to come here often at lunch time when I was still working. I wrote a few short stories about this rose garden.

RJ said: “I often walk here, and of course I drive here at night.”

Hearing that he often comes here, I shared my opinion of this garden with him: “I think this is one of the best gardens in the world, because the roses in the rose gardens of British and German palaces are not as variety as here, nor as beautiful as here.”

RJ added: “Rose.”

I didn’t understand, why he said that, so I continued: “Because California’s climate, there are many varieties of roses that bloom for a long time here, so I think it is one of the best gardens.”

RJ repeated: “Rose.”

It suddenly dawned on me that he was correcting my imprecision when he said rose. I quickly changed my words and emphasized the rose: “I think this rose garden is one of the best rose gardens in the world.”

Suddenly, he reminded me of the brave gentleman I met by the Charles River in Massachusetts, because he came to talk with me in the middle of COVID, while answering my question, he corrected himself that the binocular on his cane should be a monocular. Then I thought of the roses in Boston Public Garden and asked RJ: “Have you been to Boston?”

RJ said, “I studied at Yale, which is near Boston.”

Hearing that he had gone to school near Boston, I thought it would be a rare opportunity to express my dissatisfaction with the metal fenced roses in the Boston Public Gardens to a person who had been to Boston, at a rose garden where everyone could stroll among the flowers. I said quickly: “Did you know? at the Boston Public Garden, the oldest park in the United States, roses there are all fenced inside metal railings. You can only see the flowers from a distance but cannot smell the fragrance up close.” After finishing speaking, I remembered that I had noticed the roses were all fenced while visiting the Public Garden in June 2021, along with my daughter and Shirah.

RJ asked: “Did you smell the fragrance of roses here?”

I pointed to the left side of the garden behind him and said: “Yes, I just went and smelled my favorite sugar moon, a white and very sweet fragrant rose. Unfortunately, there are only a few blooming sugar moon roses there, I had to put my nose close to the flowers to smell the fragrance.”

“In April and May, the whole garden is filled with the fragrance of roses.”

I said, “Oh, I came here in late April this year and saw a lot of flower buds, but not many roses. I didn’t smell the fragrance here.” In fact, there is no trace of the garden full of fragrance in my memory.

RJ added: “I also went to another place to see roses.”

I can’t find another good place to enjoy roses near Silicon Valley in my memory, because the roses in Filoli are not as good as here, and it is not worth going there just to see the roses. I blurted out: “Where else would you go to see roses?”

RJ didn’t expect that I was serious about the place he went to see roses. He thought for a while and then said: “Guadalupe Rose Garden.”

I also knew about the rose garden there and said: “I went there a long time ago to see roses too.” Remembering that the last time I went to Guadalupe Rose Garden as a driver for my daughter and niece who were playing Pokemon Go. I asked RJ: “Do you play Pokemon Go?”

RJ: “No, I don’t play.”

“I think the roses there don’t grow as well as here, because the garden was too dry.”

RJ: “Yeah, that place hasn’t been good these past few years.”

…

After returning home, I carefully sorted through the photos and writings of my visits to the rose garden in April and May in the past few years. I really didn’t write down the scene of the garden filled with fragrance. I must go to the rose garden more often in April and May next year, maybe then I will be able to feel the grand scene of the garden full of fragrance of roses.

More about RJ

Before we say goodbye, I asked RJ if I could take a photo of him to write a story about chatting with him here. He happily agreed. After I showed him a few photos I took, he seems not satisfied and put down his cane and did a few cool poses for me to take a few more photos.

Because I heard from Alisa that her husband Ronnie, my Ph.D. advisor, recently went to a senior center to give a lecture about Mars, I sent them RJ’s Cosmology website, hope they are interested.

Me and the Rose Garden

1. 04-23-2023, the first spring after returning from Massachusetts, I visited the rose garden and saw many buds and very few flowers.

2. On December 11, 2019, before I left California for Massachusetts, I thought I would miss the rose garden, so I hurriedly drove to see it at night. I still remember that I felt very heavy when I took this photo…

3. On 2019-05-04, Limin invited me to volunteer at the rose garden. I enjoyed our long-lasting friendship and taking care of the garden.

【Youth Day】 Volunteer. Together with the middle school students in their early teens, we pulled weeds and laid shredded wood for the flourishing rose garden… Feel the youthful vitality, breathe the fragrance of roses, and nourish the evergreen heart in the beautiful and attractive San Jose Rose Garden, my paradise. Happy May 4th Youth Day.

4. 2018-04-14 【Rose Garden】The San Jose Rose Garden is festive and cheerful at dusk, filled with young men in suits and ties and pretty girls in floor-length skirts. Roses in the garden: many are ready to bloom, but few are in full bloom, with different beauty.

5. 2017

In September, after the very hot summer, I visited The San Jose Rose Garden to look for roses matching the red shade of my pretty toenail that was painted by my daughter.”

In April, 【Beautiful scenery】The flowers in the San Jose Rose Garden are in their prime and intoxicating. I am in their colorful world at dusk: tender, sweet, and infatuated.

Guadalupe Rose Garden

2016-08-14 【Smile】 Today, Sunday, I accompanied two young beauties to play Pokemon Go in downtown San Jose. As a driver, my uniform was approved after four rounds of inspections (the cheongsam, dotted dress, and black and white twill dress were all rejected). Fortunately, I am humble. Tonight I am wearing blue health slippers to go with this short skirt!

Related Stories

In September 2017, I and my daughter visited one of my favorite local gardens Filoli in Silicon Valley.

In June 2020, I had noticed the roses were all fenced while visiting the Boston Public Garden in June 2021, along with my daughter and Shirah.

In September 2020， I visited Walden Pond.

In October 2020, I met a brave old gentleman who came over to chat with me and was very articulate.

In January 2021, on a super cold Sunday in Boston, My daughter, my son, and I played Pokemon Go for an entire day.