August 23, 2009

• Kyae-ryong Mountain

  That's a Pretty Pool.

  Dear Folks,

      I took my burgeoning brood to Kyae-Ryong Mountain yesterday.  Above is a shot of a small pool in the mountain creek.  We did not hike up the mountain, though they have trails which allegedly lead to small peaks.  We never do.  Rather, we mess around in the valley, swim in the creeks, and generally have a good time.  My children took two South Korean friends with them this time.  Together with my five, that made seven children and
  "lil ole no-count moi."  We went by subway with a link to a bus on the periphery of town. 

      We had a good time, but I believe I messed up my left knee, the good one, or I should write "the erstwhile good knee."  That's entirely OK with me, though, if my body goes to pot, as I have incalculable satisfaction with my burgeoning brood.  My wife's body seems to have gone to pot, as well, making it unadvisable to refertilize her henceforth.  Therein, I am more inclined to formally adopt orphans and/or just take in some little street urchins under my wing ... though that may entail building a new wing onto my humble abode in the U.S. of A.  And we haven't even built the ground floor as yet. 

      Lately, I've been looking into moving to a drier area, in hopes that we could grow grapes better than in North Carolina, some place like Austin, Texas.  Below is the majority of the group I took to the mountain valley yesterday. 

  

  We got a few good shots, too, of the little tourist trap town at the base of the mountain, primarily for Western eyes who want to get a glimpse of South Korea that most Westerners seek out when they come here, the tourist spots.  Here are two:

  

  It gets easier every year to walk through a tourist trap like this, to get to the real, natural pools on the other side, where the junky toys end and the dirt path begins.  Actually the paved road continues one more kilometer upstream, following a creek until you get to a Buddhist monastery. 

  However, they use modern facilities there, and according to friends of mine, are all about money, or extremely focused on maximizing their income.  They get special privileges from the state to use national park land to gather donations from the public to support themselves. 

  I doubt whether this actually does not weaken their ability to grow as a religious presence here.  They have been shrinking rapidly, and one major reason is that virtually none of my young students perceive this religion as having anything to offer them from a spiritual, social or psychological point of view. 

  I point out to my students the purported Buddhist emphasis on compassion and respect for animal life/vegetarianism, and both of those are a distinct turn off to them, the compassion in as much as they seem to suspect any serious entertainment of such may limit their potential income and access to "power," as they call future influence and superficial social esteem, and as for vegetarianism ... it just doesn't carry water, has no appeal; they love their meat, with steak being the runaway number one favorite food among my protégés.  Nothing comes between them and their love of steak, or so they put it to me. 

  I'll finish this post tomorrow if I can get to it.  I thought it better to post a bit and add to it later than to post nothing at all. 

  Love, Padooker

  

  • 10:57 am
  • Comments Off