Wednesday, January 15, 2003.
Every time I read about North or South Corea in the the news these days, it makes my heart hurt. I keep up with most of it, but I prefer not to discuss it in my journal.
I'd have better luck just crossing my fingers and hoping all sides come to an amicable solution.
I like things peaceful in here, which is why I don't have comment boxes on this site. Some people would just piss me off, I am sure of. And you wouldn't like me when I'm angry.
People are beautiful. It's politics that is ugly.
Instead, I've decided to write condensed versions of my two favorite Corean legends.
THE LEGEND OF TANGUN
(The Father of Corea)
First there was Hwanin, the god of Heaven.
He had a son, Hwanung, who asked his father to be able to live among and help the humans on the Earth.
Hwanin’s father granted Hwanung 3000 heavenly spirits that then became human and they settled on the best place on Earth (Corea! Hahaaha!). The city was named Shinshi, “divine city,” and everything became good there. Even the animals wanted to become human.
One day a bear and a tiger begged Hwanung to make them human too. Hwanung told them,
“To be human involves suffering. You must live on these 20 garlic cloves and mugwort for 100 days in this cave. Then you will become human.”
After the first 20 days, the tiger couldn’t stand it any longer,
“Garlic? Caves? Bitch, please. Fuck this becoming-human shit. I am SOO out of here.”
The bear tried to convince the cowardly tiger to stay but he left anyways. The bear prayed for 100 days, at which time she became a beautiful human woman.
Hwanung was so impressed with her courage and kindness and beauty that he proposed and they married. They had a son named TANGUN.
Tangun became the father and first ruler of Corea, half-god and half-bear, just like all Coreans are. He founded the first kingdom and called it Choson in 2333 B.C. (“Land of the Morning Calm”), now referred to as Ancient Choson (not to be confused with what was ironically the last Corean dynasty, Choson, of 1392-1910 A.D.).
Tangun established his capital at “Asadal,” which is now known as Pyongyang.
Tangun shared his godly knowledge with his people and taught them.
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But wait there’s more. This tale leads directly to the Legend ofTHE TIGER OF SHINSHI
(The Defender of Corea)
Remember the cowardly tiger who failed the test? From that day on tigers jealously hated humans and lived in shame.
In the last year of Tangun’s life, the old son of that First Tiger approached the father of Corea himself. The noble tiger apologized for the shame his father had brought to tigers everywhere. The tiger wished he could make up for it and become human as well.
Tangun, reaching the 99th and last year of his life, made a deal with the old noble tiger.
He would allow him to become human, but only for short periods of time. The tiger would never die, but never be allowed to remain human, until the Corean people achieved sovereignty and became masters of their own destiny.
“All they need is here,” Tangun said pointing to the land around him.
From that day on, that tiger became the Tiger of Shinshi. The protector of the people of Choson, the strength and resilence that would survive their suffering, the spirit and teachings of their history, and the guardian of the Golden Thread that binds all Corean people as one for all time.
This would be the year 4336 since Tangun.
So, according to legend, all Corean people are half-God, half-Bear, and infused with the spirit of the noble Tiger.
GO COREAN TIGERS GO !!
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MEDEA SIN HOT MODEL
Today's hot model is the Corean lord of the drunken dance himself, the wearer of the mythical super high five mega pants,
Like a lot of full Corean-Americans (to my surprise intially), sometimes Andrew feels like he isn't Corean enough. If you're not Corean, that might not make much sense to you. If you are Corean, you probably know exactly how he feels.
Anyways, this guy can dance (especially when he's drunk and wearing a scarf on his head).
He cracks me up. And damn, he's tall, over six-foot-one? Why is he shy again?
These two pictures kind of make me wonder what happened during the eleven minutes between shots.
Andrew also calls me "hyung nim" which means "respected older brother."
I'd call him "respected younger brother" in Corean if I knew how to say that.
(I'm not even sure it's possible.)
