new-chinese-style
Westerners Burn Sage on TikTok. I Lit a Stick of Incense.
A bundle of white sage sells for twelve dollars online, promising to cleanse negative energy. Watching that smoke, I thought of the bronze burner on my grandfather's desk. Chinese people have burned incense for thousands of years — but never to chase anything away. The Song Dynasty counted it among its four leisurely arts, agarwood is a tree's scar, and an incense seal makes time visible. They cleanse; we settle. That difference is what this piece is about.
9/6/20268 min
