Thanks... I think

It's American Thanksgiving here which means America has precious hours left to prep for the unbridled glory of gluttony in store... and I mean that in the best of ways.

I am blessed to be expecting a lovely celebration this evening with a few others, of which I am in ardent anticipation of, and wholly looking forward to. Especially as lunch was lukewarm rice with bean paste and some sprouts or sorts.

My real reason for this note is two fold... at least. First, the last thing I wrote with this particular holiday in mind is hardly thematically fitting. I'll post it on my writing blog (http://fosterink.blogspot.com/ for the morbidly curious), but I thought it time to express some general gratitude for my life, and the lives of others.

If you don't know if you're included in this, then let me put you at ease: if you're reading this and we've met, conversed, spent so much as a few minutes in idle conversation (you have no idea the effect you've had on me if I can spend minutes in idle conversation) or explored any greater depths in this journey called life, or if you've simply been there and offered a hand, an hour of your time, a word of encouragement, even those who cannot read this because I don't know their names, but they sent a smile my way in passing by, I should express that I am very grateful. I don't express that nearly enough.

It's been nearly a year now that I've been living day to day in a strange land, no more or less different than the day I arrived. It's funny to me that I would choose this holiday, itself somewhat foreign, to express some thoughts, but the holiday as I've come to celebrate it has had an impact.

I came to Korea with the primary goal of getting out of debt. I'm happy to say that that goal is hereby fiscally achieved. I'll be sending home my final payment within a few days to be in the black, just like the hopes of the retail world come Friday. However over the course of the year it's not only the financial debt I've come to repay. I've been holding onto numerous debts of various sorts that I feel I've lost in the shuffle of life half a world away from their origin. I feel like I've finally arrived at a place where I don't owe anyone anything, out of some misaligned sense of duty, or some other perverted imposed onus of pride or pity. It's a good thing. I'll tell you why in a moment.

There's one outstanding debt that doesn't really count, not because I'm not eternally grateful, and not because I can ever make any manner of headway in paying it back, but for the express reason that I can't. It's beyond me. It's the freedom of life in the saving Grace of Jesus. I spent a lot of my life trying to figure out how to repay that debt, but I've come to accept that I can't. It's impossible.

This is important to know because it has done two things: It has freed me to stop striving and it allows me to start serving. I've been unable to serve anyone for a very long time (at least without flashbacks of luggage, cars, and tips). You just can't serve in debt. You can work, labor, and strive, but true service will always take a backseat to the effort to make some sort of ground in the uphill battle to see the distant horizon of freedom, because debt is a prison, most debt at least.

Now that I'm semi-officially debt free, and I hope you'll forgive me if you feel I owe you something, because I really feel like I don't, and that's a first in and of itself, perhaps ever, but it's a good feeling and comes with gratitude and a desire that I may truly begin to do things I haven't been able to do for a long time: love, serve and freely give what I hope and trust will be a growing abundance of all I have to offer.

With that said, let me say again and sincerely wish you a Happy Thanksgiving, to one and all; may it extend well beyond a meal, a day, a long weekend, and a season.

Thanks... I think.

- Foster

By way of an apology:

My last note has been plaguing me to some extent.

While a small contingent of soldiers have been milling about outside the same subway stop, down the street from the courthouse, for the past two consecutive days as well, the comparison in numbers is like the volume of Lake Erie to Lake Bikal. And the music was replaced by a man yelling... perhaps that accounts for the drastic loss of numbers, but in any case, what struck me today, that I failed to articulate in my last note, wherein I really just wanted to share the experience of the sight, because I had no story to tell, for the very revelation that stuck me today was the total absence of conflict.

Without conflict there is no story. If there was conflict in the occasion I remain ignorant of it.

As the loudspeakers were blaring the loud but surprisingly passionless words of the speaker the listless dressed and decorated sitting and squatting military men were offering less than supportive half-hearted fist raises in scattered unison while fidgeting to light cigarettes that resembled lollipop sticks. I walked by looking a few of the older gentlemen in their bored, discontented eyes trying to figure out how to walk with a closed umbrella wondering what they thought of this ignorant foreigner, or if they were thinking of anything at all.

I decided today that I don't want to be someone you, or anyone, can look at and wonder if I'm thinking of anything at all. I always want there to be some evidence, however faint or deep, shrouded perhaps in minutia or moments of worry, cares, confusion or exhaustion, but still alight, of a burning passion, a flicker of life, so that you know I'm not just sitting there, not even listening to the message, meant for me, bored and uncaring. Not that these men were necessarily as I describe, for I didn't linger and couldn't necessarily speak to them, and so far be it from me to judge, but their demeanor was such as to inspire these musings.

I'm not claiming these thoughts resolve the former, again, there's nothing to resolve. I do however hope that these thoughts offer some greater perspective than those posted prior. If to no other end, to recognize the need to identify conflicts in our lives and work towards their resolutions so that we might tell better stories to one another.

- Foster

A Waste of a Unique Morning...

I had an interesting morning. I woke from weird dreams that I can't remember, had breakfast, went to the gym: so far so good.

In getting ready for work I realized that I had run out of what has been my staple cologne (but I've had this particular bottle for years since it only became my staple when I brought it with me to Korea), so I changed to another. Which is neither here nor there, but it ties into a theme I'll be exploring so bear with me.

Getting out of the Subway turnstile, I saw an unfamiliarly-decorated-military-uniformed gentleman cross my path, then a few steps down the wide halls of the station, another. Upon rounding a corner to a flight of stars there were a half dozen more. The last passage of stairs leading to the street opened into a mob of all sorts of military uniformed men, milling about with stern looks and cigarettes hanging from their lips.

As I wove through the mob, I started to hear music loud enough to infiltrate my ipod's offering, blaring in all directions from a van with four loudspeakers, some seeming war-time ballad-esque fare that reminded me of Lena Horne, or world war-era depictions of crackling gramophone productions ringing through prison yards, or battlefields, only in a language I couldn't understand, or perhaps that's part of why.

In passing the military men (sorry, I didn't see any military women) I was, in turn, passed by ranked police officers, all decked out in riot gear, with armor and shields, streaming by, two by two, towards the group. The streets were jammed with traffic, because police buses were lining the one nearest lane all the way to the top of the hill where the Korean Supreme Court offices are. The entrance to the courts was barricaded, which usually isn't the case until I'm leaving work. I assume all of this is related.

More police were dotted up the hill, most smoking, masking the usual smell of pine needles, that I associate with beaches (see previous note), with the choking fumes of nicotine and exhaust.

It's funny how having one sense thrown out of your routine can effect your thoughts. In seeking some solace once all the uniforms, smoke, and foreign sounds had passed, I thought of things I used to find familiar, starting with smells, and was drawing a blank. I still am, though I've been musing over smell since I received a towel from home; it was from my Dad, as requested, since bath towels are hard to find around here, and I distinctly recall that it didn't smell how I remembered my towels to smell, for the mere fact that I could smell it and identify an odor other than detergent. I remember loving some smells of certain homes or people if not for the mere fact that they're nigh impossible to replicate in memory or duplicate outside of the intimate places of their origin.

I remember a lot of second-hand smoke from my youth, but it's been so long since that's been a regular part of my days that the smell is as foreign as those emanating from the Korean cultural cuisine being served for lunch.

So I'm retreating here to try and organize the mess the morning has made of my mind and I'm still confounded, utterly unable to find an adequate, relevant thread in this to tie it all together into a neat little life-lesson or applicable sharing despite my lofty ambitions stated at the start. I keep realizing that that new smell I smell is me. And that this particular change means nothing.

Sorry to waste your time.

- Foster

A Confession... (at last?)

Given this blog's title, I thought it was high time:

I really didn't mean it when I wished everyone a "Happy Canada Day", nor is "Happy Fourth of July" or "Happy Independence Day" anything more than a colloquial well-wishing when it passes through my lips or fingers into the realm of communication, written or spoken as the case may be. To be honest, I haven't celebrated my personal independence since it was thrust upon me a few years ago now.

The last such holiday I was anticipating in any way was when I was living for a summer back in Canada, but I had still begun seeing the holiday, which happened to be her birthday, more as a celebration of co-dependence for years already. The only thing that made this one especially anticipatory was her agreeing to spend it in Canada with me, since she had told me she loved me when I left her two months prior. Alas, she didn't make it.

I should say before I continue that I wholly support and appreciate the privilege of living in a free country, however, in so doing I fear that many people take a social principle and transform it into a personal one whereas my recent conviction is such that our freedom exists for the sole purpose of choosing who we will serve and how.

In my time, perhaps prematurely, though I've never wholly thought or felt it was so, I chose a particular individual. Ultimately, she didn't choose me. Thus, I've spent the last few years thrust into an independence I have in no way relished, appreciated or celebrated. I took a walk with a friend up a mountain earlier this week and he reiterated his concern in his way, which I know others share, and I admitted, perhaps for the first time to him, and myself, that maybe I've taken particular measures to remain in such a state, but I've most certainly not done enough to effectively alter my circumstances in any significant way (I know: Africa, now Korea, but distance is nothing to the heart and mind).

The point remains that independence has never been a sincere goal of mine. I believe whole-heartedly that this life is best served with co-dependence. The primary tenets of my faith rest on that assertion. Even the word faith, which requires a relationship with someone, something, speaks of an inherent co-dependence, partnership, or some other form of requisite connection, between two or more individuals in a situation belying some risk given failure, be it emotional, psychological or physical pain, stress, or discomfort. If your faith in a chair is betrayed, you'll fall to the gound; the height you fall from determines the cost of that betrayal. With interpersonal relationships, the complexities of the consequences are seemingly endless. That I should be over this is a common refrain, and I believe for the most part that I am, despite the daily reminders, be they willful memories or happenstance recollections, triggered from our time spent together or the resultant shards of faith from that relationship which I'm still picking out, or leaving to fester, but given all this that I know I still don't think I have a problem (even if I am the only one).

At any rate, I do believe and am opening to the possibility that there is someone out there to share these life experiences with, physical and tangible, not to say that my salvation is insuffiecient for a life well-lived, with the God who cannot leave me alone even if I think I want it so, and that is indeed my goal in my self-percieved independednce, to see that such a term is a misnomer, and that I am dependant at all times on the grace I keep reaching out to find, sometimes grabbing hold of, but still too often letting go, and perhaps that is the first step to being ready to step up on the chair again, putting my faith not on the chair, but putting it all in my constant companion, God, who, even if I'm standing on a rocking chair on a balcony, putting up Christmas decorations, twenty stories above the harsh snow-covered concrete, should the chair fail, keeping my faith and focus on God, shall keep me secure until the work I need to do is done.

So I'll still wish her a "Happy Birthday, Canada!" and a "Happy Fourth!" to my American friends, but may my sincerest wish be for a "Happy co-dependent life for all!"


- Foster

Faith Fills Fetid Furrows of Filth

Over the past few weeks I seem to have encountered a theme of sorts in various writings, words, messages and images. It's one I frequently find myself confronting, as a member of humanity, but I've rarely given it the thought I have of late, whether due to the frequency, poignancy, or some latent revulsion, which perhaps should be the norm, to the vile, evil, sinful, pick your euphemism, definition, or palatable poison for the term that encompasses our collective fall, and subsequent damnation outside of grace, but that's the issue.

The recent fixation settled in and culminated with some recent blogs in this small community (for me at least). When I read Butterfly Dreamer's blog, "Howl on Baby..." I had just recently finished reading the long-censured chapter of Fyodor Dostoevsky's "Devils", wherein a man confesses to what I (and most) have always thought to be the most horrendous crime imaginable. Still the confession is preempted by a question: "...can you move a mountain or not?" and the response of the isolated, aesthetic, monk is: "If God bids me move it, I can." The monk's reaction to the horrific tale told by the amoral confessor is one of the hardest depictions of grace for me to fathom; I'm not sure such forgiveness is in me, but I'm sure such forgiveness exists.

So when I read about embracing our dark side my initial response was that I've been trying not to associate humanity with darkness, or, in failing that, to be grateful for the greater things that aid us in rising above our "humanity" to become something even better:

Grace, Love, Hope, Faith, Truth, Peace, Forgiveness, Patience, Peace, every (capital letter) virtue we can name that acts as light - and darkness is nothing but the absence of light.

Thus my rebuttal to any proclamation that professes that darkness is the, or one of the primary defining aspects of the human condition, is: I'd rather not be human.

However in reading Ronnie Kerrigan's recent post, "The Human Condition, Indifference, and Evil", and having subjected myself, in degrees, to the dredges of depravity in beginning to read "American Psycho" and having watched a few random horror movies online, among them the infamous Hostel 2, (we had just booked a Hostel for our upcoming China trip) though I well knew what was awaiting me in these endeavors, I found the conclusion that "we are not all cut from the same cloth" to be slightly misleading.

I think we are cut from the same cloth, however some of us, through the accident of birth, through choice and consequence, through the guidance, care, and concern of others, but all ultimately by grace, fall into the hands of a skilled tailor, and are thereafter wrought with beautiful embroideries and embellishments, cared for, having our frayed or loose ends cut away, our tears mended, or stains cleaned, whereas others fall themselves victim to the abuses, if not of a willful other, than life at large, definitely through some volition, but without the guiding influence of those care-filled skilled hands to help, to form, to free us to be something far more than the filthy rag we could all become besides.

I try to live in the light, but there are aspects of the effort that are outside of my control. It's taken me a long time to recognize that striving for perfection is a futile endeavor. All of us need some measure of grace in our lives because we all make mistakes, willful, ignorant, or otherwise. We are all in need of someone, some human, who has endured to perfection, overcome where we have failed, stood where we have fallen, tread where we would not follow, lived in a way we wish we could, and died for all that all might live, and we can find bits and pieces of that person in the greatest people and characters in our lives, in history and in literature, but there is only one who fits the bill, and paid it in full. Perfection has been purchased for us and is offered as a gift.

We often take gifts for granted, not realizing their costs, and cost is relative, but the cost of grace is one we can all appreciate if we look at our culminated mistakes, misdeeds, and miseries and realize that they are gone, wiped clean, erased from the record of our lives except so far as the consequences play out in the here and now among our equally flawed contemporaries, but the perfect abundant grace of the only judge of life that matters has deemed that the debt is paid in full, if one would simply accept the gift.

It's not easy. There are things I've never done that I want to say are worse than those I have. The things I have done seem to me to account for a pittance of pain in the whole of existence, and of that I hope the majority has been my own, but that pain is enough to warrant the need of perfection to pay the price.

- Foster

PS: I would not recommend "Devils". It's long and I found it less engaging than Dostoevsky's other works that are among my favorites, and the passage I refer too is difficult to say the least.

PPS: I neither recommend "American Psycho" nor "Hostel 2". I feel like I am covered by grace in having subjected myself to them, but while "everything is permissible, not everything is beneficial" (1 Cor. 10:23) and I do feel all the worse for the wear, but I'm still reading the book... go figure.

PPPS: I would recommend "The Passion of the Christ" which depicts depravity, (and is equally difficult to watch at times) but those instances, those images, pale and pass in comparison the revelation of the light of the grace that shines through. So may it be for you, and I, and all.

Changes

Last week was an interesting week, introspectively. I feel like it's the start of something great, like a change is on the horizon, but I don't know exactly how the change is likely to manifest, so I've been thinking of a few common changes that I know take place so as to prepare myself for whichever precedent I'm liable to follow.

The Pupa in the Chrysalis: Metamorphosis is not a bad thing, but the process is often slow, delicate, and leaves one vulnerable to attack. The pupa is the interim stage between the caterpillar and the butterfly, when the insect prepares a haven, designed for the twofold purpose of protection from enemies, and privacy for the transformation it is to undergo. Sometimes I feel like the self-imposed isolation I endure is my chrysalis, my cocoon, from which I will soon emerge, transformed.

The Diamond in the Rough: A much slower process, but a much richer exchange wherein, through immeasurable time, coal is compressed, condensed, crushed, with the weight of the world bearing down on it for the wait of the world, into a gem prized for the [supposed] rarity, clarity, and color of the process caused by immense geothermal forces where the greater the pressure borne, the purer the result birthed when unearthed, cut, polished, and set. It could be that I am only beginning to bear a particular burden and that the end ahead is something unforeseen but all the more beautiful for being so.

Changes of State (of Matter): Like ice, water, and steam, all matter has three hypothetical states in which they can exist (or so my limited understanding grasps the concept, though I'm sure there must be exceptions I'm too ignorant to cite, but my last science class was in my early years at Mayfield... so). These changes can happen relatively quickly, and with equal frequency, given the right catalyst for the change to occur, usually heat, or the reduction thereof. I'm not sure if the end result would be a harder or softer me, more or less pliable, I could find arguments for both, and a desire for either, but I'm equally unsure how much the coming metamorphosis has to do with my present, my past, my desires or my needs and least of all what say I'll have in the end manifestation.

There are myriad other illustrations I could use from the changing of the seasons to simply changing one's mind, but I've been waxing wordy lately and your patience is a virtue I don't want to consume too much of here and now. Whatever happens I think the important distinction is to make sure that it is understood that change is a good thing, almost always, but certainly that which I'm anticipating in the days (weeks, months, years) ahead.

- Foster

Don't be alarmed...

I awoke Saturday at about 10 am. I enjoy that I needn't set an alarm on Saturdays, but I try to remain within certain scheduling boundaries so as not to throw myself out of whack and have to make gross adjustments for the work week. I'm up for roughly ten minutes before the air raid sirens sound.

For any who may not know, I'm living in Seoul South Korea for the year, and while I don't pay much attention to the news, there are those around me who keep me dutifully informed to the extent I'm willing to pay attention regarding the goings on in the world, and more specifically, the growing uncertainty of North Korea's "posturing" antics... or so I've understood them to be, so when air raid sirens sound for the first time in six months, given the recent news, it gives one pause. I paused and waited, mildly curious what it would be like to hear a bomb drop, see an explosion outside of my window, or whether or not I'd feel anything during the imminent ordeal.

Questions arose: Do I remember my EMT training? Could I help if I lived? How many could I shelter in this meager abode if the need arose? What's the fallout radius of a nuclear weapon? Can I enlist in the US military from here? WWJD? Am I okay with God?

I found my peace pretty quickly. And with no whistling sounds from overhead, no growing panic in the street, no mushroom cloud on the horizon, the day soon settled into a regular Saturday with eggs for breakfast, a failed attempt to connect with Dad on Skype, a trip to the gym, a Starbucks coffee, and the added bonus of a small get together with some friends from work to look forward to in the evening.

So y'all know, there's evidently little to worry about. I try to live relatively worry-free anyway and find I'm pretty successful, I think largely in part for my willful ignorance of the so-called news. I like good news, which colloquially means either no news, or gospel, so I try to filter information appropriately, but I have it on good authority that there will be days' notice of imminent danger and I have a good US intelligence contact who (without breaking protocols) has reassured us that measures can be taken if necessary to get out of Dodge (Chrysler/Buick/GMC is another story, so I hear).

Anyway, Saturday night culminated in a great dinner, and the uncommon luxury of a game of Life. That's right: Milton Bradley's own!

The game started pretty quickly for me. I raced through college, got a job as a lawyer (as my mother always thought I should) making 90K, picked up my wife, had a kid (a little girl), bought a house, picked up a few raises, met a few risks, and was doing pretty well to the chagrin of my opponents. I quickly became a target, fending off lawsuits (despite my warnings), before succumbing to a few, but still doing my best to uphold certain standards when all of a sudden I spun the spinner, and lost my now 130K career, to become an athlete (I presume a golfer) quickly followed by a financial tailspin of fraternal twins, shared expenses, college funds, tuition costs, refurnishing bills and before I knew it, I was at the end of the game with the losing number: a measly million and change. The winner was the tortoise, as I predicted from the onset when she was miles behind the rest of the board, struggling along, stuck with the ones and twos through college, still single well past others' first and second children, and still I reiterated the fable, and indeed the tortoise beat not only the hare, but all others in the race with a whopping 4.5 mil.

I did some reflecting today on how apt the game of Life can be to our lives if we think about it... rather, if we don't. If we get caught up in the race and struggle to acquire wealth thinking that we'll somehow win if we have the most at the end of the game instead of taking all the experiences we have, the good and bad, and looking at them with the perspective that there is so much more of value than wealth. I really started to think that the "life" I lost with would be a great life, with kids and grandkids and relationships and stories to tell and trials and tribulations and victories and failures on a sliding scale from massive to miniscule, and it served to reinforce a lot of issues and ideas I've been working through over the last few years concerning what this game is all about, and what it means to win. Perhaps I should write ol' Milt, just to say thanks...

I have one last duty today, thanks to a fellow Blogger who "tagged" me (Ronnie at "http://www.ronniekerrigan.com/"), and now's as good a time as any to fulfill the imposition placed in doing so:

Eight things I've always wanted to do (or keep doing):

i. Love someone to the best of my ability for as long as I'm granted the privilege.
ii. Live well.
iii. Write a book, a screenplay, and a song, and see all of them through to their respective points of completion/production, being involved creatively, along the way as much as possible.
iv. Travel.
v. Learn a martial art.
vi. Do a one-armed pull up.
vii. Skydive.
viii. Believe.

Eight Favorite Foods (this is a bad list for me... I'm not sure if I have the liberty to change these parameters, but if not):

i. Communion.
ii. A hearty, healthy, delicious meal with friends and/or family.
iii. A paltry, healthy, delicious meal with friends and/or family.
iv: A healthy meal with friends and/or family.
v: Sustenance with frinds and/or family.
vi. A healthy delicious meal.
vii. A healthy meal.
viii. Sustenance.

Eight Things (I use the term "things" loosely... I'm trying to get over the love of most things) I Love:

i. The idea of Love in the Bible.
ii. Various expressions (ambiguity intended).
iii. Creative use of (the English) language.
iv. Truth in fiction/storytelling.
v. Stories.
vi. Relationships.
vii. Nature (after too much time spent in Urban Centers).
viii. Urban Centers (after too much time spent in nature).

If you've followed this post thus far I applaud you. I'm supposed to tag others, but I won't. I'll just look for others' willful expressions, thoughts, feelings, confessions and such and hope to continue learning a thing or two along the way. If you decide to post something along these lines, let me know. I'll read it.

Cheers.

Traumatic Happiness?

There's a stretch of sidewalk that passes by the Korean Supreme Court on the way to my school that I walk every day (M-F). It's lined with evergreens, and more importantly the detritus of their shed needles, worn away, eroded from the towering pines, creating a carpet of brown needles elevated above the sidewalk by a rising wall with a barricade of sorts, undoubtedly designed to keep the debris from the busy pedestrian and adjacent street traffic. On days when the rain is held at bay, and the wind coming down the gentle grade is not too severe, I can catch the scent of dying decaying needles and every time I recollect an era of childhood that I've forever associated with that wonderful aroma.

It's odd that dying evergreens remind me of the beach, but when I was young we used to visit a family cottage at Wasaga Beach on Georgian Bay. The path we walked to get to the water was a mix of sand and evergreen needles, being lined with pines, and always held that distinctive smell that I've cherished ever since. I have a scar on my knee from kneeling on glass at that beach, and so when I walk this busy Seoul sidewalk to work, and chance to smell the beach, I think of kneeling on a shard of glass too. Still the pain is gone, and only the memory of warmth, sun and sand remains in the recollection.

I've been thinking a lot about other memories. Some less pleasant, most... all, and because of that fact, I'm wondering why I can't duplicate that same experience with the evergreens and the beach to the other blessings I've enjoyed in life, abundant as they are. It struck me that most of my most vivid memories include some manner of trauma. Even the beach with the physical scar has that association, but the scar has lost its significance, and only the joy remains. I wonder if I can, in time, expect the same of the other scars, visible, or not so much, to simply point the way to the joys that led to their making, and forget the pain that still seems, at times, more potent than the pleasures.

Ideally, I'd like to have the pleasures to cherish without the suffering... but the propensity of traumatic recollection makes that seem less likely, unless of course I can find a means of obtaining traumatic joy, getting absolutely wrecked by happiness, and make the two the same. I don't want to sound masochistic. I'm not. I think most times that I have that in my realm of experience already, it will just take a little more time to see it because I keep picking at the wound. If I could leave the things alone, let them heal, I'd see that I've been more traumatized by the joys than these insignificant bumps and bruises profess.

Ultimately, I'm not driven by a desire for instances of momentary happiness, however repeatable or frequent they could be, but a deeper sense of peace, fulfilled purpose, and joy. The differences may be semantic, but I'm not going to get into meanings and definitions now, just know that I differentiate between the transience of a moment and the knowledge of enduring eternal elements.

That's all for now... time for class.

- Foster

Fruits of Labo(u)r: Musings and Writings from Lessons on Metaphor

Since these stem from the previous post I figured I'd put them here before transcribing them to my writing blog... after cleaning them up a bit. Enjoy!

Lesson 1:

The sparkling flower in the vast garden grows
In the darkest soil, shining bright,
Longing for a corner to share the light
With other plants planted in circling rows.
It feels too far from the nurturing stream,
The milky way that flows forth with life,
Where so many grow free of the strife
One suffers in the solitude of a dream.
The sparkling flower just longs to be picked
To grant a fellow dreamer's wish,
Perhaps an aphid in a distant place
Corralled with too many teeming mixed
Could be tricked into trading places with
The furthest glimmer it can see in this space.


Lesson 2:

This is an odd bird. She cannot fly. Instead of wings she has eight legs and hangs in stasis from invisible threads she has woven together to build her nest. Her silken home holds friend, foe and food, all together, and often the same. This bird's simple song is translated from silence to sing a Bard's verse;
"What's in a name?"

Nuclear Tests, Swine Flu, Immunity, and Teaching Metaphor to Children

I just heard that North Korea has been performing underground nuclear tests and that most of the world is not all that happy about it. Perhaps I should watch the news more, but I doubt it. Anyways, Obama's miffed, South Korea's a little perturbed, and I'm sure other countries care to some degree, they're just not mentioned on the MSN homepage hotmail sends me to when I logout.

Still, at the school, the nuclear tests haven't been raising as much concern as the swine flu epidemic. Evidently a few foreigners have brought a resurgence of the dreaded disease into the city not a few massive blocks from where I teach, and since foreigners do nothing but fornicate and languish in each others' sordid, endemic, parasitic hovels or the equally infested hangout hotbeds of diseases frequented in our spare time, we've become greater pariahs of late. So until further notice we're being subjected to daily temperature checks, have been issued filtered face masks, and it's been recommended to us that when we're not at school we confine ourselves to our apartments. The jokes on them though, I've pretty much been doing that anyway.

It not all bad, however; I've been working on a new story idea and this little hysteria has played directly into inspirational material for the plot. The working title is "Immunity". I'll let you ponder the rest for now. At least until I get a little further along and post it on my writing blog:

http://fosterink.blogspot.com/ (I'm trying to work more [shameless] plugs in.)

Stuff in the classroom seems to progressing relatively well; by that I mean I'm still working and haven't been fired yet. I've been teaching poetry to third graders for a few classes now... as though poetry isn't hard enough to get in one's native language. Still, I feel like I'm making headway. The word for the day was Metaphor. Since we've already covered imagery, simile, personification, alliteration and rhyme scheme, I figured it was time. One of their worksheets had a list of words that the two kids had to create metaphors for. The first was "star".

"So, I can write, 'sparkling flower'?"

I'd never heard of a sparkling flower so I thought about it for a second. It was a second that ignited a whole conceit! If a star is a sparkling flower, then space can be the garden in which it grows, the milky way the water nourishing it and the other plan(e)ts in the garden's midst. The possibilities were endless. I got excited and tried to share this with the blank faces looking back at me and finally decided that, yes, a sparkling flower would do fine. My writing on the matter is far from over.

From the mouth of babes...


- Foster

The Cube Game

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cube_(game)

I must admit, I was a little prepared, not having participated in this exact game per se, but having participated in others like it, and did so with a decided agenda of creating an interesting picture, but which nonetheless led to an interesting introspective interpretation given the games parameters.


Here's the picture:

It's a desert. It's a dry, barren landscape, cracked from years without sufficient moisture, just the occasional deluge of the too-short rainy season, leaving naught but the hardest lives left to endure.

In the middle of this desert is a giant block of ice. It's shaped like a cube, but is melting in the midday sun. Leaning against the southern face of the directionally aligned cube of ice is a ladder, leading to its summit, a mere 12 feet (cubed).

There is a horse, a Palomino, drinking from the melting rivulets pouring down the eastern face.

When the storm comes, a savage sandstorm tearing in from the west, the horse is already mostly sheltered, only needing to take a few cautionary steps back, towards the north, for the cube of ice suffers the brunt of the stinging sands, marring its surface with pits and scars from the windblown erosion.

However, the storm must have blown in a seed from afar, for shortly thereafter, in the filthy hollowed pool formed by the wind and sun in the top of the cube, a seed sprouts a rose. The rose grows by sending it's roots down through the ice, causing great cracks and fissures throughout the matter that sustains it.

In the end the cube doesn't quite resemble the majesty and awe of a pure block of steaming ice in the middle of a desert as it did with the initial image; it is cracked, breaking, shrinking, and falling away, but the rose grows, and the horse drinks.

- Foster

Virtual Memory Lane

In nursing my aching back, the result of some bad squats and stubborn practices I should have known better than to adhere to (work through it!), I took a rest day. It was Saturday, so no harm done, but over the past few hours, amidst some light cleaning, some movie watching, television catching up, and writing, I began, and continued, to look through old blogs, letters, emails, posts, writings and whatnot spanning a good ten years or more.

Many of you are remembered often regardless, but it's really amazing to go through moments in time, reading captured thoughts and conversations, contextualized and compartmentalized, that have been such an amusing, amazing, insightful, influential, or otherwise important part of my life past, present and future. Often it's specific advice or notice to a particular time, place or event, but as those are and/or were the events that have shaped who I am, they prove nonetheless as applicable today, even if only to serve the memory they help create. I have some of your engagement/wedding musings, your condolences, your frustrations (concerning me, concerning you, concerning others), your announcements, your encouragements, your correspondences, reactions, news, updates, and other forms of communique tucked away in emails, blog posts, cut-and-pasted tidbits, and of course, recorded in my own recollections, both fictitious and factual, in voices composed or comprised of amalgamations, combinations, permutations, or (un)reasonable facsimiles.

Some made me smile. Some made me think. I'm glad I have them all though, as I'm glad I have all y'all, especially as needed, when needed, and I hope at least at times you can say the same of me.

It's funny how there is little here for me to relate to my past, but I still find ways back. I'm undecided as to the merits or faults that lie in that journey, despite my frequent travels, and I'm sure that those of you who know me best could offer your insight on the subject, but that's another note. This one is a thank you note.

So thanks.

- Foster

Thoughts on smiling:

I was the welcome recipient of a stranger's magnificent smile this afternoon. I was walking (rather quickly as I tend to do) out of the subway station on my way to work when I chanced to look up, make eye contact with a smiling young woman, and continue on my way. During the five-minute walk to work I was musing on the effect a simple smile can have on a person. I started watching my mind wander through the days when I used to smile more, to the rationale behind the smiles I feel I've lost, and what I can offer in their stead with such as I have to give.

This led to a momentary recapitulation, with some brief instantaneous apparitions of meandering rabbit trails, of different interpretations and motivations behind smiles, and their potential meanings and readings in the mind, but I tried my best to deter the worst of those and keep focused on the higher, purer, pleasure of the experience.

Eventually my thoughts turned down a familiar path, and then a took a few more twists and turns which I won't detail here, lest my intentions get bogged down in the quagmire of recollections as opposed to the soaring revelations I intend, at any rate, I took the turn towards the mountain-path of love and thoroughly enjoyed the stroll.

So, to get back on track, a smile is just a smile, but it's still a choice, or the consequence of one, and as such there is a certain measure of control over such a simple action. The same is true, or could be true, of all manifestations of love, from the inarticulate to the incalculable expressions that pass between people circumnavigating existence (were existence round). Letters of love have spanned time, stories of love have crossed cultures, actions motivated by love have united enemies, and one in particular has abolished all rebuttals against what love can do.

I rely a lot on words. My final thought spawned from that smile was that love needs more than words; it still needs words, but it needs the smiles too, and all the greater things, but I should start by smiling more.

- Foster

An introspective look at [the love life of] a "City Boy"

When you live too long alone, with no real sense of place, you begin to manufacture love in different ways. It’s the cities who have kept me sane in my solitude. This goes out to those I’ve known, I’ll leave the naming up to you.

You’re the first I claimed to love, who I never really knew. Still I thought you beautiful, and longed to know you with intimacy. I never learned your secrets. I always lived too far away. Still when I think of home, I always speak your name.

My greatest love remains the one so many claimed to love. You had everything and offered more than I ever could partake. Still there lurks a darkness, a secret shame or two, and while the mask you wear is magnificent, it propels you beyond my reach. Still, I tried to learn your avenues, I wandered in your streets, but in my attempt to love you, you’re the one who proved untrue. That doesn't mean I won't find me lost in you again. You remain my deepest, truest love, for the memories and dreams that have idealized you in me.

Beautiful beyond my means, I had to see you to believe. The beach, the streets, the glam and guts: you boast much for one so young. Many have succumbed to your siren call, not to say I wouldn’t too had I more to offer you. I saw you with a chaperone and guide, still I dared to dream that one day I could find myself wrapped inside your embrace.

I dated some in Africa, guarding fresh wounds from the former two. I was warned of Joburg before we met, and risked little in her care. Livingston had some allure, but only for missing those I knew. Lusaka, Kasama, Moroguro, Kigoma, were all stops along the way. Bujumbura was our destination, but disappointed in her way. Leaving her we met Kigali, Kampala and Entebbe. My traipsing through Africa left me indebted more to love the little things I missed.

Still in returning to, and visiting, these former loves of mine, I was, in turn, compelled to leave again. Now I’m the furthest away I’ve ever been. I’m a stranger with you who has been my constant company. I’m far from home, and though I still don’t know where that could be, I feel foreign when I’m with you. Soul for some proves flesh for me, and I'm looking deeper still. Not sure what more I have to find but, as always, time will tell.

- Foster

Thoughts on a thought:

I reached an epiphany in casual, quippy, conversation the other day. In wishing a friend well, by way of "Have a great day!" or something to that effect. The response came back that my friend would have a good day, but not so much so as to make the other days jealous.

I found that comment to contain a kernel of pathos, almost as though my friend were wanting mediocrity, which I doubt was the case; I'm sure my friend sought only stability, or perhaps didn't want to profess to too much expectation given any particular one day, or perhaps was simply exercising the ample wit that is my friend's to wield. In any case, my response was, "Every day should be jealous of tomorrow."

I've taken a day now to think about that, and to allow others to as well, and the more I think about it, the more I believe it to be true.

What about bad days? What about the unforeseen circumstances that can send the greatest of days into a downward spiral? What about the manipulations and intrusions of those in our lives who can't see today in the light of yesterday because yesterday they had a job, they had a friend, they had a lover, they had a husband or a wife, they had a son or daughter and today what they had is lost, or worse, and their myriad compound yesterdays will forever be better than the future they cannot see?

Good question. I'm sure I'll be working through that myself on such days. I'm sure it can be done though, as there are many ways to incite jealousy in history. My next worst day may put my last worst day to shame, raising the standard of worse days to come, making all subsequent days better by comparison, but what of that day? How will it be better than its antecedent days? It will only be better if I live better through it, and even then perhaps only in hindsight or through a perspective better then mine will be at the time, but the challenge remains.

Yesterday was beautiful, warm and sunny here in Korea. Today it's cooler, rainy and my first class has an absent kid making it a one-on-one English lesson for two hours.

However, today I'm working through an epiphany that yesterday spawned, trying to figure out how to make all my todays jealous of their tomorrows, be it through joy, heartache, gain or loss; there's a way to make it happen, to make every day better than the last: live it better.

We learn from all our yesterdays how to live today; we bring more to life with each tomorrow.
On that note, have a great day: make yesterday jealous and tomorrow better.

- Foster

I haven't forgotten!

I'm trying to post some links here of some of my Facebook Photo Albums so that those without the social networking site can see that I've been trying to keep some information coming, if not verbally, at least visually...

Spring in Seoul:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=240266&id=874015105&l=92eb6cfc58

A walk from Oksu to Itaewon
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=234799&id=874015105&l=f9aebcb8f6

Around the Block:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=228310&id=874015105&l=7fc79d9c37

Hopefully this works... if someone can let me know either way, I'd appreciate the feedback.

(I think you have to copy and paste the links into your web browser... again, any problems let me know.)

For those who wander here with time to kill:

If interested, I've begun to post my more formal writing endeavors, ranging from Op-eds, Poetry, and Fiction, to another blog devoted to that purpose: http://fosterink.blogspot.com/

Please be forewarned that while the language I use everyday I subject to strict scrutiny so as to uphold a certain self-imposed standard, I do not adhere to the same in my fiction. I justify this for character's sake and for maintaining the necessary story elements and the maturity of my craft; if PG movies offend you, don't read the Fiction posts. They're relatively tame, but you never know what will offend these days.

That said, I welcome any input and feedback from any willing readers, even if only to voice your offenses.

Cheers!

- Foster

http://fosterink.blogspot.com/

It's the little things...

I'm not a fan of shaving. Nor am I a fan of beards. So I try to stay between the two for as long as is permissible. Having gone a week before becoming duly fed up with the itchy scratchy uncomfortableness, in perhaps the only country in the world where I have more facial hair than the majority of men, including those twice my age, whereas fifteen-year-olds frequently put me to shame back home, and some of them young women, albeit none that I know, but they grow out of it, regardless, I shaved the other day, after a week of freedom, only to arrive to school to teach and have a child observe in true to form broken English, with a smile stretched ear to ear, while rubbing his own cheeks,"You, you clean your face!"

Yep. I shaved.

Wait til I get a haircut.

Oh, the joys of currency trading!

I succeeded in my second foray into the foreign exchange market... as in I did it, all by myself, with helpful bank staff, but only time will tell if it was a success.
The beginning of the week market the first significant drop in the American dollar since my arrival here in Korea. With the over zealous panic of someone very new to this, I woke up early on Tuesday, checked my daily email of the exchange rates, confirmed a further dip in the rates and hurried to the bank in hopes of securing the first of what will be numerous money transfers in my financial favor. I exchanged $1000.00 USD... in the form of two traveler's cheques. That night, in deciding how to appropriately mail the necessary funds home I was struck by the absurdity of sending the equivalent of $1000.00 unsecured cash overseas in the mail. Ludicrous!
So I went home, no richer, no poorer, and went to bed. The next day the rates had dropped again. Determined to get some of this newly acquired wealth safely home I arranged the necessary details of a wire transfer. This was the ticket! By the through the miracle of modern banking I could send money electronically around the world where a trusted individual could then receive it and pay off my bills as planned! It was a $500.00 USD test run.
By Thursday they had dipped under the 1400/1 mark and I told myself that if the rates dropped again, or remained in the 1300's on Friday, I'd send another $500.00 home.
The rate was on the incline this morning, but still under 1400, so I did as planned sending another $500.00 USD to disappear into an electronic abyss where the debt I owe lie waiting somewhere on the other side, with their voracious appetites that I long to fill.
Now I get to experience the joys of budgeting as I have suffiecient, albeit limited funds for the upcoming month left to me in the bank after draining two grand American (which translates to approx. 2.5 million Won) in the course of a week. At least until the rates climb high enough that I can profit from those traveler's cheques...

I'll let you know how it works out.

- Foster

Teaching teachers to teach teachers to teach would be a good thing.

Schools are high stress environments. I personally never would have guessed, and would be blissfully immune if stress were not one of the most contagious infirmities on the face of the earth.
I have no complaints. My schedule suits me (working 1-9pm), I have a gym to go to, I have food, shelter and a limited array of suitable clothing (still, I've more than I anticipated due to the lax dress codes at work, another plus in my opinion) and I have found a nice church to attend on Sundays. Quite the workings of a quaint quiet little life which would pass a peaceful year if people could only stop stressing over the insignificant irksome idiosyncrasies that abound in life.
My thoughts tend to wax and wane on philosophic problems. I like to take the rabbit trails that I find in thinking to see where they lead. I don't particularly know what curriculum would best suit students who are in a listening class where they refuse to listen because they can't understand the language they are listening to and as a result spend two hours in conversation with each other in a language I cannot understand. I only know what my students can express in their translated thoughts, and what my limited experience can discern from the situation: namely that the material is too hard. However, since they have been ushered through the previous books in a system more concerned with progression than understanding, or with reaching the end however incomplete the course, with the completion of a book rather than the comprehension of a chapter, it now seems I'm stuck transcribing and dictating answers to students of copying and printing.
There are other stressors, many concocted out of gossip and others that exist from the sheer fact that few of the teachers are formal teachers, but are, like me, willing to learn to teach if there could be found those willing to teach we willing to teach teachers.
This is obviously a microcosm of a much bigger problem. One might even call it a philosophical problem. It's just not one of the ones I've devoted much thought to until now, so I'll have to get back to you with those.
In the meantime I'm doing my best to enjoy the simple pleasures of black tea, peanut butter, 24 hour gym access, and all my needs being met.

- Foster

When sweet dreams go bad...

I've been dreaming quite a bit lately. Not necessarily bad dreams, but dreams that have certainly been reminiscent of a different time and place in my own increasingly-not-so-recent

-personal-history. There are specifics that many could guess, particulars of time, place, persons, etc. but I'm not prepared to divulge those in print for whatever misguided propriety I feel I'd betray.
Last night was a particularly good/bad dream though. I was in this place, with these people, meeting one person in particular.
It seems, in these dreams, that I'm as much there as I am here. My senses are intact; I smell and feel and see. What happens happens and then I wake up to an alarm, a brightened room, or the still dark night and have to run to the bathroom having had too much water at the gym a few hours before.
Without going into details, Id just like to say that I'd really appreciate the temporary ability to interpret dreams, and I don't mean in a Freudian sense, I mean like Joseph did, because I get the sense that these dreams are telling me something.
Of course I could already know what it is.
Anyhow, last night's culminated in a reunion with a particular someone I haven't seen but for one passing instance in a few years. I was walking with two others outside a familiar house. I followed them inside. I stopped in the threshold where I met the other.
We meet inside a familiar doorway. We hug, but it's more my initiative. Then I drop to my knees, falling face to feet where I see scars and wake to realize that this is all I know of love.

My Artistic Creed... a work in progress

Given my recent private writer's strike, I felt the need to get some ideas down for why I'm driven to [write]. Feel free to comment, collaborate, or criticize.This list is by no means complete and will certainly undergo changes... but hopefully not retractions. Time will tell.


1. I feel like a person knows me better if they know, and understand, what I create, be it visual, auditory, or tactile.

2. I create with intent and purpose to relate something to someone.

3. I feel comfortable while creating, at home in a chair, on a stage, or otherwise in front of the medium I'm using to illustrate an idea.

4. I look for a story in an image, feeling like the picture is incomplete unless I can relate to it in some way.

5. I have a plethora of pictures, words, and actions I associate with specific people, places, and things.

6. I am concerned by the reception of my ideas, not enough to change them should they be rejected, but enough to argue passionately their legitimacy, and in failing to reach an understanding or otherwise peaceful resolve, enough to severe certain ties with people on their account.

7. I believe that creation characterizes more than action, and action characterizes more than being.

8. I believe that being dictates action and action, in turn, creation.

9. I believe that an intended creation completed is the end of an inanimate thing and its interpretation is the beginning of another thing entirely and wholly expressive of the interpreter.

10. I believe that creation is ongoing and that people change and so creations too will differ in intent and meaning.

11. The compilation of a body of work is not as telling as an individual work that expresses clear ideas.

12. Differences in creative expressions are not hypocrisy, but evidence change, growth, exploration, or instances of diversion from a norm.

13. Intention is not relative, irregardless of its being known; interpretation is.


... ... ... to be continued?

Hearing Voices...

Don't be alarmed.
I was; my alarm woke me up at 9:00am this morning to make sure I was up for an expected call. Sure enough, 9:30 rolls around and my phone... er, sorry, my computer rings. I had a call come in from NY and I got to hear a few friends gathered together, not to call me, but they agreed to do so while so gathered, and thus I heard the choral voices of a few friends which made my morning. After that I made a call to another friend in DC who happened to be online at the time. Once we got some technical issues sorted out we had a good talk. I couldn't get reception this clear in NYC with Verizon. So, long story condensed: I caught up with a few people and I became convinced that I should stop ignoring Skype and take advantage of some of these tools I've been avoiding for too long.

If you would like it: www.skype.com

For those I talked to, it was good to hear you. Thanks for the call.

Cheers,

- Foster

Breaking it Down:

I got paid on Friday! So, it was a pretty big weekend. On Saturday I spent yet another Valentine's Day wandering throughout a massive city, meandering through stores, pondering how to spend money on... me.

This black Saturday was extra special in that I shared a few precious hours with a couple friends who helped direct me to a couple long awaited necessities: a Korean cell phone with charger and headset (used: 70,000 won), plus pay-as-you-go service (30,000 won), and two more plug adapters (4,000 each, 8,000 won). When Si and "Si's friend" left to go back to their mountain dwelling (I'm looking forward to visiting next weekend) I continued my spree. Next stop: The gym!
There's a gym right at the subway stop which happens to be a five minute walk from my building. It's called Jamaica Fitness and is located on the thirteenth floor (yep, it's actually "13" on the button!) of a multi-use commercial high-rise. I purchased a one year membership (the most economical at 390,000 won) in hopes that all works out, put there is a portion of that which is refundable if it doesn't.
My last stop was an electronics store where I picked up the three remaining appliances that should last me the rest of the year: a blender, an electric kettle, and a toaster-oven (for a combined cost of 100,000 won).
I feel a little more settled now, and considerably more secure. I'll be able to send my first check home home in a few days once I budget my monthly living expenses (I'm estimating 500,000 won should be plenty).

On Sunday I made a point to go venture to find a church that advertised on Facebook, which I assumed was English-speaking, and so I set an alarm and awoke at 9, 9:05, ok 9:15, got ready, and was out the door by 10. An hour and a half later I'm wandering around Suwon, a totally foreign neighborhood, if not a satellite city of Seoul (I'm still not sure where Seoul begins and ends), getting increasingly frustrated. When I realized how fruitless this endeavor was becoming, I decided that instead of wandering around getting frustrated looking for a church (if that's not counter-intuitive I'm not sure what else could be) I decided to find my way back to the bus and train and enjoy the hour-long ride back, and take blissful advantage of the recently purchased gym membership after a nice big meal.

Now if a meal was made to kill a man, it would be the one I made myself yesterday morning. l was given a pound of bacon my a newly-met "cousin" living here in Seoul about two weeks ago. I've been whittling it down since, but I still had a good portion left, seven pieces to be precise. Now the best ratio I can figure is two strips of bacon per egg. I know my eating habits so I played it safe (ha!) with three eggs to my seven strips. I cooked the bacon. I emptied the grease into the can I've been using and cooked the eggs in what was left in the pan. I topped it all off with a pan-seared sweet-muffin and ate like a king!

A few hours later it was time for the gym. I realize now that my problem has not been that air-drying my clothes has been causing them to stretch, not at all; I've shrunk. The first trip back to the gym after a year plus of abstaining from any rigorous workout is a humbling experience indeed. However, truth be told, I was just looking forward to the hurt today. Unfortunately, I don't think I was able to sustain enough work to illicit the desired lactic-acid build-up, and the resulting "that's-right-,-I-worked-out-yesterday hurt".

So at least I have a bit of a plan now: Teach, Work-out, wander aimlessly around Suwon until I find said [English-speaking?] Church, Eat and repeat. I should see most in eleven months (give or take) pretty much as you remember (priceless).

All my best to all!

- Foster

Define "Random"...

So this is my response to the thing flying around Facebook about random facts and whatnot. I'm not tagging anyone in it because I try and stay away from that stuff, however I'll humor those who've tagged me thus far and any after can find my response right here where I'll leave it.

i. I have two predominant preoccupying thoughts at any given time and they are in constant conflict. The first is that I will always be bound by certain ideals, the second is that I'll become bound in breaking them.

ii. I think the above conflict is why I'm not as smiley as I once was.

iii. I like music more than most people would think.

iv. I don't go to many concerts because I think they often promote an unhealthy atmosphere for the artist and the fans.

v. I think the above (iv) is because I think all music is worship, and as such is directing praise towards someone or something.

vi. Consequently the songs I like are those that direct my thoughts to subjects greater than myself, such as love, God, or relatable truth [in story telling]. The exceptions often have great lines that I can isolate and direct in such a manner.

vii. I believe in cause and effect and choice and consequence.

viii. I think assessments can only be properly made at the end of something. Hence I'm still struggling through "Absalom, Absalom!" and could end up praising it once I'm finished reading.

ix. I believe that words are as much a part of a person as Jesus is a part of God.

x. I think there is a separation that takes place in art (be it writing, acting, music, dance, visual or any other I'm missing) that permits relative exploration and a cathartic release of the human experiences we can conceive of but would never commit.

xi. Thus, you'll know far more of the depths of a person (me) in reading what s/he (I) creates.

xii. I think the desire to create is part of the fingerprint of God placed upon the pinnacle of creation, which I believe human beings are. All of them.

xiii. I think the other part of God's fingerprint on our lives is the will.

xiv. I would like to be more disciplined than I am.

xv. I'm not a fan of "religion"; I'm a big fan of faith and belief... and that specifically focused to a particular end... namely God.

xvi. I would like to be less argumentative.

xvii. I enjoy knowing more than learning.

xviii. I've never anticipated living a long natural life.

xix. I prefer immortality to celebrity, wealth to riches, and peace to power, but I think celebrity, riches and power would assist in achieving the others.

xx. I'm a romantic stuck somewhere in between hopeful and hopeless.

xxi. I abolished taste of food for other tastes. I think of food as calorie consumption and don't get nearly as excited as what I'm going to eat as who I'm eating with. I believe this to be the natural maturity of a picky eater who wishes to be polite: eat what you're offered, clean your plate, and don't complain.

xxii. I prefer Roman numerals when listing. I don't know why.

xxiii. My goal is to cultivate an attitude of grace in relationships. I think I've been far too judgmental in my past.

xxiv. Obviously, I feel that thoughts are facts too... if not the only facts that I can commit to share with a few exceptions, and unlike many streams of consciousness exercises, mine tend to run linear. I'm not sure if that's a facade, an anomaly, or my not being as in touch with myself as I should be.

xxv. I told you so. I can't be content with rushed work, whereas I prefer to complete things quickly, albeit well, so hopefully this will suffice.

- Foster

I made another child cry today. It's only the second, but then it's only been three weeks... two and a half with kids. I'm not looking for a response, affirmation or condemnation, as to my manner with children. I find that most children respond to me on a sliding scale with either laughter or tears on the terminus ends.
It started with the homework. The child in question is taking two weeks off of his/her vacation to go back to school. I assigned for the two weeks one Unit (9 pages) in her/his workbook, and a children's book to read in its entirety. I met with the five stages of grief flashing before me in a five-second span. They were then repeated throughout the remainder of our silent lesson.

1. Denial: The immediate response was a honed gaze of abject horrified shock accompanied by an incredulous, emphatic, and rather irate (See "2." below) "No." S/He simply refused to do the work. However before the entire breath escaped her/his lungs, s/he had already moved on to...

2. Anger: This was pretty much included in the "No" above. Then expounded on in the duration.

3. Barganing: "It's too much." (I'm cleaning up the grammar and usage for the ease of communicating this story to native English speakers as I presume the vast majority of my audience to be; it sounded more like "Too much" which still gets the point across, but I'm an English major and (just recently) Teacher, so I thought it better to clean it up a little bit.) Inherent in the claim "It's too much" is a barter for less. The terms for how much less were far clearer the third or fourth time around.

4. Depression: This first bout ended in a good quarter hour of a dejected, I'm-going-to-turn-my-chair-around-and-look-out-of-the-window tantrum during which I whistled a little tune and drew a picture on the whiteboard. It is a common practice when things get a little too tense in the classroom, especially since "hangman" here requires a monster to inflict bodily harm to the drawn effigies of unknown English words.

5. With ten minutes left in class, the student rose and started drawing too. It was partially to examine and admire my version of the Pan's Labyrinth "Cyclops" with eyes on its palms, and partielly out of sheer boredom in my unwillingness to engage in further entreaties to a silent youngster. Shortly before our time to go we ran through the first four stages a few more times. I believe we reached some level of acceptance and understanding when I sat the child down, blinking at me through tear-flooded eyes and said, "Do what you can. I'm not trying to make this hard for you. I want you to enjoy it. I want to make it easier. Tell me how I can help, and I'll do what I can. I'll see you in two weeks." I picked the book up off of the floor and handed to the student who walked slowly out the door without looking back.

I felt like a teacher. I'm just sorry it took a child's emotional breakdown.

I'm in Seoul for a year, teaching English to young children. I'll be updating through a number of venues from Blogger to Facebook and (irregular) emails. If this is redundant, I apologize. It is only offered to keep you better informed.

I get about a half dozen channels that have fairly consistant, predominantly English programming on my television. That's about 6 more than I was expecting. One is CNN, another two are sports, leaving two or three movie channels and one station of varied programs, some familiar, some not so much.
I know this because I spent most of my first weekend in my room, getting over (hopefully the end of) this nagging congestion resting, reading, without a phone, without the internet, surfing foreign tv stations for something I could understand.
I'm working in a private school where the eldest students are relatively young, perhaps the eldest still younger than my neice. Evidently K12 is not the grade span, rather it's an indication of Kindergarden to 12 years of age or some such, but nevertheless I'm teaching young impressionable minds all the same.
The new school year does not begin for almost two months yet. The present classes are winter intensive courses. Many of my classes are exceedingly sparse, with one to three students for two hours at a time or more. It's not yet trying or at all difficult work, though I'm told the challenges come. I'm enjoying getting to know the students and deciphering our relative means of communicating. So far so good.
The teachers here have been helpful and accomodating considering this is brand new territory twice over having neither been to Korea before, nor taught anyone much of anything except for exercises and stretches (formally if otherwise).
I went out on Friday with a few of the teachers and had a nice dinner, and saw a bit of the town, most noteably the expat territory of Ichon where we found a Canadian Bar and an American Bar, two little nooks of my respective homes thus far.
I'm determined to save much of what comes in, so I'm not sure what I'll have to write that will deviate from the basic skeletal framework of what this week will be, at least until the weather warms and warrants more comfortable free time outside, but I'll try to find what interesting tidbits I can in this new window of life and send them here, to you, to peer through. Pictures will have to wait until I find a place where my own computer can get online.
All things considered, this feels like the right move to have made. I'm looking forward to a gym membership and/or tae kwon do lessons as my first discressionary expenditure(s).

As this is an old post on this new venue, I'll be updating the new soon.

- Foster

Through the Eye of the Storm: From Bush to Obama

I am decidedly a-political, if there is such a thing, at least concerning American and Canadian democratic systems. I do not believe myself to be of the Republican Conservative Right, nor the Democratic Liberal Left. Instead, I prefer to hold my ground, not in the center, but on a different platform altogether.

The last eight years have been trying years in America. My time in the States has nearly coincided with Bush's presidency. In that time I've known ardent Democrats, die-hard Republicans, and very few people in between. Ive learned one thing about politics: there are few greater divisive forces that incite more hatred, vitriol, and malevolent behavior in otherwise peaceable people, than these: Politics, Religion, and Nationalism. (Heartache, too comes to mind, but for different reasons.) The world has watched the American political dramedy unfold these past months and years before the backdrop of economic crises, natural disasters, wars on terror (on multiple fronts), terrorist attacks, attacking terrorists, terrorists torturing, and torturing terrorists. We've seen the President succeed and fail, falter, and flail. Mostly, I feel that I've seen an age through an aging man.

For all that Bush is and all that Bush was, I do believe him to be a man of certain principles that he struggled to uphold in the maelstrom of circumstances he was deemed responsible to lead a country through. He looks tired to me. He's aged. He's stuttered, stumbled, fallen, but he's continued to lead regardless of the pundits' followings. He's earned the same respect from me I'd offer anyone of such experience, no matter how much we differ in the end. We did not arrive on the other side of his legacy perfectly clean, unscathed, or unchanged - it would not have mattered who led America through these years - things would have changed regardless. Better or worse is a moot point. The point is that things have changed. It is a new world that we're waking to. It is a new country being led by a new man.

Obama has proven that Obama can inspire, but Obama cannot change anything that we ourselves are unwilling to change. If God is unwilling to sway the hearts and minds of mortals, how then can Barack? If the same burden placed on Bush is laden on Barack Obama, he too will quickly find that he's tired, aging, and bound until he sheds his mortality. Both will be recorded in annuls for the future's past, but I believe both will carry on in spirit too, and not unlike each other.

I honestly believe that the only politics we should be concerned about are our own personal politics. Call them morals, ethics, or principals, call them commandments, rules or laws, whatever you call them, these governing ideas and ideals are what will change the world. We can't agree on all, but we can all agree on some. We can agree that we have certain unalienable rights, endowed by God, or if you prefer, innate in our shared humanity, to life, liberty, and certain pursuits (I would not say property or happiness, perhaps not even freedom, but certainly a choice in who we will serve). We can agree that there are more important things than ourselves in our lives, at least, most can. We can agree on a handful of rights and wrongs. Ok, maybe two or three. Or just one. Just one? Any one? Anyone?

We cannot vote to end racism, we can only abolish it in ourselves and pray that others follow suit. It is high time to abolish racism, in all its forms, including "black" and "white". However, having visited countries and continents where I am a minority it's easy to see that we're far from a universal solution. Recognizing the problem seems to be the first step. We're still struggling through the rest. Why? We keep looking for reasons to divide, contrast and compare ourselves from our neighbors instead of seeing all the reasons we should love them as ourselves.

I don't think I'm truly a-political. I care. I care what side of my principles I stand on. Thankfully, my leadership doesn't ever change. I can't vote a new power into place. I can only continue to try and serve and learn, and serve and learn, and learn to better serve and love through widening my perspective to include more and more people into the outstretched arms awaiting them. God is love.

Perhaps that is the most divisive belief of all - more than all the world's politics, religions, nations and heartaches (heartache still being the closest thing I have to relate to division in my life) - that God is love. Some will not want to stand to read it. Yet, I do and will believe it. I believe too, that in believing such, I can still get along with you.

At the end of this term, I want to apologize for hurting those I've hurt, forgive all who hurt me too, thank all of you who've helped, and hope and dream in turn for all that is to come. I'm looking forward to the next.