[Opinion] Things Remembered at My Birthplace

A new road has been paved in Dae Kwon Ryung. Right now, I sped down that road to my birthplace and hometown. The new road was built last fall. I should have traveled down the road earlier. I only heard of the road and did not ride on it to my hometown until this New Years even though I am a professional writer without any attachments or obligations.

Since this was the first time I have used the road, it was naturally the first time for my wife and child. Our family have not traveled anywhere all last fall or winter. Every weekend the cars would fill the highways, and the supposed speedway would turn into the most congested slow-way, making it difficult for us to join the fray.

This is probably true not just for me but for most people. There isn`t much time just to relax these days. It may have been an issue of time or finances depending on the time and it was difficult to escape the constraints of our daily lives. It may actually have been the lack of internal freedom above everything else. The adults were busy at work while the children are trying to grow up under the oppressive pressure of their school work. We are constantly shocked by what the news tells us of the world events and our own lives have little room for anything but work. This could simply be the way modern life is regardless of adult or child.

Every time I come back to my birthplace, one thought that always recurs to me is why I have not returned here earlier and more frequently. Yet, once I grab the wheels and drive back to my life, yesterday seems like today, today like tomorrow while adult and child go about bearing the same old burden. We really would not have even this opportunity to relax if there were not such holidays like these.

I could not have imagined the world I live in now when I was a boy living here in Dae Kwon Ryung. Back then, all of us wondered what lay beyond that mountain, standing right before our eyes as the sun sets behind it, as the snow still covers its peak after spring has come. None of us would ever have guessed that a new highway would be built through that mountain instead of its ninety-nine curvy trails.

Arriving at my hometown by that new road, I will greet the neighborhood elders this time before I return. In the past, everyone valued the younger ones as if the children were their own sons and daughters, and even now the elders ask about our lives. On the first day, we greet our own family. On the second day, everyone in the village gathers at the village elder`s house to greet one another. Before, I used to return to Seoul without attending the village greeting day, using work as my excuse. But keeping such old traditions alive in a fast changing world is one of the riches that my hometown offers.

The day I arrived from Seoul, I met my friends from home. Half of them live in the city while the other half still live in the vicinity of the village. It is hard to see them if not for occasions like these. This probably means that we have forgotten or missed many precious things in our lives without realizing it as we live away from home and settle down in the city.

This is definitely true for that road passing through Dae Kwon Ryung. The new highway that replaced the ninety-nine curvy paths was built in the middle of the mountain, passing through a tunnel. They say that it cut the travel time between home and Seoul by thirty minutes. We may travel those thirty minutes so fast that we may take no notice of their value.

Coming back home made me realize something. We are certainly living our lives at a speed that is making us pass ourselves by. At times, it is necessary to spend some time reflecting on oneself and looking around at our environment. This does not apply only to Dae Kwon Ryung. It would be very nice if we can take in all the abundance and spaciousness that our hometown is offering us this holiday. Even though it may be only for a short time, we cherish this gift and send our hopes to our birthplaces and hometowns as an early sign of the coming spring.

In the still chilly wind, tiny flowers color the tree branches in the hills. I hope our lives will be as splendid as those flowers when they bloom in the new spring. Truly, truly . . . .

Lee Soon-Won (Novelist)