A plane heading to Switzerland

It is the holiday season now. I am going on a holiday as everybody else is doing the same. My destination this year is the place with the coolest air conditioner, a hospital. In fact, the best time to be sick is from late July to early August. There is less work to do, as well as weaker motivation to do. Going away for a week is not that big of a deal. There is a book of poetry at the hospital that I want to read more. It is titled “I was left alone and loved somebody far away” by Kim Jeong-yong.

The poet suffered brain tumors and passed away this spring. The book was published while he was being treated for the tumors. Tumors called astrocytomas, which develop from certain star-shaped brain cells, grew in his brain. People called them malignant and hated them while the poet described them as “stars in my head.” Kim said that he was living as if he would live forever and lopsided to one side and that the stars came to teach him lessons.

The poet put up the “stars in his head” as if they are lights for his world. He saw pterodactyls, the night sky, and flight into the blue sky. Writing such poems alone in a hospital room in a hospital gown is as miraculous as a full recovery. He demonstrated the unbelievable possibility of not being angry at life and the world despite sickness. Joking around and laughing even when you feel like it is unfair. Kim did the difficult thing. It does not require any more explanation. Not reading it would be my loss. I want to pack the book when I am getting ready for a hospital stay.