Inspiration
I was hospitalized for nine weeks.
It started with a light accident but it got worse by a medical accident, then I still have to get treated utill now. From cold winter to this day, I have been exhausted by unbearable disinfection process and feeling nothing but devastated by a sudden misfortune.
Since I went to the hospital without knowing I would be hospitalized, I was not prepared at all. The only entertainment I could enjoy at the patient’s room was watching TV, which I learned as an idiot box when I was studying Journalism and Broadcasting in the US.
In my patient’s gown, I watched some of the Pyeongchang Olympics on the wall-mountable TV. I missed the scenes of Lee Sanghwa’s race, but I have learned about the moving story of Lee and Kodaira Nao several times though TV and text messages .
When Lee, who was defeated by 0.3 second, was rounding the rink with the national flag of Korea, the gold medalist Kodaira, holding the Japanese flag, approached her and comforted sobbing Lee by saying “You did a great job. I respect you,” and supporting Lee, who was leaning on her as if she were to be embraced, and made their round together around the arena. Once one’s color of medal is decided, one might shake hands with the opponent, but would never give away one’s own time for celebration in order to share minds with the opponent, comfort and encourage him or her. I was even more touched by the fact that Kodaira, after her race, put her finger in her mouth in front of the cheering Japanese spectators, asking them to keep quiet so that they would not interfere Lee’s race.
Come to think of it, however, it’s not something new. From what I have heard and seen in Japan, what I have observed in my friends’ words and attitudes, I know that it is very common for them to consider for others, to praise, to encourage and to think from the others’ viewpoints. If they themselves were in Kodaira’s position, they might have done the same.
I have received phone calls, emails and text messages from Japan, letting me know they have also watched the game between the two players. They said that Lee has more competence, but Kodaira got lucky this time applying some moves of martial arts.
I thought of the time during the World Cup, when we used to cheer for our team’s good performances but jeer at the opponents whenever they got the ball.
What I actually watched myself and was deeply impressed was the figure skating performance of Hanyu Yuzuru. He is a hero in Japan. He was already a hero before he won any medal. In 2011, when the great earthquake hit the East Japan, the ice rink in Sendai, where he used to practice at the age of sixteen, was cracked and the electricity and gas were caught off in his house. He had to stay at his relative’s in Okinawa. In the all-year-round-summer-island Okinawa, one can easily assume that there must be no way to practice winter sports. After coming back to the East Japan, he hosted a fundraising ice show to help tsunami victims. Japanese people were touched by the fact that he reached out for those in need at the time of such a national crisis. Then, at the age of nineteen, he won a gold medal at Sochi and repeated the same glory at Pyeongchang despite his ankle injury that happened a few months ahead.
Whenever I saw his interviews in Japan, I could not help but notice his thoughtfulness and maturity in his words and attitudes.
It has been three years since I was asked by the UN to compose a poem to sing on the newly established World Orphan Day. I have postponed it over and over again because of my Japanese study and preparation of a book about the record of my time in Japan. No, it was actually because I could not realize the fact that I was an orphan myself.
By the way, Hanyu’s mature and highly elevated art, despite his two fall-overs, was overlapped with his brave moments of rising up from mishaps and difficulties in my mind. Then I suddenly realized that I am also nothing but an orphan who is expecting my parent to hold my hand by my side, even at this age, at the time of crucious pain like a bolt from the blue.
I hear Mother’s voice saying
I am with you
Don’t cry
Stand up
We all are orphans ~
I have lamented and blamed so many times, but I started writing down three verses beginning as above and I have got an invitation to New York by those who were satisfied with my poem.
