The Merits of Korean Dramas

I only started last week but today, I watched the last episode of Coffee Prince at mysoju.com.

I laughed, I cried, and I went to the bathroom and cried some more. Koreans. We are gifted at capturing passion and the human experience in all its emotion.

I've been thinking about why I love this drama so much. Here are some thoughts:

- There's no overanalysis. You don't have to wonder if there's someone better out there for you or if you should move on since you broke up. Either you love him or not. Simple as that.

- There's no right or wrong. It's all about your gut.

- There's no shame in crying like a baby, running to his apartment, pounding on his front door, and waiting until he comes.

- You accept that humans are humans. When they are cranky or angry, you can laugh it off. Life is just like that.

- Loyalty, jung, friendship, hard work--all virtues

And my friend M. said:

"I like how they fight for real."

Yes, there is no fear of fighting. Couples duke it out and get it all out there. They show their emotions. All of this shows me how much I am so much SANER than I thought I was. I am so not meant to be this put together Western Protestant evangelical relational person. It just does not fucking work!

The special commentary explained my attraction to the drama well:

"Whether it's about homosexuality or aliens, It's a drama for youthful people who believe that when you have love, there is nothing to fear."

It's really good. Try and catch it if you can. You'll get sucked into 17 hours of laughter and love.

I leave you with a scene where Han Kyul (Gong Yoo) wakes Eun Chan (Yoon Eun Hye) with a song from his swanky rooftop flat.

GOCCO!!!

I have been waiting for these pictures to post about my new Gocco PG11!!! I am so excited about it. Last Tuesday, Sarah and I opened it up and tried flashing our first screenmaster. We played around with registrations, burned my registration plate by accident, and pretty much screamed and hollered a lot in our excitement.

I printed on my William Arthur cards while Sarah hyperventilated. Thanks to Elliot and his family for helping us get them from Japan.

musings 8

just because someone is a Christian, it doesn't mean they'll act the way you want them to act.

Daily Readings: 101 Picnic Dishes

What a stellar summer picnic resource from Mark Bittman. Enjoy. I'll be using some of these ideas for the Hollywood Bowl.

God sees my suffering

Yesterday, I was driving home and talking to my mom on the phone. We talked about this and that and then with some hesitancy, she began telling me about a woman in her small group that I had met a few times before. We'll call her H.

H. is in her fifties. She grew up in Korea and had a wild and passionate love letter affair with a white American man and ran away from her family with a couple hundred bucks to join him in America. She was willing to do anything for love. They've been happily married for around 30 years.

When H. and I met at my parent's home, we didn't talk much but I could tell she was a very caring woman. She is a hairdresser by trade and has excellent English compared to most of her peers in the small group. She would ask me how I was doing and look deeply into my eyes.

After meeting me a couple of times, she told my mom: Hanna has a good heart. I can tell. I don't say this about many people but I can tell she has a warm heart. I want to give her highlights for free. Tell her to come to my salon.

So I trotted over to her salon and got some highlights for free. We chatted while she did my hair and that was that. I never saw her again. That was probably 3-4 months ago.

My mom told me on the phone that H. had felt pressed to pray for me in the last two months. At first, H. was bewildered. She really didn't know me that well and she didn't know why God was impressing on her the need to pray for me with such fervency. But she did because she felt the call so strongly. H. would ask my mom here and there, is everything ok? Is hanna and J. ok?

At the time, we were still together. my mom said, yes, they're fine. H. kept checking in every week or so and inevitably, my mom told her, they broke up. That's when H. realized, this is why God was telling me to pray.

My mom says that H. continues to pray for me. Every single day, God shows her his great love for me and she keeps at it even when she doesn't understand. She says she keeps getting filled with God's love for me.

I got off the phone with my mom and started bawling. I was one of those people driving on the freeway crying with their mouths open, haphazardly wiping away their tears. Feeling pressed to pray for someone isn't that unusual in my parent's circles and I have been around a fair amount of that myself growing up. But it's been a while since I've been around that kind of spiritual scene. And this time, it meant a lot.

The thing that hit me the most was that God sees me. He sees that I have suffered. And he sees that I am trying really hard to be happy and responsible and take care of myself. It's a remarkable thing to feel seen and to see that God cares enough to have other people praying for you out of the blue like that. Hearing about H.'s experience of God's love for me was startling. I try to believe that God loves me. But when someone prays for you, it feels like the real thing.

Confirmation

I prayed with my coworker J. today. I love her. She is one of the most non-judging caring people. We did have our own vent session about work. And guess what? Holy cow. It was confirmed repeatedly that it is such a good thing I am leaving this job. Unemployment is preferable to the shit that is going down here. I knew it was bad but I didn't know it was this bad. I'm glad I'm getting a clean break from them, no trailing part time work.

Thanks God.

musings 7

when i feel anxious or want to escape, i am usually wanting to run away from some feeling inside i am out of touch with. when you're in that place, you feel incredibly lost and out of sorts and feel desperate. but then you do some centering prayer and realize, oh. i was just sad. that's all. everything's ok. i can still see myself. and when you see yourself, anything is possible. light conquers darkness.