Day: March 12, 2013

Caveat: Just Stay

Banalities & Journaling / Found Online

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What's with meditation, anyway?

Unrelatedly (or only semi-relatedly?), I have been thinking about that maxim that we should live each day as if it were our last, or live each day as if it were crucially important to us, and only be "in the moment." This isn't really such a good idea, though: if I lived that way, for example, I wouldn't really be very good at keeping a job. I wouldn't have savings for if I lost my job. I wouldn't have such intense loyalty to my friends while at the same time being so bad at staying in touch with them. It seems to me that existing only in the moment is a bit of a cop-out, vis-a-vis what the world is really about or for. And it feels like a recipe for flakiness. I'm enough of a flake without making it even worse.

Having said that, I think a constant evaluation of "what's really important" is perhaps crucial. So, for me, what's really important?

I once found (or perhaps myself invented) a counter-maxim to the "in the moment" maxim: Live each day as if you will live forever. This alternative maxim has complications and problems of its own, to be certain, and may be just as bad, as advice, as the other one. But I like to say it, because it forces people to consider all the possibilities.

Caveat: The Ville

Banalities & Journaling / Life in Korea

This morning, kind of early, I went all the way to Dongducheon. It's about 2 hours by subway: you go southeast from here on line three to downtown, then north-northeast from there on line one.

Why did I do this? I was meeting a sort of "friend of a friend" – a former coworker of mine has a friend who's in the US Army, and that guy recently got posted to Camp Casey, which is HQ to the 2nd Infantry Division that I was attached to as a US Army mechanic while at the 296th Support Battalion at Camp Edwards in 1991.

Because Camp Casey is one of the largest and longest continuously operated US Army bases in Korea, the surrounding town has a distinctive "US Army town" feel, that is utterly unlike any other part of Korea. It's both nostalgic and depressing to see, on the one hand, but on the other, I think about how its being a little bit frozen in time serves to underscore the amazing changes in the rest of the country, by way of contrast.

Ville 006I talked with this friend-of-friend for a few hours. He's only been in-country for a few weeks, so I took him to a Juk restaurant figuring he hadn't had that yet – he hadn't. He's not that familiar with Korea yet, but he's very open minded, having served long bits in Afghanistan, Alaska and Honduras among other places. He's already mastered hangeul, which is pretty rare even among non-GI Americans in Korea, much less soldiers. Apparently, he's really good in Pashto, too (from his time in Afghanistan). As point of fact, he blogged about his experiences in Afghanistan, and he's a damn good writer, too. Because of identity issues since he's still active service, I'll not talk about who he is in public forum such as this blog. But he's an interesting personality, and good for many hours of conversation.

You know you're in "the Ville" (the once and current slang nickname that US soldiers have for the Dongducheon outside the gates of Camp Casey) when the waitress at the Juk joint drops US quarters as change (they are near identical in heft and size as Korean 100 won coins). I only noticed when I got to work and emptied my pockets looking for some change to buy some lunch later in the day – see picture above right. This is the first time I've ever received US coin as change in Korea (except back when I was soldier myself, probably).

Here's a picture of my new friend and me at the Bosan train station a few minutes south of the Casey gate 1.

 
Ville 005

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