Sunset was breathtaking on Monday, and it was even more spectacular yesterday – a big ball of fire, slowly moving to later meet the moon in a solar eclipse. That's the view from my apartment.
For two nights in a row, I’ve been woken up by the glow of an almost perfectly shaped moon, and last night there it was, full moon in a starry sky. Be-au-ti-ful!
Sitting on the rooftop of my 10-storey apartment building, I couldn’t find the peace and silence such a spectacle deserves; the city, at all times noisy, stinky and busy, kept distracting my wandering thoughts.
Yet in the glaze of such beauty in the sky, I couldn’t help but feel incredibly sad for those who are so caught up in their robot life that they never even look up to admire the magnificence of what lays above us, some light-years away from earth.
I was disgusted with evil.
So the next day my students and I listened to John Lennon’s “Imagine” and discussed it for a while. It turns out the:
Was way too unrealistic for them. Even the
Didn’t make any sense for them in this materialistic world.
You see, my students are from Hallim and nearby areas, in the countryside, where Christian religion is deeply engrained. The thought that
Was somehow grotesque… For them, there is a God, and good people go to heaven while bad ones go to hell. And Korea is a country – truth that should remain that way because their forefathers worked so hard to build it and make it theirs… how could they give it up for some strange “no boundaries/borders world”?
Maybe Lennon was right – a world with no possessions, no countries, nor religion might bring about some sort of world peace, a brotherhood of man. But according to my students, he was nothing but a dreamer.
For two nights in a row, I’ve been woken up by the glow of an almost perfectly shaped moon, and last night there it was, full moon in a starry sky. Be-au-ti-ful!
Sitting on the rooftop of my 10-storey apartment building, I couldn’t find the peace and silence such a spectacle deserves; the city, at all times noisy, stinky and busy, kept distracting my wandering thoughts.
Yet in the glaze of such beauty in the sky, I couldn’t help but feel incredibly sad for those who are so caught up in their robot life that they never even look up to admire the magnificence of what lays above us, some light-years away from earth.
I was disgusted with evil.
So the next day my students and I listened to John Lennon’s “Imagine” and discussed it for a while. It turns out the:
Imagine there are no countries
It isn’t hard to do
Nothing to kill or
die for
And no religion too
Was way too unrealistic for them. Even the
Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
Didn’t make any sense for them in this materialistic world.
You see, my students are from Hallim and nearby areas, in the countryside, where Christian religion is deeply engrained. The thought that
There’s no heaven
It’s easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us
only sky
Was somehow grotesque… For them, there is a God, and good people go to heaven while bad ones go to hell. And Korea is a country – truth that should remain that way because their forefathers worked so hard to build it and make it theirs… how could they give it up for some strange “no boundaries/borders world”?
Maybe Lennon was right – a world with no possessions, no countries, nor religion might bring about some sort of world peace, a brotherhood of man. But according to my students, he was nothing but a dreamer.
