It doesn’t take too many years of living on Earth for a person to learn how wildly unpredictable it can be. Aside from all the quirky things the planet does, like earthquakes and hurricanes and tornadoes and sink holes and such, there’s humanity to deal with. Homo sapiens are peculiar creatures. We treat the earth of which we are made as a consumable resource that exists simply for that purpose. We race to toxify the only planet we yet know of that can sustain us. We take up arms when we can’t solve our disputes like the civilized, advanced, and rational beings we like to consider ourselves to be. We plant bombs in airplanes, subways, parked cars, schoolrooms, and marathon finish lines and kill scores of randomly unfortunate people because someone offended our religion, or killed our dads, or maybe just because our lives suck. Everyone seems to have their own “reason” for doing shitty things to other people. There is so much beauty to be seen in the face of humanity, yet so much grotesque ugliness to behold as well. Continue reading
THE KOREA KRONICLES: Behold, a Red Horse (and his Children)
1
I have a complicated relationship with kids. I mean, in the aggregate, it’s a very good one, but there are definitely a few sticking points. It might help if you understood a little about what I was like when I was a kid, so I’ll tell you. According to my mother, I was an exceptionally clean child. As I understand it, two cakes were bought for my first birthday in case I stuck my hands into the first upon blowing out the candle–in fact, I think this is what my family was hoping I’d do for the sake of cake-covered-baby pictures. It was all in vain, however, as I refused to touch the cake; as it turned out, I didn’t want to get my hands dirty. My mother has told me that she never had to make me take a bath as I always wanted to on my own. I actually can’t remember a time when I haven’t thought going to bed without bathing was gross. I knew even then that I wasn’t a typical child in that regard, as most children seem to take the absence of parents as a cue that bathing can be temporarily suspended. Ew, gross. Come summer, entry into my classroom might become contingent upon being hosed down with Febreze. 
