Importance of being kind

By Kim Sun-ae

Last year I left my job as an editor and decided to work as a full-time writer. Thanks to the help of a cultural foundation and a small publishing company, my second book was published. However, getting this done was not easy. I kept submitting my manuscripts to magazines and literary contests, but most were not chosen.

Meanwhile, I needed to find places to sell my second book, so I visited a small book cafe nearby, and asked its owner if she would sell it there. Thankfully she said that she would stock my book, and even said she would sell my first book that I had self-published.

So sometime later, I went to the cafe with copies of my first book; and when I was talking about it with the cafe owner, a woman reading a book on the next table asked me, "What book is that?"

We began to talk, and she told me that she was a poet and editor-in-chief of a publishing company. After looking at my book of essays, she recommended that I study poetry and novels. Then she readily gave me her book of poems and a copy of the quarterly poetry magazine she published. Her warm heart touched me; without hesitation, she gave the books as gifts to a person whom she met for the first time. I thanked her deeply.

Before we parted, she said warmly to me, "Good-bye. Live life to the fullest." That day, the poet bought my book. Going out of the cafe and walking down the street, I felt a lump in my throat.

Sometimes it seems difficult for our voices to be heard. Many people ― unknown authors, those who need to sell some goods for a living, etc. ― will know it. Except for a small number of people, most people have to work hard to earn 10,000 or 20,000 won. I think of the middle-aged woman and her young son who sell newspapers and trinkets and sweets in a small kiosk on a street nearby, even in this freezing weather. It is a big decision to buy something with the money we earn from hard work.

Not often but occasionally, some visitors to the book cafe bought my book.

Being kind to someone gives that person a lot of strength. A few warm words or small actions that enable others to have self-confidence can be a big help to people if they are struggling to find their own way. That there are some people who listen to our voices gives us the courage to go on.

I have gained courage thanks to the readers who listen to my small voice. I, too, would like to listen more deeply to the people whose voices are difficult to be heard in our society, and would like to help make their voices heard through my writing.

Kim Sun-ae (blog.naver.com/dancinglf) wrote a book of illustrated essays, "Old Potato, New Potato."

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