On a business trip, Harry Richardson was visiting Vancouver, Canada, one of the most cosmopolitan urban cities in the country. Of course, the development of sky-scrappers along with explosion of downtown businesses took away early natural magnificence of historic Vancouver, situated next to a bay. Fortunately, the city planners also created an urban oasis within city’s perimeter, near the waterfront. The place is city’s embrace of nature in Stanley Park that Harry decided to explore one day. Besides a walking trail, the park also offered Harry a biking trail, paved and mostly flat, while encircling the park. So, he rented a bike from a commercial outfitter, accessed the biking trail and started moving counter-clockwise with the flow of the traffic, with a view of the waterfront on the right. No sooner than he began pedaling, a scenic view of the urban skyline of the city appeared across the water. As he was enjoying the gorgeous day, while on motion, the scenery on his left changed. A lush garden containing several colorful and unique wooden totem-poles depicting native Indian culture (known here as the First Nations) appeared. Very soon, the scene on the right side of the bike-trail also changed with large swath of water framed by distant mountains and wide open sky replacing the modern high-rises of the city. As Harry moved on, a bronze-statue resting on a massive rock-platform, similar to the “The Little Mermaid” in Copenhagen, Denmark appeared in the view, as if she just got out of the water to enjoy the sun. Taking a break, Harry learned that the statue was titled “Girl in a Wetsuite” created by the Hungarian sculptor Elek Imredy who claimed that it was fashioned after one of his friends, Ms. Debra Harrington. After biking several more kilometers through beautiful sceneries on both sides, Harry arrived at the sea-wall that protects the city from the sea. From there, he looped back through the park to the starting area.
On his way back from the park to the downtown area, Harry came across at a nearby bronze sculpture A-maze-ing Laughter consisting of 14 laughing bronze tall statues created by the artist Yue Minjun purportedly to express artist’s own image of "in a state of hysterical laughter”! An inscription nearby stated "May this sculpture inspire laughter playfulness and joy in all who experience it." Harry arrived in Vancouver, just two weeks after his own country USA had inaugurated a new President whose winning platform was hateful rhetoric against the minorities and the religious beliefs, different than his own. Subsequently, his closing of the country’s border to the citizens of a few selected countries sent a chill through most of the citizens. Harry went around each statue, grabbed one of its legs, looked up to see the face and mimicked the laughter, playfulness and joy displayed in that particular statue and murmured to himself “It’s a wonderful world after all!”
On his way back from the park to the downtown area, Harry came across at a nearby bronze sculpture A-maze-ing Laughter consisting of 14 laughing bronze tall statues created by the artist Yue Minjun purportedly to express artist’s own image of "in a state of hysterical laughter”! An inscription nearby stated "May this sculpture inspire laughter playfulness and joy in all who experience it." Harry arrived in Vancouver, just two weeks after his own country USA had inaugurated a new President whose winning platform was hateful rhetoric against the minorities and the religious beliefs, different than his own. Subsequently, his closing of the country’s border to the citizens of a few selected countries sent a chill through most of the citizens. Harry went around each statue, grabbed one of its legs, looked up to see the face and mimicked the laughter, playfulness and joy displayed in that particular statue and murmured to himself “It’s a wonderful world after all!”
