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(May 2010 Newsletter)

The weather has been capricious lately. Yesterday, the afternoon sun warmed our condo up to 90 degrees, but this morning was chilly and damp. As I was settling into my armchair, enjoying my morning coffee with newspaper, I suddenly heard a noise from outside the window. I thought someone was scattering salt over our veranda. It was hail! But even before I stood to look, the hail turned into showers. This is a pretty rare happening in the Bay area.

Here in California, we are blessed with good year-round climate, but in many places, people live in the midst of harsh and unpredictable storms. Thunder, lightening, downpours, hail, and blizzards are commonplace. When I hear thunder and lightening, I know a storm is approaching. I quickly find the nearest shelter to weather the storm and stay dry. I know that if I ignore the signs, a storm might catch me and I might catch cold, or even suffer from pneumonia.

Just as we run into storms in nature, we run into storms in life. When you see a life storm approaching, what do you do? Do you run to a safe place? Or do you ignore the signs and suffer the damage it causes? As children of God, we are fortunate that we have a safe shelter – a hiding place – to run to in times of need.

I think Korean language is a poetic language. In our last poetry class, we read poems written by Mr. Kim who taught the class. The title of poems are byul ? ??, ? ?, ? ?…. the Korean word “byul (?)” is “star” in English. When we translate the byul into the English word star, the poem loses flavor. If the word is a person, the effect is almost like losing an arm or a leg. When I hear the word “byul”, it brings up so much more than the word ‘star”. Same as the word hanul ?? and the word “sky” does. I can say so much more with few words in Korean. This is why I prefer to write poems in Korean, and prose in English. It has been fun to play with Koran words for a few months.

I am planning to go to Korea in May. During this trip, I am going to visit my home town, a little village where I lived till I was 10 years old. My mother was a stranger to this little village. She was a refugee from North Korea during the 1950 Korean war, she fell in love with my father who was the first son of a rich land owner. His family rejected her with many different reasons; one of reasons was that she was a “modern woman” which means that she was exposed to the western thought. They called a woman a modern woman, if she was educated, wear a dress or skirts instead wearing a hanbok, wear a short-cut hair style, and she chose her own mate.

Mother has been gone for 5 years now, and I miss her more and more as the time goes by.

Modern Woman

You taught me how to walk

Like a lady

On our monthly outing to the village market

I would hop ahead of you

Hurrying to get to the bustling market place where

Vendors called my attention with their exotic wares

Pulling on your skirt

I was impatient with your measured walk

Instead, you stopped in the middle of the road

You told me to watch those scurrying people

Pointing how they walked

“Like a grasshopper, when a woman sways her hips and shoulder”

“Like a duck, when a women walks with her feet point outward”

Then you showed me the proper way to walk

“Step one foot over another as though you are walking on a rope in the air”

I watched you closely for the first time

On that dusty, gravel road

Lined with tall poplar trees

Wondering where the road leads

You were different even to my seven year-old eyes

You had schoolgirl hair-cut when others had rolled their hair up

You had a western dress when others had a hanbok

The villagers called you “modern woman”

With reverence and envy

Since that day, I have practiced walking straight

One foot over another like a tightrope walker

When I am afraid of falling

I think of that “modern woman” who showed me

A road out of that little village

Peter, one of my former students, surprised me last week. As always, he finds a time to visit me whenever he is in SF. One of the best gifts for a teacher is to hear from graduates. Surprisingly, not many of them would contact their teachers after they graduate.

Peter took a class from me more than 10 years ago. While he was an undergrad student in the Broadcasting Department, he saw the future with digital media. His department at that time taught radio and TV programming, but his keen sense told him that he needs to go outside of his major to learn about new media. When he showed up in my multimedia course, my class was full. We usually can’t take undergraduate students in our department due to the limited number of computers in the lab.

When I told him that there is no room in the class, he looked so sad. I told him he should come back next week, and check if any student might drop the course. No one dropped. I told him that he has to work with his own computer and also I told him that he has to work hard to keep up with graduate students. He worked harder than anyone I knew in that course. I still remember, for his final project, he turned in a movie length multimedia project.

I was impressed with this young undergrad. To make a long story short, after Peter finished his BECA degree, he came to our department for his master’s degree in Instructional Technology. In 2002, he went on to get his from University of Idaho. While he was working on his doctorate degree, we stayed in contact for a while. I didn’t hear from him for a few years.

A few years ago, I got a phone call from him and said that he became a professor in Taiwan. He wanted to invite me to his university. That was in 2008. I visited Taiwan for the first time, I enjoyed the visit immensely. He arranged me to speak at several universities, and he made a plan for me to see the beautiful island, Taiwan. I enjoyed soaking in the famous hot spring, hiked on the most beautiful mountain that I ever saw, met so many wonderful students, and his colleagues who became my Facebook friends now.

Peter called me last Friday (April 2^, 2010), and told me he is in US for two days. I invited him to my home and we had a lunch together. Our conversation covered from work, research, family, electron gadgets, religions, travel, and food. What a blessing to have a friendship like this. We are planning to do a research project together, so I can visit Taiwan again. I hope that day will come soon. Mean while I need to pack my bag for a visit to Korea in May.

We had this orchid since January 1st. When I got it, there was one red flower on the skinny long stick like stem. The flower was red, so I thought it is red orchid. Then half red and half white bud popped a few weeks later, then several more half-breed, then finally white ones bloomed. Normally I don’t care too much for engineered flowers, but this is an exception. This orchid graced our living room for the entire winter. I thought it is too beautiful to see it only by my husband and I, so we took it to our church a few weeks ago. Now everyone is enjoying it. One petal fell off from the stem last night, I am sure the rest will fall soon. Too bad that they are not going to last forever. Nothing does.

I have been blessed by recent sermons about the resurrection of Jesus and about what will happen to Christians after death. Pastor Chris began the sermon last Sunday by showing photos of ten church members projected on the big screen. The congregation was asked to guess their identity. Some photos were taken 50 and 60 years ago.

It was an interesting exercise. People I only know as elderly were vibrant and beautiful in the photos. Some people were hard to guess due to the time gap between past and the present, but eventually we were able to recognize each one of them. The point of the sermon was that someday we will have a new resurrected body; a body that may look 30 years old and a body we will still recognize.

Lately, more than ever, I have been aware of my body changing. I can’t do what I used to do. No matter how hard I try, my physical body continues to get wrinkled and broken. I am glad to know that God will replace this broken mortal body with one that is new and immortal. This brings me to an important point. What I do in this life each moment affects my life to come. I learned from the sermon that I must live my life with an eternal perspective, knowing what is important.

Last year, I jokingly challenged Diane, if Diane do it, I will do it. I thought she wouldn’t do it. But she was serious. When I got to the retreat at Mt. Hermon, she would not let me off. I try to give her all kinds of excuses including my recent foot surgery excuse. She would not back off. I arrived at the breakfast table on Saturday morning, hoping Diane would not be there, well, she found me. Before I even sit down, she hold my hand and led me to the registration table. I had to sign up. I am glad that I have a friend who challenges me and keeps me accountable. It was a great adventure. Check it out how much fun Diane, Latoya, Angie, Lisa, and I were having.

My East coast tour is ending soon. I had great time in New York with my younger son last week, and this week I am visiting my older son in DC, my sister in Virginia, my cousin in Maryland, and also visited Stonewall Jackson memorial site. Tomorrow I will be leaving DC at 7 am. It is good to visit loved ones, and also it is good to go home and see loved ones there. I am so blessed to have time to travel this Spring.