HANDS TO GOD IN BA NA HILLS IN DA NANG, VIETNAM

This new painting that my friend Beena sent to me came as a total surprise. I had no idea that a bridge held up by two huge hands existed in the Ba Na Hills in Vietnam! It looks like the hands are lifting the bridge (AND the people on it) to the sky, like an offering to God or something! I went to the internet to read about this bridge and found out that it was built just a couple of years ago and that since then it has become a popular tourist destination. Maybe one day I will get to travel there to see the bridge for myself. Not now because of the Coronavirus Pandemic raging, of course, but after that. After all, they now have a brand new fancy shmancy vaccine against this nasty virus, so soon we will all be protected and will be able to travel again and visit with our friends and family who live far away!

Looking at the hands on this painting, it looks like there is some moss growing on them. Moss are really interesting plants, did you know that? They are different from all the other plants because they do not have roots or branches. Also, they do not have fruit or seeds. But they do have spores and that is how they spread around. I read a book about moss once that my daughter, who is plant biologist, told me about. She really LOVES moss and knows everything about them. She told me that moss are so neat because there are so many different kinds of moss that can grow almost anywhere on the planet. Some of them will grow in really wet places and others grow in the desert. You can see them in the countryside but also in the cities, growing in the cracks of the sidewalks. They grow on the bark of other trees and on rocks. They even grow on the giant hands at the Ba Na Hills bridge! Don’t you agree that moss are quite amazing and unique plants?

One story that I read in the book my daughter told me about is a story about how most animals do not eat moss because moss has no nutritional value whatsoever. But, and this is the interesting part of the story, some crazy biologist who was studying bear poop found out that each year, before bears go into hibernation, they eat a whole lot of moss. He knows this because he actually examined bear poop (YUK!) after the bear finished hibernating for the winter and found that it was FULL of moss. They do not know exactly why that is but this crazy bear poop scientist thinks that it is because the moss helps make the bear constipated so that he can sleep the entire winter without having to get up to go to the bathroom. Can you imagine not going to the bathroom for months and months each year? Just thinking about it makes my tummy ache!!!

Anyways, this is where my imagination took me when I looked at the painting with the hands that my friend Beena sent to me. Now it is your turn. What story or memories do you see in this painting called “Hands to God in Ba Na Hills in Da Nang, Vietnam”? Think of it and then write it down. But please, do NOT tell a story about poop, that is disgusting (haha)! Oh, and don’t forget to pass it on to a friend so we can come up with 1,000 stories for this painting, together.