Search for hope...

I didn't think about how significant this work of art by a group of elementary school children would be...this massive rendering by small hands as a huge display of what is at risk right now in Korea. The potential for the loss of innocence...but it also is a picture of hopes and dreams. Brightly coloured dreams of rainbows, flowers, and images of love.

I am reminded, once again, that I am in the colourful city of hope. Daegu. Right now there is a lot of hopes that are being challenged with a world situation that is becoming harder and harder to push to the back of my mind. In a way I understand when I follow the timeline of world events how the North has stood up to the rest of the world.

Having lived here since January, you just don't challenge a Korean's reputation or honor. They will die defending it. Being held accountable for one's actions is akin to being treated like a child. They will resent you for it. This culture is also dominated by men. Now many women will reach positions of leadership or true equality. The Koreas...are not the United States, they are not westernized in their culture or thought processes.

For diplomacy to work, you must understand the culture and give the North a way to save face. If the Western world does not, I am wondering, deeply, if I am documenting the final months of the South's existence.

I have resisted greatly the urge to comment on the situation . Not wanting to draw attention to it, but I feel compelled to make the following points. Being right is overrated. We know what the North is doing is akin to suicide. However, what the West needs to know is that suicide is very much a part of this cultures in the Koreas. Their pride and reputation is very important to them. Anything that would bring shame to them, well, as we saw with the suicide of the former president of South Korea, this nation responded with intense mourning and praise in the east. He died to save his family. He died to stop an investigation. It was viewed as a death of honor.

The North is under incredible economic strain. Recently the border towns that have North Korean workers are asking for wages to be increased for them to four times their present salaries. What people may not realize is that publicly North Korea will not care about economic sanctions, but privately it is an incredible struggle. With China being the source of most of their material resources. They are a nation under siege and backed into a corner. They don't know how to ask for help. So now, they do what they have been doing...lashing out and vowing to weaponize their resources.

There is still time to avert this holocaust. You have a leader that wants to save face. He is a paranoid leader, who has run his country under a cult of personality. Like Jim Jones, Kim Jong il will lead his followers to death. Only this time he is making one silver bullet looking for any reason to pull the trigger. With his health in question over the recent years, I don't think a potentially dying man is too concerned about how he gets what he wants.

We can some how hope that the right solution comes...and quickly.

Crumbling Dreams and Dashed Hopes

Over the past few days I have looked at the news back in the States. Repossessed homes being sold for as little as a dollar in Detroit, the mass killings that are going on in workplaces, public sites, and now the advent of familicide. I can't remember a time, since the 1970s when the US became so violent. I ran across an article from the San Francisco Chronicle, published in 2007 about how rare 'familicide' was. The alarming sentence that caught my eye, 'familicides were most prevalent in rural areas during the Great Depression."

I decided I needed to take a walk.

During my walk, I of course encountered all kinds of steps. The nice polished ones, and others that were in need of repair. The choosing to take the stairs, not knowing where they would lead me, but I of course kept going. This was one of my random walks where I would tell myself, 'just go with the flow and see what you find.' I chose a new direction to walk today...just because.

When I walked under this tunnel, I thought about how dark it must be at night, with little to light the way. Yet, the tunnel wasn't long and I am still putting one foot in front of the other.

Further down the road I saw Korean lanterns tied to the trees and I decided to follow them.
And came to this building.

My point is...that sometimes things end for a reason and the hopelessness seems to wear everyone out. There are a lot of people who are desperately looking for a way to keep their dreams afloat. Sometimes, you have to build a new dream. Sometimes, you have to let everything go and start all over. It's how you react to this illusion called security.

The fact is, you don't know what the future will hold. You have to have the courage to turn the pages of life. If all you see is doom and gloom, you need to change the perspective. If you don't think I know what I am talking about or that I haven't been there...well, I have. Sometimes, you choose to let go because you know that by holding on to what you think is of value...in the end really isn't of value. People are of value. Your family is of value. They are not a burden. You don't know what they will be capable of in the future. No one is the center of anyone's life.

When you realize you don't own anything to begin with, and only a steward while you live and breathe...laugh. This is needless stress. Where will you live? What will you do? How will you survive? All of those questions have answers. You are not the sum of a credit score. Aren't you more than a three-digit number?

I know I am.