Fortune's wheel
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By Kim Song-rhei
Who can deny that every life has its ups and downs? No matter how hard you may want to lead an uneventful life, the ups and downs of fortune are subject to occur many times.
For someone, good luck comes round to his or her door in such a way that he or she gets a lottery prize. While on the other hand, the fate comes out quite differently. It is rather hateful, but I think that this is, in a sense, the real thrill of living when philosophizing about the problem of life.
The occurrence of it originates from either an internal cause or an external factor. It tends to happen against your will. At this point, especially when you fall on evil days by a curious irony of fate, you have no other way but to be strained all of a sudden.
It has something in common with the maxim which says, “Love and reason do not go together.” And the occurrence of it seems to have many points of likeness to the formation of a road. That is, if there is an uphill road in front of you when going ahead, a downhill road will be bound to spread out somewhere along the way.
Well then, do we have to resign ourselves to our fate all the time in our life, taking the world as it is? Had we considered this question philosophically, the proper answer, I think, could be “yes.”
It may sound as if I am talking happy-go-lucky nonsense, but drifting about at the mercy of the waves or going with the times is far and away the best of all when trying to find a solution to the problems that we face.
That is, you should face up to reality and take things as they are, rather than lay the fault at other people’s door or feel sorrow at your hard fate, losing your peace of mind. It is sensible to meet misfortune with philosophy.
Let’s take a natural phenomenon as an example in relation to this. Nature itself does not escape from the logic of natural events, facing up to reality as ever. According to this logic, the direction of the wind also shifts constantly from one place to another.
Now, suppose that trees are hit by a typhoon all of a sudden. It is apparent that they will be swayed in sympathy with the typhoon. Paradoxically speaking, they are not under the control of the typhoon in that case, but they are the master of their circumstances. In short, they always accept the logic of events.
Well, how could the trees and shrubs be solid enough to withstand the test of nature? Do they have any special secret? Of course, they do have. The secret, I think, is as perfect as I could have ever hoped for, and I am as attracted to it as I have ever been. I will express my opinion about this as in the following.
It is within the bounds to say that plant life is composed of knots. The presence of solid gnarls located in various segments of the trunk play important roles not only in deciding the fate of its future, but also in keeping its stability at present. So the act of making a knot not only can be construed as the act of making a plan for the future, but also the act of seeking its own safety as of now.
As a matter of fact, mankind is also in need of making knots as many as possible in every affair. It is a matter deeply connected with your fortune’s wheel. That is, going through the stage of tying a knot is no less necessary than taking a breath at present.
The writer lives in Gwanak-gu, Seoul. His email address is kwanak11@hanmail.net.