Once Upon a Time in Korea
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They also lived as we live today. They ate three meals a day, read newspapers in the morning, and watched TV in the evening. They could buy, if only they had money, almost everything they needed for the comfort and convenience of their life, as we can do nowadays. They were much more diligent, ambitious, and hard-working people than we are now. They made cars and sold a lot of them overseas. They began to make and use computers and even robots, although these gadgets were not so much sophisticated and refined as they are now. They were quite smart people, anyway.
Of course they had problems, too. And many. Most of them lived quite well off, but there also were many poor people, as we have them around us. It can be safely said that they had as many problems as we have today. Nay, they had one more peculiar headache that we don't have today. They did not know how to select their President properly, and the problem gave them real hard time. Now it is a matter of course that you go to the polls every five years, give your vote to the person you like best among the candidates. And they count the votes and pronounce the new President. That's it. It is as simple as that. But it was not such a simple thing for them, and they fought fiercely every day over the matter among themselves. As I said in the above, they were very smart and knew how to build beautiful houses, huge apartments, and long bridges over the rivers. But they were at a loss before that simple problem. Funny and strange, isn't it?
Yes, it is, indeed. In fact, there were many funny and strange things other than that at that time. Generally speaking, they were much more serious people than we are now. They loved to think and see everything more seriously than it actually is. A basketball game between two colleges, for example, was not just a game of fun and momentary excitement for the spectators, for the players, and even for the coaches as it is today. It was much more than that. They did not know that it was just a game to be played, not a combat to be fought, and that today's losing could be tomorrow's winning, and vice versa. But they had to win it at any cost. As an inevitable consequence, more often than not, the decisions of the referees were ignored, the players started fist-fights in the court, and the coaches called their boys off the court in the middle of the game and went home.
Strangely enough, the spectators who had paid a small fortune for the game did not ask their money back. Instead, they joined the brawl by throwing empty beer bottles, cans, or their shoes onto the court. They did not think they got ripped off, nor snubbed, nor did they think of the price of new and expensive shoes they had lost. It was love, ardent and passionate love for the school they belonged to, that made them forget their money, shoes, reason, and everything.
This love of school was quickly inflamed into the love of country when it came to between countries. Who does not love his own country? The affection one feels for his country is as natural and spontaneous as the love and affection one feels for his mother. There is no need to talk loudly about it. But the serious people at the time did not think so. Now we don't care who wins the soccer game between Japan and Korea, but for them it was a national disaster then, if they lost the game. They thought that they lost the game because the players and the coach, especially the coach, was not sufficiently armed and equipped with the fighting spirit for the country. Now we don't hardly remember who won the gold medals and how many were won in the last Summer Olympics. But they remembered and counted them well and long, and the medal-earners were welcomed home as fierce war heroes from the battle field, not as superb athletes. Truly, they loved their country very much.
There were poets, too, at the time. The funny and strange thing is that they wrote poems that nobody understood including the poets themselves. Probably they thought that truth should all be in the dark. They did not know how to express the deep and profound thought with simple and clear words, and furthermore they made fun of those who could do it. They did not write poems out of joys and delights for the nature and man, but more out of anger and frustration for the goings-on around them. Some enraged the ruler at the time by writing a serious and grave poems, and were sent to prison, and people were strictly forbidden to read them. Now we read them freely as a historical curiosity, not as a mature work of art, and wonder what was the fuss all about. Truly, they were funny and strange people that loved to make much ado about nothing.
Politicians were not, and could not be exceptions. They loved the country and people just as our politicians today do, but differently. Unlike our politicians who do it with joy and delight first, and wisdom, they did it with the heavy sense of crisis and duty first, and passion. Congressmen, for example, made themselves dull through all work and no play. They worked from morning to evening, from evening through the night to dawn. Then, didn't they sleep at all? Yes, they did, but only the cat-sleeps during the session in their chair, only when other congressmen were making speeches on the urgent national issues.
What they loved most at that time was the prison. Now we use the prison only for the purpose of imprisoning the murderers, robbers, or the swindlers, and think it a great shame and disgrace to be associated with it at all. But they not only loved to send others into it, but also they themselves loved to be in there. It was not a disgrace nor a shame for any politicians to be imprisoned for certain period of time at that time. On the contrary, it was a great honor and privilege for them, and one of the indispensable qualifications to be acquired before running for a congressman.
It all happened long, long, ago. We are now quite a different people from them. No one loses his shoes in the basketball game. We know the soccer match between Korea and Japan is for fun and excitement, and nothing more. No one regards the Olympics as a war or battlefield. Poets write real good poems with simple and clear words. We make fun of those politicians who like to wear a long, grave, and serious face all the time, and dismiss them as museum pieces; but feel real pity and sympathy for him, when any one of them has appeared on TV one day with that face, because he got divorced from his wife recently for being late for family dinner-time several times consecutively.
(March 25, 1986)
Of course they had problems, too. And many. Most of them lived quite well off, but there also were many poor people, as we have them around us. It can be safely said that they had as many problems as we have today. Nay, they had one more peculiar headache that we don't have today. They did not know how to select their President properly, and the problem gave them real hard time. Now it is a matter of course that you go to the polls every five years, give your vote to the person you like best among the candidates. And they count the votes and pronounce the new President. That's it. It is as simple as that. But it was not such a simple thing for them, and they fought fiercely every day over the matter among themselves. As I said in the above, they were very smart and knew how to build beautiful houses, huge apartments, and long bridges over the rivers. But they were at a loss before that simple problem. Funny and strange, isn't it?
Yes, it is, indeed. In fact, there were many funny and strange things other than that at that time. Generally speaking, they were much more serious people than we are now. They loved to think and see everything more seriously than it actually is. A basketball game between two colleges, for example, was not just a game of fun and momentary excitement for the spectators, for the players, and even for the coaches as it is today. It was much more than that. They did not know that it was just a game to be played, not a combat to be fought, and that today's losing could be tomorrow's winning, and vice versa. But they had to win it at any cost. As an inevitable consequence, more often than not, the decisions of the referees were ignored, the players started fist-fights in the court, and the coaches called their boys off the court in the middle of the game and went home.
Strangely enough, the spectators who had paid a small fortune for the game did not ask their money back. Instead, they joined the brawl by throwing empty beer bottles, cans, or their shoes onto the court. They did not think they got ripped off, nor snubbed, nor did they think of the price of new and expensive shoes they had lost. It was love, ardent and passionate love for the school they belonged to, that made them forget their money, shoes, reason, and everything.
This love of school was quickly inflamed into the love of country when it came to between countries. Who does not love his own country? The affection one feels for his country is as natural and spontaneous as the love and affection one feels for his mother. There is no need to talk loudly about it. But the serious people at the time did not think so. Now we don't care who wins the soccer game between Japan and Korea, but for them it was a national disaster then, if they lost the game. They thought that they lost the game because the players and the coach, especially the coach, was not sufficiently armed and equipped with the fighting spirit for the country. Now we don't hardly remember who won the gold medals and how many were won in the last Summer Olympics. But they remembered and counted them well and long, and the medal-earners were welcomed home as fierce war heroes from the battle field, not as superb athletes. Truly, they loved their country very much.
There were poets, too, at the time. The funny and strange thing is that they wrote poems that nobody understood including the poets themselves. Probably they thought that truth should all be in the dark. They did not know how to express the deep and profound thought with simple and clear words, and furthermore they made fun of those who could do it. They did not write poems out of joys and delights for the nature and man, but more out of anger and frustration for the goings-on around them. Some enraged the ruler at the time by writing a serious and grave poems, and were sent to prison, and people were strictly forbidden to read them. Now we read them freely as a historical curiosity, not as a mature work of art, and wonder what was the fuss all about. Truly, they were funny and strange people that loved to make much ado about nothing.
Politicians were not, and could not be exceptions. They loved the country and people just as our politicians today do, but differently. Unlike our politicians who do it with joy and delight first, and wisdom, they did it with the heavy sense of crisis and duty first, and passion. Congressmen, for example, made themselves dull through all work and no play. They worked from morning to evening, from evening through the night to dawn. Then, didn't they sleep at all? Yes, they did, but only the cat-sleeps during the session in their chair, only when other congressmen were making speeches on the urgent national issues.
What they loved most at that time was the prison. Now we use the prison only for the purpose of imprisoning the murderers, robbers, or the swindlers, and think it a great shame and disgrace to be associated with it at all. But they not only loved to send others into it, but also they themselves loved to be in there. It was not a disgrace nor a shame for any politicians to be imprisoned for certain period of time at that time. On the contrary, it was a great honor and privilege for them, and one of the indispensable qualifications to be acquired before running for a congressman.
It all happened long, long, ago. We are now quite a different people from them. No one loses his shoes in the basketball game. We know the soccer match between Korea and Japan is for fun and excitement, and nothing more. No one regards the Olympics as a war or battlefield. Poets write real good poems with simple and clear words. We make fun of those politicians who like to wear a long, grave, and serious face all the time, and dismiss them as museum pieces; but feel real pity and sympathy for him, when any one of them has appeared on TV one day with that face, because he got divorced from his wife recently for being late for family dinner-time several times consecutively.
(March 25, 1986)
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