Recollection in Tranquillity

Let a hundred flowers bloom. - Mao

Party time was Thursday afternoon but I could usually run a postgrad class. That day I played "The Solitary Reaper", and while they followed the text, watched the Faculty raking leaves and smelt the fragrance from their fires down below. It made me smile to see professors and the rest deft with skills learned in the dynasty of Mao. I turned up Wordsworth, leaned out, urged them on. Some faces shone, most did not, but all talk stopped.