Power

Nietzsche said humans are oblivious animals. However, humans do not forget everything, nor can they forget everything. Life is accompanied by pain, and our memories are traces of the pain. Our soul is wounded in life. And if the wound is deep, the memory is deep. "If it is not the scar of pain caused by the coercion of life, what is memory?" Yoo Jong-ho said in his autobiographical essay "That Winter and Autumn, My 1951."

2023 has begun. The calendar has turned, but I'm the same human being as yesterday, and my daily life is a series of similar days. Even though Mangnyun year-end parties are over now with the new year, Mangnyun, which means forgetting the pain, is not easy. This is because last year's worries and emotions are carried over to the following year.

Although I am not that young to hope for magical changes just because the new year begins, I’d like to introduce this poem to those who feel frustrated about the new year. The old poet says that scars give the power to live today. If the wound of life is inevitable and unforgettable, read this poem and hope the wound becomes solid in the new year.

Kim Cho-yeop's short story, "Why the Pilgrims Don’t Return," ends with this phrase: "We will suffer there. We will suffer, but we will be much happier than that. But we’ll be happier than that." I borrow this phrase to recite my New Year's wishes.