Generous

This is Independence Park in Seoul looking towards the 300 meter Inwangsan mountain literally meaning "mountain of generous king". The mountain and flowers take me back in time. In history the kings that were "generous" were often taken advantage of. It is interesting that a mountain was called "mountain of a generous king" not a fountain or a flower. The generous kings of history were like flowers that are beautiful but fade away or fountains that spring up but are forgotten over time.

A mountain is basically immovable. I've been through that park for more than 20 years and tall apartment buildings popped up out of nowhere. The traffic and roads changed, but those mountains are pretty much the same. Every year in the spring the mountain gives birth to flowers and bees and butterflies. In the summer the mountains pour out streams that water the whole country. In the autumn the mountains are dotted with beautiful colors of red, orange, yellow and purple leaves. And in the winter the mountain stands still until the next call of Spring. Unlike the kings in history the mountain is both generous and powerful.

What do you want to be?

Considering the upcoming spring I am pleased to hear the sounds of children playing. For two years there has been so much precaution about the pandemic that kids were in a no touch and no play situation. Two years ago when I taught the expression: "What do you want to be?" I got answers like "businessman, lawyer, prosecutor, president, government worker, doctor, nurse, flight attendant, etc..."

Now nobody wants to work on a plane or in a hospital or for the government. I taught 200 sixth graders. The top five answers for 2022 are:

1. Rich Bum (돈많은은 백수)
2. Pro Gamer
3. White Hacker
4. Cartoonist/ Animator
5. Nothing

These answers are not in the textbook. It came out of the students minds. I went from class to class and in the nine classes I visited I found a lot of consistency. Students are more comfortable working with a computer. They would prefer to do nothing. Mostly they are not eager to enter the job world.

Inwangsan, the "mountain of generous king" reminds me of an ancient story of the landowner who hired workers for the harvest time. At that time the day workers hung around the center of the city waiting to be hired. This landowner had a lot to harvest and the rains were coming soon when no one can harvest so the work had to be done fast.

The Landowner

He went early in the morning into the city to look for people who would work for him around 6 AM. He agreed to pay them all a day's wages for their work and they agreed to work for him. Still he needed more workers so he went back to the city around 9 AM and hired more workers. They agreed to work for him for whatever wages he thought was right. Again he went out at noon and hired more workers and then at three o' clock in the afternoon. Each time they agreed to work for whatever he thought was right. He went back once more into the city at 5 PM and found people just standing around. He asked them,

"Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?"

They said that nobody hired them. So he hired them to go and join the harvest in his land. It wasn't long until sunset. At the end of the day the Land Owner had his foreman call in the workers and pay their wages. This was interesting though. He asked the foremen to pay the wages starting with the last ones hired and then moving on to the first ones hired.

That's how it all happened. The ones who were hired at 5 PM were given a whole day's wages. The ones hired at 3 PM were given a whole day's wages. The ones hired at noon were given a whole day's wages and the ones hired at 9 AM were given a whole days wages.

When the ones who were hired at 6 AM saw this they expected to receive more than the others. But each of them received exactly the wage for one day's labor. This made them ticked off and they started to complain to the landowner.

They said,

"Hey. What are you doing? These people came late in the afternoon and are getting the same pay as us. We were here early in the morning working our butts off and we stayed through the hottest part of the day. At siesta time the others we in the shade of the city but we were out here in the fields for your harvest. Yet they are getting the same pay as we are getting."

The landowner answered,

"Friend, I am not being unfair to you. Didn't you agree this morning to work for one day's wages? You got it and now you can go. I want to give this last man the same as I gave you. Don't I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you jealous because I am generous?"

The first will be last and the last will be first

There is a lot we don't understand in this world. Why does this generation have everything and not even try to use it? When I was a kid the whole school district had only one computer for student use and that computer was donated by Steve Jobs. Only twelve students were chosen among thousands to use the computer and code using BASIC language we read in a book. The closest we ever got to a computer at home was one friend with an 8 bit Commodore 64. Now my own son complains because he has to share his tablet with his brother.

Social media when we grew up was a kid asking you on you playground,

"Is you people or folk?"

At that time you were Gangster Disciples or Vice Lords and your user ID was spray painted on the alley.

If you needed new clothes or some money to go to the movies you knew that no one was going to just give it to you. You had to work for it. If there were no jobs then you made one. We did everything you could think of from delivering newspapers, carrying golf bags, shoveling snow, landscaping to help people move furniture.

Kids today

Now kids have access to a whole business set up at their finger tips. They can trade stocks or bitcoin, use social media for advertising or finding clients. But mostly these kids are not interested. My own kids taunt me by saying that they will stay in my house forever and play video games. One day the landowner will find them and say,

"Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?"

It's not because of lack of opportunity today. There really seems to be a black cloud of despair looming over kids telling them can't do anything. They can't stand hearing only bad news even if it is the truth. They are not mentally able to process everything that is happening to them. The lose desire to do anything good and they just want to escape into a game.

My son uses a metaverse game called https://zepeto.me/ to make his own character. Like readyplayer.me the game is used to make avatars. He learned to make it in school. In the virtual world he designs T-shirts and clothing items and sells them to other players in the metaverse. I guess he has some of the same desires to do something as I did when I was a kid but his problem is that there are too many possibilities. It's hard for him to decide if he is wasting his time.

I can relate. It's a big world out there with limitless potential, but I only have 24 hours in a day. I always tell my son that it is important to have a value system to be able to make decisions. Today my values have changed a lot since I was a teenager. I value a little quiet time. I value the community here and sharing my thoughts with you. I value my job and the time I have to spend with kids at our school. Above that I value my faith and family and health. After that I value creating something with the materials in front of me. It's difficult to ask my kids to do something I wouldn't challenge first.

Planting Dreams

A trend I've noticed in successful people in history is that they are able to plant their dreams in the next generation. Whether it is their own children or not they are successful because they planted seeds of their dream to the next generation. The next generation then recorded the dream and promoted it. The first generation was too busy laying down the foundations.

This is the way the fathers of philosophy started. They lived their ideas and taught publicly. They were so busying laying the foundations that they had no time to write or promote their philosophy. It was their life itself that spoke the message and the message was spoken through the next generation. We can see this from Socrates to Plato and from Confucius to Mencius. We can also see this in writers and artists. Who edited J. R. R. Tolkien's unfinished works and completed the maps of the Lord of the Rings? It was his son Christopher. Who worked with Frank Zappa to create his only Top 40 single in the United States? It was his daughter Moon who worked together with his father to create a satire song that became a smash hit.

It's not going to happen overnight and we may never see the fulfillment of what we started but somebody had to have a dream and plant that dream. Another had to water that dream and make it and mold it. Most of us will not see it flower even in our life time. That's why it's so important to let the next generation know what we are doing.

I took my youngest one for a walk around the neighborhood after work. He is excited and full of energy. He has a special talent for capturing things on film and for making songs. I think he is the one who will put a twist on my work beyond my imagination. I have no idea but I share with him what I do and sometimes we work together. In years to come these two boys may become my best partners.

It really blows my mind that Moon Zappa was 14 when she made this song with her dad.

totally