凌霄（彩墨）

大約十年前，有一次去台北市立植物園寫生，剛好遇到攀緣在棚架上的凌霄花開。盛開的凌霄紅得醉眼，花團錦簇，美不勝收。

凌霄，多好聽的名字，壯志衝上雲霄。說明凌霄的特性：一心往上爬。不過，後來聽說凌霄必須依附在牆垣或大樹的枝幹才能往上爬，沒了依附，它就倒了下來。真不知倒地匍匐的凌霄會是什麼景況啊。

人類社會不就是這個樣子嗎？自己不努力，依附裙帶或特殊什麼關係坐到什麼大位，一旦依附的權貴倒下，樹倒猢猻散，變得景況淒涼，不也是很可悲嗎？

Trumpet Creeper/ink and color painting

I once went to the botanical garden in Taipei to sketch around 10 years ago, and I happened to catch the trumpet creeper in bloom. The red blossoms of the creeper were intoxicating, and sights in the garden were incomparably beautiful.

The trumpet creeper’s Chinese name means “soaring into the sky,” which alludes to this plant’s fondness for climbing. However, the creeper must eventually depend on a wall or the branches of a tree if it is to keep climbing. Without anything to support it, it would fall over. I really can’t imagine what a trumpet creeper crawling on the ground would look like.

Isn’t human society a bit like this? We often obtain our positions not through hard work, but through our in-laws or other special relationships. As soon as the powerful people we have attached ourselves to topple, we have to scramble to survive under humble circumstances—isn’t this pathetic? ＠

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責任編輯：昌英