By Shin Hye-suk
This summer time has been longer and warmer than ever, making sleep tough and underscoring the cruel actuality of local weather change. Usually, we anticipate cooler climate round Chuseok, however this yr we visited our household graves whereas sweating underneath the unrelenting warmth. This shift raises an vital query: ought to we contemplate options like cemetery parks or planting timber as a substitute of sustaining conventional burial websites?
Whereas households ought to collect throughout holidays, the burden of sustaining ancestral gravesites might warrant a extra sensible strategy that continues to be respectful. Having lived by Confucian values — benevolence, righteousness, propriety, knowledge and filial piety — I now see the equity in adjusting traditions to suit fashionable realities.
Throughout this newest Chuseok, I participated in a significant volunteer service, offering lunch to older adults residing alone and folks with out housing at Tapgol Park in downtown Seoul. Below the advice of Park Soo-bu, former governor of Seoul Rotary District 3650, seven members of the Rotary (Central) Membership of Seoul, together with myself got here collectively to serve.
We divided into teams: some distributed bread, rice truffles and chestnuts on the entrance, whereas others dealt with rice, facet dishes like curry, pickled radish, fish truffles and kimchi. One other group served meal trays, guided folks to seats and washed dishes. I helped distribute facet dishes and meals, greeting every individual with a heat “Welcome, get pleasure from your meal.”
Though the duty appeared easy, it took an immense toll on my physique, because it was each demanding and bodily exhausting. After serving just a few hundred folks, I used to be so drained that I spent the subsequent day mendacity down, aching throughout. I couldn’t assist however surprise: how do these older volunteers, some even older than these we had been serving, handle to do such demanding work? They had been quietly targeted on their shared process, however I frightened — do they not really feel ache? I like their dedication, turning on small however significant lights within the darker corners of our society. They’re true function fashions for youthful generations.
Observing the volunteers and recipients evoked blended feelings. Many recipients appeared somber, some visibly with disabilities. One man had misplaced his legs, whereas one other pleaded, “That is all I’ll eat as we speak; please give me extra.” I greeted them warmly whereas different volunteers cheerfully mentioned, “Please come once more.”
Whereas some have a good time holidays joyfully with household, others wrestle alone within the streets, subsisting on only one meal a day. Their destiny wasn’t a selection — many as soon as lived secure lives till hardship struck. Nevertheless, a change in circumstances might result in a extra hopeful path.
Good and evil are fleeting perceptions; the satan and the saint have completely different names, however their essence is one. In the event you choose others by the belief that the depraved put on soiled garments, you solely see the floor, not the soul.
As summer time fades, the cool autumn breeze arrives with hope.
Shin Hye-suk (sinesu@naver.com), who additionally goes by Shindy, accomplished a doctorate in sociology and has devoted 20 years of her life to educational pursuits at a college in Japan. She can also be a florist and has served as president of the Rotary Worldwide Seoul Membership Korea.
