[Opinion] Returning to Heaven Beautifully

Andrew Carnegie, called the Steel King, left us a well known saying, “There is no worst shame than a man dying rich.”

He was born in Scotland as a son of a weaver. He went to American at the age of 13 and worked as a weaver for a cotton factory, worked as a messenger boy in a telegraph office. He was later seen and favored by a director of a railroad company, and it made him become his secretary. He got very quickly promoted and also earned money by investing to finance. Then with the money he earned he entered the steel industry. Carnegie, who was ruling the steel industry, sold his company in 1902 and, after retirement, he devoted his remaining years to charity. He donated 95% of his fortune to build about 2,500 in each state in the U.S. and built and contributed the Carnegie Museum of Natural History and Carnegie Hall.

Kang Tae-won, who made a 27 billion won for a community chest drive and donated 10 billion won last for month to Kkotdongne passed away at the age of 84. All men are equal when it comes to death. Kang crossed the 38th parallel from Pyeongyang to Busan in 1946 and worked as a simple labor at a port. He, with the money earned at the port, he later ran a dry goods store and a transportation business and it enable him to make a great sum of money. The way Kang lived resembles much of that of Carnegie. “Don`t ever dream of relying on me, You all must be independent and responsible adults,” Kang lectured his 5 children. He also frequently used to say to his close friends that “college education and an apartment for the marriage are just enough, more would ruin their future.”

“Children of poor families are busy just living their harsh lives, but sons and daughters of rich families often tend to fight over inheritance. Quite a number of cases filed in the court are lawsuits between family members. Quite a few number of people live dissipated life, just doing whatever they please. Kang is a man who inherited independent spirit to their children. By the way, in the Korean society where the value of family is important, it is very difficult but virtue to return wealth to the community rather than to their sons and daughters.

Although he donated tens of billions won without hesitation, Kang was very frugal. He was even called a ‘stingy man to himself’. “As father lost weight in his sickbed before he passed away, he told us to make his trousers reduced at a dry cleaner,” his daughter who was in the room where a coffin was placed until the funeral day witnessed. Poet Chun Sang-byung likened life to a picnic in his book ‘Returning to heaven’. ‘I will return to heaven/Beautiful day is when the picnic ends/I will say life way beautiful in heave…’ What is Life? Is it like a picnic we come down a mountain with an empty lunch box? Although Kang is now in the heaven, his beautiful sprit of returning 95% of his fortune and only 5 % to his son and grandsons will remain.

Hwang Ho-taek, Editorial Writer, hthwang@donga.com