第55次相睇，個女仔姓劉、叫阿琳、86年、有兩個大佢十幾年嘅大佬、住喺彭上村、喺白雲新城嘅綠地中心上班。

我哋喺五號停機坪三樓嗰間長野拉麵食咗餐飯，佢好客氣（又或者講好見外），凈係點咗碗拉麵。

食麵之餘傾咗幾句，然後就匆匆分別。

Delivered on the steps at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. on August 28, 1963.

I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.

Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.

But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. And so we’ve come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.

In a sense we’ve come to our nation’s capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the “unalienable Rights” of “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note, insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked “insufficient funds.”

But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so, we’ve come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.

We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of Now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God’s children.

It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro’s legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. And those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. And there will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.

But there is something that I must say to my people, who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice: In the process of gaining our rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again, we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.

The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. And they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom.

We cannot walk alone.

And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead.

We cannot turn back.

There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, “When will you be satisfied?” We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the negro’s basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their self-hood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating: “For Whites Only.” We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until “justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. And some of you have come from areas where your quest — quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive. Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed.

Let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you today, my friends.

And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.”

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of “interposition” and “nullification” — one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; “and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together.”

This is our hope, and this is the faith that I go back to the South with.

With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith, we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

And this will be the day — this will be the day when all of God’s children will be able to sing with new meaning:

My country ’tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing.

Land where my fathers died, land of the Pilgrim’s pride,

From every mountainside, let freedom ring!

And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true.

And so let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire.

Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York.

Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania.

Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado.

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California.

But not only that:

Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia.

Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee.

Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi.

From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

And when this happens, and when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual:

Free at last! Free at last!

Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!

You say that you love rain, but you open your umbrella when it rains.

You say that you love the sun, but you find a shadow spot when the sun shines.

You say that you love the wind, but you close your windows when wind blows.

This is why I am afraid, you say that you love me too.

——Qyazzirah Syeikh Ariffin

人哋話久病成醫，唔知相睇嘅日子耐咗係唔係都可以成為一個好叻嘅媒人嘅呢？如果係嘅話，怕者我都會係能醫不自醫。唉，媒人都已經識咗五六個囉，但係老婆就硬係搵唔到一個。

已經有一年幾無同阿齊姨飲夜茶囉，上次同佢介紹嘅女仔相睇已經係前年12月21號嘅事，今次相睇又係喺三元里大道嗰間東江。年幾無嚟，今晚發現東江門口嗰塊LED顯示屏一直循環滾動住“社会主义核心价值观：富强、民主、文明、和谐……”嘅字樣，嗰一排紅色嘅大字，就同喺相睇期間刻意嘅表現一樣咁虛偽。

人生嘅第54次，又係一次一無所獲嘅相睇，個女仔姓盧、叫阿華、蕭崗人。

繼達龍兄之後，Tiger兄都準備結婚啦，啲婚紗相影得好靚。中石化果然人工高福利好，Tiger兄已經唔係當年嗰個窮學生囉，高大靚仔又有本事。婚紗相裡面嗰對新人郎才女貌，真係睇到都覺得羨慕。

因為日日都要開工，而且工作壓力好大，自從老竇入院開始做第二個療程嘅化療以嚟都未去睇過佢，阿媽叫我聽晚帶飯去俾佢同阿叔食喎。老竇已經做咗兩日透析啦，透析嘅具體情形阿媽真係講得好恐怖。我好擔心啊，真係好希望佢可以好返。

第二次嚟伊度相睇，我先發覺原來伊條街啲招牌都好好意頭嘅：聯富大廈、華興隆超市、名揚海鮮肥牛火鍋、廣福百貨、福之源百貨……同埋今晚食飯嗰間順景大排檔。唉！如果個老闆知道有個咁多阻滯嘅人嚟幫襯伊間以“順景”命名嘅大排檔，唔知仲會唔會歡迎呢？

今晚相睇嘅對象姓李、叫阿文、陳田人，好似係87年出世嘅。

現代人離開咗網絡真係好似與世隔絕噉，通過Q群同朋友圈先知：原來江凱欣結咗婚、何生亦都已經結咗婚、陳妹生咗8斤重嘅BB仔、良哥仔升咗做監控中心值班副主任……最近一排真係發生咗好多好事。唉，可惜。

熱鬧是他們的，我什麼也沒有。

——朱自清《荷塘月色》

醫院因為床位緊缺而拖咗咁多日，老竇聽日又要入院啦，開始第二個療程嘅化療。雖然佢表現得好堅強，每逢有人嚟探佢都好似無件事噉同人有講有笑，又話自己做完化療之後精神同胃口都好咗好多，仲想周圍出去行下添。但係自從知道咗有伊個病以嚟，我覺得佢好似憔悴咗好多、突然間老咗好多。

阿媽話，老竇好想親眼睇住我成家。

唉！其實，我都好想。