Memories that became more lucid with the coming of age here, translated…
The term for “packed lunch” was from Japanese; what’s interesting was, the term for it in Japanese, also came from elsewhere, from Ancient China’s “packed meals”. In the ancient times, in Mandarin, it meant “convenient”, “fitting”, but as it’d arrived in Japan, it’d gotten that “lunch box” attached to the definitions, then came over to Taiwan, became the “packed meals” we’d become, very familiar with.
Packed lunches for others, it seemed to be a synonym of the care and concerns from the family, but it isn’t so with me. In my childhood memories, the lunches were what we, the kids had, as our parents played mahjong and forgot about to cook, the cold quarter-legs, the pork chops, it was the silent partners that awaited my older brother and I as we came home from the cramming sessions. The noises shuffling of the mahjong blocks, the smokes that filled the room, was the side-dish that went with our meals.
As we got older, we’d gotten more opportunities to dine with our parents.
As I’d started working, I’d, occasionally left for work without my supper, at which time, my mother would pack up the rice and the sides of vegetables, proteins inside a steel lunch case, for me to take to work, so when I’m on break, I can have something fulfilling to eat.
The meaning of “packed lunch” had been turned around in my life, and, it’d gotten a brand new definition. Or maybe, what’s washed with time, sometimes, is more than the original meanings of things.
So, this is the metamorphoses of the meaning of packed meals to this individual, through time, as the person grows older, the meanings of things will increase or decrease, and all of this is based on his life experiences.
Life, the Obstacle Course 