Walking in front of the Blue House

Sunshine Lee's Culture Essay Written in Poetry

It was raining.

I don’t usually take a walk in the neighborhood when it’s raining. I left without an umbrella thinking it had stopped raining, but it started raining again.

I usually stop and think about where to go after leaving the house. That day, I thought of the Garden of Mugunghwa (national flower) and the road ahead of the Blue House.

There are two routes to the Blue House. One is to pass an alley stopping by the Garden of Mugunghwa and go toward the Blue House across the street. The other is to go down the way to Gyungbokgung Palace and walking along the long stone wall.

'The Safe House' in which President Park Chung-hee met his fate was demolished when President Kim Young-sam took up his post. 'The Safe House' became the garden of Mugunghwa, I liked the place and went there from time to time. But it is stuffy now as it is

packed with too many trees of Mugunghwa.

I realized anew that whether it be a garden or life, you need space.

Thinking about this, I chose the stone-wall walkway around Gyungbokgung Palace. Wondering why no one else walks along this classically beautiful street in the middle of city, I walked, looking at flowers hanging from streetlight and Taegeukgi, the national flag of Korea fluttering with the wind.

I walk on the classy stone pavements, facing Mt. Bugaksan shaped like a big triangle which makes me feel carefree all the time. I make a right turn and enter the street to the Blue House.

The road to the main entrance of the Blue House is a good street even by global standards. I feel that my tax dollars, which I usually pay grudgingly, are worth it whenever I walk along this well-kept road with its large ginkgo trees and wild blossoming flowers.

Thinking of the shoddy blocks and landscape of the Seoul, I always wish that all streets in this city were more like this.

I have felt that streets in front of palaces and those in the other areas of the city are always different if it’s not an advanced country.

And I stand in front of the gate to the Blue House, which shows a glimpse of its blue roof tiles.

I have a dim memory of entering the Blue House, which was smaller than now, as a little girl. My mother’s ‘Poetry of Peace’ was recited in Korean and Japanese in here after my mother was gone, too. I stood in front of Gyungbokgung Sinmumun Gate, and not long ago, this very spot was crowded with Chinese tourists. Just like we take pictures of the Forbidden City of China with an amused eye, they would bemusedly take pictures of the Blue House and I would watch them.

And now only guards are watching me standing here.

There is a history of people running for the coveted spot in the Blue House.

And there is a history of those who succeeded.

People demonstrating would flood in and fight with the combat police and walls made of cars would be erected in days like National Foundation Day, and there is one person protesting “I’ve been wronged, help me please ” holding a big picket sign.

The President who had wanted to leave the Blue House and live among the citizens is

still living inside the Blue House. And on the right side, I can catch a glimpse of a dense

forest at the foot of Mt. Bugaksan through the door for the staff; the forest looks extraordinary, considering its location in the middle of the city. I hear you can see Hang River

from the mountain at the back; President Moon Jae-in might have seen the protests just like President Lee Myung-bak watched protests about mad cow disease.

And why do I feel that people forget their first resolution and have no idea what other

people are saying once inside the Blue House?

I have watched the pattern for decades. a man is elected president and people would

expect a lot from his promises, and time would pass and people would be disappointed, voting for the candidate from the opposite party, and on and on.

Who wouldn’t want to set the country straight and make our country - that has been cultivated from the devotion of our ancestors - more advanced, once they are voted to the top? They would surely anguish and struggle all night. How heavy the strain would be to be the leader of the only divided country in this small world? The fate of the former

presidents and the current president makes me feel sympathy.

The repeated pain and anguish make me wonder who would want to be the President

now. Running for presidency itself would require great courage.

And at the same time, I wish ardently that an extraordinary leader would appear with groundbreaking strategies and tactics, making changes just like Lee Kuan Yew did for the

once nameless but now advanced small city-state.

What my long experience with advanced countries always makes me feel is that we can only survive with diplomatic power – whether it be geopolitically or economically, as we are a divided country surrounded by powerful nations.

Perhaps that’s why I have many thoughts whenever I stand facing the Blue House, the

core of power among my little walking courses, and I pray for the nation and future generations even in the rain.