Too busy to take a breather?

By Park Moo-jong

Compared to people in other parts of the world, Koreans are so busy, even complaining, "I am so busy that I can't take a breather."

As soon as a subway train arrives at a station, most of the passengers pour out from the doors, dash to the stairs and escalators as if they are sprinters on the track.

Being busy means doing something quickly, quickly. Most of us today are consumed with speed. We work quickly, play quickly and eat fast food quickly.

Let's go onto streets. Many foreign residents and visitors say they feel they are risking their lives when driving in Seoul. Once Koreans take a seat behind the wheel, they become wild and impatient, never yielding to others, and changing lanes to drive fast.

We are second to none as far as eating fast is concerned. It is no wonder that fast food such as Western hamburgers is so popular among young people, while the older generation enjoys meals that can be prepared and served in a couple of minutes, such as ''sollongtang'' and ''bibimbap.

We are busy checking smartphones even while walking in the street going to the toilet and during concerts, boasting of nimble fingers "typing" text messages.

How about ''poktanju'' (literally, ''bomb liquor'') or boilermaker in English? This small glass of whisky or "soju" in a larger beer glass testifies well to our impatience and quick temper as it is used to get drunk quickly.

In August, 2009, a foreign lady ambassador to Seoul expressed her surprise at Koreans' busy life, diligence and quick temper after she returned from a month-long summer leave at home.

Arriving at her embassy, she found the huge Hoehyeon Overpass for vehicles next to the Shinsegye Department Store was gone. She asked me, "Oh, my God, what happened (to the elevated motorway built in 1977)?"

I told her, "You see, it was removed a few days ago." The structure was demolished in a month of hard work. She said, "In our country, such work would take some months."

A Korean phrase, "ppalli, ppalli" meaning hurry up or quickly, has already been made an international term by most merchants, waiters and others who meet Koreans at tourist destinations worldwide.

Back in 1984 when Seoul celebrated the opening of subway Lines 2 to 4 in 1984, The New York Times said Korea had set several records in the history of "tube" construction. No country had ever built subways over 113.5 kilometers at one time, so quickly.

However, we should not forget that our ''hurry sickness'' was to blame for the shocking collapse of the Seongsu Grand Bridge over the Han River in Seoul in October 1994 that killed 32 commuters and the incredible collapse of the Sampoong Department Store, also in the capital city, in 1995 that killed 501 people and injured 937 others.

No doubt, we owe much to the agility and swiftness of our people who have devoted themselves to achieving their goals in a short period of time and are coping with the fast changes in the world efficiently. Truly, we are living in the paradise of mobile phones and the internet because we love fast things.

But we still complain that the internet is too slow and wifi is not working everywhere.

A unique international movement urging people to slow down is spreading across the globe since it started in 1986 under the slogan ''Slow Food'' as opposed to fast food, on the occasion of the opening of the first McDonald's in Rome.

To recall, the campaigners said in their manifesto: ''We are enslaved by speed and have all succumbed to the same insidious virus: fast life, which disrupts our habits, pervades the privacy of our homes and forces us to eat fast food. In the name of productivity, fast life has changed our way of being and threatens our environment and our landscapes. So slow food is now the only truly progressive answer.''

In 1999, American author and consultant Ernie J. Zelinski, wrote a book, "Don't Hurry, Be Happy" that reminded many readers of Bobby McFerrin's 1988 a capella song "Don't Worry, Be Happy."

Introducing his "650 ways to slow down and enjoy life,'' he suggested: "There is an interesting paradox you should keep in mind if you don't want to feel so hurried with your life. Contrary to public belief, speeding up and rushing around in a mad frenzy is not the way to create more time for the more important and enjoyable things.

"The best way to create more time in your life is to slow down. Then you can really live. Enjoy the moment, no matter what you are doing, and life won't be so hurried.''

Recently, I read "The Things You Can See Only When You Slow Down" written by Haemin Sunim, a Korean Zen monk residing in the United States. The former professor at a Massachusetts college says: "When everything around me is moving so fast, I stop and ask; Is it the world that's busy, or is it my mind?"

He advises, "The world moves fast, but that doesn't mean we have to."

As the monk says, it depends on our mind. There is definitely nothing that we are too busy to do.

In the face of mounting nuclear threats of North Korea, we are, indeed, so busy mentally and physically, preparing for a possible unhappy situation.

The Zen monk says: "When you are so busy that you feel perpetually chased, when worrying thoughts circle your head, when the future seems dark and uncertain, when you are hurt by what some has said, slow down, even if only for a moment. Bring all of your awareness into the present and take a deep breath."

Nevertheless, it's not an easy job.

Park Moo-jong is the senior Korea Times adviser. He served as the president-publisher of the nation's first English newspaper from 2004 to 2014 after working as a reporter at the daily since 1974. He can be reached at moojong@ktimes.com or emjei29@gmail.com.