Monologue Mania: Monologue Mania Day # 1479 The Disappearance of Jieyang by Janet S. Tiger (c) March 3, 2018

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Monologue Mania Day # 1479 The Disappearance of Jieyang by Janet S. Tiger (c) March 3, 2018

The Disappearance of Jieyang

A monologue by Janet S. Tiger

tigerteam1@gmail.com

Where is my city? Where is Jieyang?

On my phone for months was a city - with a name I did not recognize. The phone listed the weather in this city, which I figured was somewhere in China.

It took up half a page on my phone. As I only have 3 pages (that I know of) and the other pages are filled with apps I never use, this was a bit disconcerting.

How did it get onto my phone?

As with most things that happen on my phone, I have no idea.

One day, after going with my daughter to a Ranch 99 market, with her speaking in Chinese (which she has taught herself via her phone) to the vendors, Jieyang suddenly was there. At first I thought it was the weather in my city, San Diego.

But San Diego is rarely 12 degrees C - or maybe it is, and I just don't know, because I can no longer do the conversion, which I used to have memorized, but now just comes through the ether as 4/5 something plus a million.

So there it was, Jieyang......for months I knew what the weather was via this 1/2 page. It was irritating - why didn't it go away? Many things I want to stay on the phone go away! Why not this?

Yet there it remained. I wondered who lived in this city, but never looked it up - why bother? I would never visit this faraway place - I don't know anyone there. I barely get to see friends who can no longer drive and live 30 miles away!

So one day, ok, yesterday, I thought, what if I push hard on this offending city, maybe I can put it in the trash, just like I did with several apps I wanted to keep, but did not know pushing them could make them disappear. What if I did something proactive - and made this offensive annoyance....go away.

So I pushed on the spot hard - with my finger, not my moth-killing thumb of doom, and it expanded! And then the magic words appeared - do you want to REMOVE this? I dragged it to the horror of the remove sector, and.....suddenly....it was ....GONE!

I was ecstatic! I had done something I actually wanted to do on my phone! Perhaps figuring this out boded well for the future - maybe one day I could actually understand how to remove items that clogged up my feeble phone memory so that I could use some apps! The joy! the....ecstasy! (I was so happy, I don't mind using that word twice)

So, the morning dawns and I turn on my phone. It is naked. Not completely, all the other crap is there. But.....not Jieyang. Not the weather in Jieyang. Where did it go? In fact......when I awakened....I cannot remember the name of the city. And .....I miss it. I miss knowing the weather in a place thousands of miles from here. Why? Who knows? I just do.

Perhaps......pay attention......a major thought is approaching......perhaps we do not always appreciate what is in front of us....until....it is gone.

In my life right now, several people are on the edge - possibly one day soon to be put into that 'removal' bin - one is a friend's mother, another is a relative, the third a dear friend.

Do I appreciate that they are still in my life even as they start to transition?

Do I appreciate that I can still call and speak with them.....for the moment?

Maybe, just maybe, the disappearance of Jieyang has made me realize that.

When I first missed the city....I could not remember the name, hence the misspelling throughout this piece. But when I was saddened by the gap on my phone, and in my life, I looked up 'weather in....and there it was, Jieyang, as if the phone knew that perhaps I didn't REALLY want to eliminate this city forever. So I go to the page that tells me about this city, which has almost 6 million people - bigger than my San Diego! - and has an airport, and has rice and manufactures textiles and even a notable person in its history-

Vintoquián (林道乾, Lîm tō-khiân) (?-?), 16th century pirate

And I think, maybe, if I could fly there in an hour, who knows -maybe I would visit.

(I turn to leave, stop, look back)

So what did I do, you ask. did I put the Jieyang weather back on my phone? Hell, no! Why would I want to take up half a page on a city in China? And......I really don't know how to put it back........

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There really is a Jieyang! (This is another monologue ripped from the headlines of my life)

Click on the name to get more info

Jieyang (Chinese: 揭阳; pinyin: Jiēyáng) is a prefecture-level city in GuangdongProvince, People's Republic of China, part of the Chaoshan region whose people speak Teochew dialect distinct from neighbouring Yue speakers. It is historically important as the hometown of many overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia. It borders Shantou to the east, Chaozhou to the northeast, Meizhou to the north, Shanwei to the west, and looks out to the South China Sea to the south.

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Janet S. Tiger (858)-736-63152016-17 San Diego Foundation Creative Catalyst Fellowship Recipient
www.JanetSTiger.weebly.com
www.CaregiversAnon.org

Member Dramatists Guild since 1983
Playwright-in-Residence
Swedenborg Hall 2006-8

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