Jujutsu Kaisen Episode 1: Ryomen Sukuna

I love when they slow down for shoko

"Have you ever had that feeling—that you'd like to go to a whole different place and become a whole different self?"

[SHL] Zhou Zi Shu 周子舒 and Wen Ke Xing 温客行 name analysis

I know SHL is a small fandom but I feel like it deserves a names analysis post. I love how script writers have incorporated such beautiful, well researched lines of Chinese poetry from different time periods into the drama. The two main characters’ names are assigned couplets which we’ll explore below.

Zhou Zi Shu 周子舒

执子之手，坐看云舒（zhí zǐ zhī shǒu, zuò kàn yún shū）means “holding your hands, sitting and watching the clouds unfurl”.

It derives from two lines of poetry.

The first comes from the 《诗经》 Classic of Poetry, or Shih-ching, dating back to the Zhou 周 Dynasty (coincidence much?): 执子之手，与子偕老 means “holding your hand, growing old beside you”. It was a pledge said by a soldier to his wife whilst he was fighting a seemingly endless war. Nowadays, it is almost always used in a romantic or matrimonial context.

The second part comes from 《小窗幽记》 by Han Dynasty writer Chen Ji Ru 陈继儒: 去留无意，漫随天外云卷云舒 means “to be or not to be needs no hard decision, let nature takes its course and the clouds gather and unfurl at will”.

Wen Ke Xing 温客行

天涯孤鸿，无根行客（tiān yá gū hóng, wú gēn xíng kè）means “a solitary swan at the ends of the earth, a drifting wanderer with no roots”.

It also derives from two lines of poetry.

孤鸿 originates from 《咏怀诗》, written in the Three Kingdoms 三国 period by the poet Ruan Ji 阮籍. It means a lone swan, referring to the wild swan geese that formal monogamous pair bonds for many years. A solitary swan is known for its sorrowful cry, and the phrase is often used in poetry to lament one’s loneliness.

The second part comes from 《忆少年·别历下》, written in the Northern Song 北宋 Dynasty by philosopher Chao Bu Zhi 晁补之: 无穷官柳，无情画舸，无根行客 means “endless rows of willow trees by the road side, boats sweeping by heartlessly carrying drifting wanderers with no roots”. It is part of a poem written to depict the poet’s sadness when leaving Li Xia town, lamenting how when he next returns time would have flown by like a dream, leaving his loved one’s hair to turn white and no more vitality of youth.

Reflections

I can’t help but notice how strongly these two lines of poetry for each character match their personalities. ZZS has seen through the vanities of the world and has accepted whatever will be will be, eventually finding a soulmate he is willing to grow old with. On the other hand WKX hides his real name and motives, coping with loneliness and taking many trials and tribulations to fully trust even his soulmate. He masks his remorse and revenge behind a smiling and confident outer shell, until he slowly finds himself revealing his inner turmoil and vulnerability to ZZS.

'I know they are going to die.' This foster father takes in only terminally ill children

The children were going to die.

The children were going to die.

Mohamed Bzeek knew that. But in his more than two decades as a foster father, he took them in anyway — the sickest of the sick in Los Angeles County’s sprawling foster care system.

He has buried about 10 children. Some died in his arms.

Now, Bzeek spends long days and sleepless nights caring for a bedridden 6-year-old foster girl with a rare brain defect. She’s blind and deaf. She has daily seizures. Her arms and legs are paralyzed.

Bzeek, a quiet, devout Libyan-born Muslim who lives in Azusa, just wants her to know she’s not alone in this life.

“I know she can’t hear, can’t see, but I always talk to her,” he said. “I’m always holding her, playing with her, touching her. … She has feelings. She has a soul. She’s a human being.”

He’s the only one that would take a child who would possibly not make it.— Melissa Testerman, Department of Children and Family Services intake coordinator

Of the 35,000 children monitored by the county’s Department of Children and Family Services, there are about 600 children at any given time who fall under the care of the department’s Medical Case Management Services, which serves those with the most severe medical needs, said Rosella Yousef, an assistant regional administrator for the unit.

There is a dire need for foster parents to care for such children.

they’re here to kick some ass

osaaka (6/?)

they text each other now to schedule not-dates and other things

only up no down!!

this hour and what is dead, li-young lee / the last temptation (1988) dir. martin scorsese / calvary, william butler yeats / the sparrow, mary doria russell

osaaka (9/?)

akaashi as onigiri miya’s unofficial taste tester