Homage to Carl Sandburg: My City

Gaming addicts, gamblers, alcoholics
Lost souls who wander around in a world of denials.
Druggies, prostitutes, workaholics
Helpless individuals caught in a web of pressure and trials.

The city is vile and sordid
Filled to the brim with predilection.
Completely wicked and morbid
it smothers its children with fear and disruption.

Nonetheless, face yourself and look in the mirror
What you see are both imperfections and perfection
Likewise my city has faults and error
But is not composed only of despicable corruption.

Gaming addicts, gamblers, alcoholics,
Are not the only citizens who make up the city.
Strong and motivated people are too symbolic
To lead a growing and developing nation undeserving pity. 

Homage to Carl Sandburg: Dear Colleague

My Dear Fellow Colleague,

For the last time, stop deprecating my country. I realize that your blunt remarks on South Korea have grains of truth in them, but I reached the limit on my tolerance for your nagging and haranguing. Jingoism and bigotry is not part of my love for Korea. I do not necessarily have an emotional connection to my motherland, and so I look at the country without wanting to filter what I see and hear. And from what I see and hear, what you claim about Korea is only one side of the story.

I have heard too many appalling stories about the dark and dangerous alleys of Seoul for my own good. The metropolitan is a bright, constantly active, warm city that welcomes both natives and foreigners with open arms, but it is also an ugly city with inescapable fingers that constantly beckons to the weak and the susceptible and ultimately proves to be their downfall. Korea has tons of issues and I know that many of its citizens suffer from living within its borders. The abduction of young women and children are common during the sinister nights, the pop culture consumes teens to a degree of obsession, the mass media sets absurd standards, and the obsession with English and foreign influence shapes and changes traditional values.  An alarming number of teenagers go under the knife to meet the expectation of beauty and social requirements for acceptance, escape reality to the fantasy world of games, or lose the battle of depression by choosing suicide.

But at the same time, I cannot utter the name of my motherland, I cannot think of my country with scorn and distaste alone. After all, is there a single country in this world that can claim to be faultless? Every community and society today is tainted with issues and mistakes, and Korea is certainly far from being a pristine and perfect nation. But I am proud of Korea; I am proud of its growth, its flexibility, and its strength. Amid the ruins of disunity and suppression rose the nation, refusing to be content with a status of an underdeveloped country of mediocre power. Depression, sorrow and anger defines a big chunk of our culture, but far greater than this melancholy is the firm and unyielding defiance of joy and gratitude that supports the country.  We have come far, and we have done much. We have destroyed, but we have rebuilt as well.

So please, enough with your snide remarks. It’s not like Japan’s completely perfect either.

                                                                                      From,   
                                                                                          Your Slightly Piqued Roommate

Homage to Carl Sandburg: Seoul

Technological Leader for the World,
Manufacturer, Front-runner of Business
Performer of the Arts and the Nation’s Entertainer;
Adaptive, conservative, strong,
Supporter of the Small Country

They tell me you are brutal, and I believe them, for I have seen the unmerciful claws of modernity enticing the awed and vulnerable children to a twisted and unkind path.

They tell me you are distasteful, and I believe them, for I have seen the dark shadows of the hungry subtly sweep away young women and children forever.   

They tell me you are cruel, and I believe them, for I have seen the wealthy being flooded with superfluous wealth and happiness and the poor being swamped with depravity and woe. 

Having acknowledged so I face those who deride my city, and I point a mutually accusing finger back to them and say to them:

Come and show me another city with its glory and pride, thankful for its strength, its aptitude, its gifts.

Facing forward and focusing on the future, here lies the small but powerful capital so different from its surrounding modest towns and communities.

Dedicated as a loving mother nurturing of her children, fierce as a protective father guarding his family,

            Growing,
Changing,
Enduring,

Laughing despite the ups and downs,
Laughing through both success and failure,
Laughing with gratitude, laughing with contentment,

Laughing the whole-hearted laughter of Pride, Seoul stands tall and proud, proud to be Technological Leader, Manufacturer, Front-runner of Business, Performer of the Arts and the Nation’s Entertainer.

Chicago by Carl Sandburg

CHICAGO 

HOG Butcher for the World,
     Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat,
     Player with Railroads and the Nation's Freight Handler;
     Stormy, husky, brawling,
     City of the Big Shoulders:

They tell me you are wicked and I believe them, for I
     have seen your painted women under the gas lamps
     luring the farm boys.
And they tell me you are crooked and I answer: Yes, it
     is true I have seen the gunman kill and go free to
     kill again.
And they tell me you are brutal and my reply is: On the
     faces of women and children I have seen the marks
     of wanton hunger.
And having answered so I turn once more to those who
     sneer at this my city, and I give them back the sneer
     and say to them:
Come and show me another city with lifted head singing
     so proud to be alive and coarse and strong and cunning.
Flinging magnetic curses amid the toil of piling job on
     job, here is a tall bold slugger set vivid against the
     little soft cities;

Fierce as a dog with tongue lapping for action, cunning
     as a savage pitted against the wilderness,
          Bareheaded,
          Shoveling,
          Wrecking,
          Planning,
          Building, breaking, rebuilding,
Under the smoke, dust all over his mouth, laughing with
     white teeth,
Under the terrible burden of destiny laughing as a young
     man laughs,
Laughing even as an ignorant fighter laughs who has
     never lost a battle,
Bragging and laughing that under his wrist is the pulse.
     and under his ribs the heart of the people,
               Laughing!
Laughing the stormy, husky, brawling laughter of
     Youth, half-naked, sweating, proud to be Hog
     Butcher, Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat, Player with
     Railroads and Freight Handler to the Nation.

Wrap-Up

Quindlen wants us to disregard the expectations of society. McCandless wanted to find himself and discover happiness and fulfillment in life. Thoreau wants to live a life devoid of illusions and instead based on a foundation of perspicuity and simple reality. They all agreed on how relationships should have a priority on oneself; instead of living a life in which we chase after others and are concerned with how people and the world views and relates with us, we need to first get ourselves together in terms of accurate self-awareness and acceptance.

I agree with all three of them to a certain extent. I agree with Quindlen on how we mustn’t be caught up in worrying about whether we meet the expectations of others. Her stance on how we should all pursue a life centered on our contentment and happiness appealed to me because I also think that we shouldn’t shoulder the burden of perfection and expectations, and instead should learn to live to be happy with who we are and what we want. I agree with McCandless on how we mustn’t be caught up with the limits of life and that we should strive to surpass them if we want too. Life isn’t about comfort and conformity; dreams are meant to be pursued, goals are meant to be attempted, and desires are meant to be achieved. I agree with Thoreau on how we mustn’t be blind to reality and that we should come to face ourselves and the life that we’re leading now with an unbiased perspective that isn’t so carried away with the insignificant details of life. But I also think that all three of these perspectives are to be true within reason. Relationships and responsibilities are both things that I value and regard very highly, and I think that there are times when they will come first before my own shallow desires. These three people all seem to value the idea of self-priority, individualism, and reality; responsibilities and relationships may be perceived as equally important, but they seem to fall in somewhere beneath the three; this, I do not agree. 

Thoreau

This piece of Thoreau’s writing was bit obscure and hard for me to grasp fully, but I think that in terms of responsibilities and relationship, he has two main things to say: simplicity and reality. Thoreau seems to prefer to live a life not of delusions and distractions, but rather a life stripped of trivial specificities and details that many are so consumed with. Severing our wants and perhaps even needs to stick to a comfort zone of regularity and routine, we should instead view life with certain alacrity that will take us farther in life. Life was not given to us so that we can spend most of it in an illusionary perspective, and Thoreau seems to want us to shake off any burdens of frequent changes and fluctuations in our lives that may weigh us down, and instead focus on viewing this world with an accuracy that will stress reality. Relationships and responsibilities have a certain limit in this lifestyle, as I think that Thoreau thinks that both of them require/have a certain degree of specific concerns and vague uncertainty that we can’t figure out immediately. Instead of being absorbed with the many connections and obligations that we may have with either people or objects, we should attempt to have equanimity in everything so that we won’t get swept away by concerns and instabilities. I disagree with Thoreau, partly perhaps because I didn’t really understand him, and partly because I think that we should delve into every detail and change in life. I admit that Thoreau is right on how we mustn’t choose to withdraw into a shell of false protection, but I don’t think that in order to live a life based on reality, we need to choose simplicity. 

Chris McCandless

Chris McCandless was a bright guy, certain about the direction he wanted to take and focused solely on what he thought was important. He had a strong life and even though it unfortunately short, I think he managed to live a fulfilling, at least much more than other people did. Because of his desire and hunger to leave his civilized life and to embrace a raw and challenging lifestyle where he would explore himself, McCandless threw away and left behind his responsibilities to his family and friends and, according to his parents, to himself: responsibilities of being a son, a brother, a friend. McCandless treated the very idea of relationships kind of like a secondary, rather than a centered, part of his life. During the long period when he was wandering and travelling, he sent occasional letters and postcards to friends, and hardly ever to his parents. I think he was big on privacy and individualism; he seemed to think that he was responsible for himself, and he was responsible enough to claim to be solely responsible for himself, and so therefore he disregarded the efforts of many to form a long-lasting relationship with him in order to be with him or to be updated throughout his journey that he wanted to take alone. Some may say that McCandless was a rash and unwise man for leaving his old life and pushing away his family and friends, but I think that what he did wasn’t condemnable. I agree that a person’s responsibility and choice of relationships are up to them, and even though McCandless took this to the extreme, he wanted a life of self-exploration for happiness and contentment, and if that life did not include his family and other people, then that’s that.