A friend of mine is designing a school in one of the western provinces in China. 
He tells
me about the uses of bamboo in his designs and the research he has done
so far on this unique material. To his surprise, this special plant is
though widely used in Asia, it's never been approved as an official
building material in China! After meeting with him, I started thinking about this amazing plant and a little story I've heard about it.
With
bamboo, we can really do many things: it's the main food for our dear
pandas, its leaves can make delicious food, its shoots are yummy and
its tubes can be used for making musical instruments, furniture or even
cooking equipment. I guess ancient Chinese poets also like the
liveliness of this plant and artists, specially, would love to have
their artworks related to it.
Still, what amazes me is a story I've been told years ago when I was really frustrated in teaching:
In
the bamboo "family", one of the species is called the "Mao Bamboo"
（毛竹）, when you first planted it, for the first 3 - 5 years, no matter
how good the condition you've offered to it, you can never see it grow,
not even a minimeter.
Normally impatient farmers will then ignore them or even try to uproot them and switch to some other plantings.
But
for those will are willing to wait, and will never give up nurturing
them with their best efforts, one of the days on the 5th year, the
bamboo will suddenly start to grow in a shocking speed of 1.1M daily!
After that, it will just keep shooting up without stopping. By then you
will have one of the tallest plants in the world and to have your
bamboo-based business flourish. For the bamboo itself, it also wouldn't
know that maybe one day, someone from the other end of the globe is
actually using things related to it as well.
So, what makes the miracle? 
It's
not that on the 5th year, the condition of the soil or the sun or
whatever that turns favourable. But, it's actually the accumulative
efforts the patient farmers have been putting throughout the whole 5
years that contributes to its speedy and healthy growth.
This
is the fact behind the mystery: on the first few years, nothing but the
roots of the bamboo is actually growing. Only until one day when its
total length exceeds 1000km, then it will start its growth above the
soil. So of course the bamboo actually is "aware of" what the farmers
have put in the first few years and the nutrients are in fact all
"accepted" well, just that no signs of growth has been shown to give
the farmers any encouragements.
I
guess we are all farmers in many ways in life. I was not a very happy
farmer when I was struggling hard for my work years ago. But only after
I left the career, from time to time I receive some pleasant news from
my "bamboo saplings" telling me about their terrific growth. Of course
not each of them can grow very well now but then when I thought of the
years when they were expanding their roots, then I got an idea of how
things work that way for them these days. I finally know that I should
not be the only one to be blamed for everything.
For
those teachers, teachers-to-be, parents, parents-to-be, businessmen,
businessmen-to-be, etc. etc... I hope you can be inspired and thus
benefit from reading this entry also.
.: 
