Indeed the Southland has prospered beyond the Yankee carpet baggers of the 1870's. But the South that I speak of is demarcated by the 38th parallel and not the Mason-Dixon. Very similar to our own civil war, Korea underwent a vicious war which now is buffered by the Demilitarized Zone, or DMZ. As much as the U.S. civil war was about ideology the Korean War was all of that and more. The Korea that we know today is the only divided country left on this earth with the fall of East and West Germany. The sadness of Korea's story is that also of its ascension; the apotheosis of humanity, the rising Phoenix.
Throughout its 5,000 year history, Korea sat at the crossroads of incredible powers with tumultuous outcomes. Japan, China, Mongolia, modern day Russia and the U.S. all had a hand in shaping the South Korea that we know today. But in present terms, I personally believe that no other tragedy in it's history can compare to what happened on a day in late June 1950. Following a 35 year Japanese occupation, the victors of the 2nd World War, Russia and the U.S. took the impetus of imperial Japan's territory. Russia administrating the North while the U.S. administrated the South. Unable to agree on how to re-unify that country, Soviet backed Korean troops invade U.S. occupied South Korea. And what followed was a bloody war that took the lives of 50,000 Americans, hundreds of thousands of Mao's Communist Red Army from China, and of course the millions of Koreans killed as a by product of war.
From the ravaged death and putrid innards of a conquered nation; South Korea grew up in the shadow of giants to become a tiger in Asia Pacific. And to that tiger I make home for the next six months as I move from Toronto to Seoul.
What I'm looking forward to is the history of the land and not so much the modernity that it is now flaunting. To the eye of a westerner, Asian nations in general are eager to prove how modern they've become in relation to the western world with good reason. Most have been under the auspices of colonial influence with few exceptions to tout. Not even Imperial Japan can claim that they grew up without the antagonistic powers of colonial Europe and America. But what will become of Korea now that it lives in military scrutiny of Communist Korea the over arching dominance of China and the ever present American Military? Maybe nothing at all. Maybe the land will adapt just like it has for the past thousands of years in the face of danger and again summon the will to survive, to thrive and to let live.
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I let the movers pack my belongings today to ship across the world, I sip my morning coffee and tend to a conference call. I use video conferencing tools, financial software and Skype married with blackberry. I survey the tools of my trade and bewilderment falls upon me at once and not at all. It is in one perspective necessary and in another breath incredibly beautiful. It never ceases to amaze me when I take off in a plane, look over the clouds and then land in one sustained movement. All of this for a person who takes flights at least once a week. I've been asked: "Do I enjoy travelling?" The short ans. to that is: "yes." Do I enjoy flight delays, weather cancellations and the such, of course not. But when the thrill of knowing that I can see family, my friends, my home town with a swift of nothing more than getting on a plane wherever I am in the world, that excites me. And it’s not even about the getting there, it’s the: “I can get home from anywhere in the world within a day.” Domestic coast to coast flights are more harsh than transoceanic flights because you can’t do it comfortably during the night. My suggestion to new comers of ultra flying, fly direct and at night. Let me demonstrate. I take the Sunday evening flight from New York to Dehli arrive Monday night, 13 hours. Take a night cap and call it night. Work the week and then take the Friday evening flight from Delhi back to NY arriving at the doorstep of dawn on Saturday morning refreshed to enjoy with family. Traveling is harsh if you don’t embrace it for what it is; a medium to which you can attempt to find balance.
I have flown back to NY from Toronto nearly every weekend available to me for the past six months. It takes me from my apartment in downtown Toronto to my apartment in Queens, NY door to door, roughly 2 hours 10 minutes, no exaggeration. When I lived in Fairfield, CT and went home for the weekend via public transportation it would take me approximately 2 hours 10 minutes. The distance between Toronto and NY is 600 miles and the distance between Fairfield and NY is 60 miles. The drive from NY to Toronto I did once took me 8 and a half hours and that was in the middle of the night. So if asked again do I enjoy traveling (via air), the answer is a resounding yes. As to my move to Korea, will I be able to come home every weekend, no. But if I wanted to could I, absolutely. There’s comfort in knowing that I can come home while you’re sleeping.
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