Caveat: Maperchiefs

It’s been a while since I hiked up a mountain. I still do some hiking – but mostly of the “urban” variety, e.g. my 20 km walk across the Seoul ten days ago. When you walk up a mountain in Korea, it’s not really that solitary an experience, even if you do it alone. There are a lot of people in Korea who hike up mountains. There are shops selling things at the bases of trails.

One thing you can buy are these little printed hankerchiefs (손수건) that have maps on them. The maps show the specific mountain or park or location where you are hiking – they can function as a sort of souvenir, too. I have quite a few of these – maybe a dozen or so. I put them on my walls in my apartment, as a sort of dorm-room-esque decor.

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Caveat: Drafting a world where no such road will run

No Road

Since we agreed to let the road between us
Fall to disuse,
And bricked our gates up, planted trees to screen us,
And turned all time’s eroding agents loose,
Silence, and space, and strangers – our neglect
Has not had much effect.

Leaves drift unswept, perhaps; grass creeps unmown;
No other change.
So clear it stands, so little overgrown,
Walking that way tonight would not seem strange,
And still would be allowed. A little longer,
And time would be the stronger,

Drafting a world where no such road will run
From you to me;
To watch that world come up like a cold sun,
Rewarding others, is my liberty.
Not to prevent it is my will’s fulfillment.
Willing it, my ailment.

– Philip Larkin, 1945

I took the picture, below, in 2007. It is the front yard of the house where I spent my first 17 years (with a few interruptions of 3 to 12 months or so, here and there, over that period of time). The rainy weather today made me think of my hometown, Arcata.

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