Mother’s Old Notebook
I unexpectedly discovered something valuable when I was looking through the bookshelf.
That was a reading note written by my mother 22 years ago.
I could remember the old days when I fell asleep lying on my mother’s lap while she was always reading a book.
Reading was a habit for my mother and I also remember that she wrote a lot.
As I think about it now, she must have received a lot of awards in many places with her writings.
Although she was no expert, she enjoyed writing as a hobby.
However, to this day, I had never properly read her writings.
In this sense, this color-faded notebook is making me curious.
Let’s return to year 1995 at her age of 42.
She was a Christian who liked masterpieces of famous painters from long ago.
At that time, it was common for people to decorate the cover of notebooks in this way.
I remember how we used to paste photos of our favorite celebrities.
The cute boy and girl on the first page is quite impressive.
It seems that she cut out and pasted this picture of a foreign model from a magazine from that time.
The caption under the picture is as follows.
“Truth, that's brighter than gem,Trust, that's purer than pearl,
—Brightest truth, purest trust in the universe,
— all were for meIn the kiss of one girl.”
-from ’Summum Bonum’ - *Browning-
After reading the text, the text seems to match the photo to some extent.
I was in my first year in middle school at year 1995… this single page of note reminds me of my first love at that time.
* Robert Browning(Year 1812 ~ 1889) is a British poet and playwright. He became a poet under the influence of Barrett and Shelly. Major works include 《Men and Women》, 《Dramatis Personae》, and 《The Ring and the Book》. He is famous for writing the beautiful poem singing about his wife, an English poet Elizabeth Browning and her husband's love.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Browning
“A life satisfied with the present
Stevenson, the writer of Treasure Island
had said this in his work.
「A loving couple settled in an appropriate
place in the garden to spend an affectionate time.
When they looked up from the place they settled,
the placed looked better so they moved to that place.
As they looked to the side again,
They moved again to that place because it looked better.
But this time, the opposite side looked better.
They looked down after moving to the opposite side
And that was the place they have been finding for.
They moved again to that place and took a good look
And it appeared to be the place they first sat down.」
-1995.6.13. From ‘Mustard Seed’-*Kukmin Daily-”
‘Mustard Seed’ was a religious life corner which shortly serialized good writings on the Kukmin Daily publications. I heard that they are still being published steadily.
* Kukmin Dialy (國民日報)is a comprehensive daily newspaper and morning paper issued by the Kukmin Ilbo Company of Republic of Korea. It was first launched on December 10, 1988 and it incorporates the spirit of Christian residence of “Love, Truthfulness, and Humanity”. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kukmin_Ilbo
「The Vietnamese citizens must first have the strong will to defend their homeland… If they would like to get help from others, they should show acts that can gain trust from others and get help from others…」
“To know what you know and what you do not know, that is true knowledge”
- Confucius quotes “During Gyeonggi
High School students, passing the substitution examination, Dr Lee entered Seoul National University Engineering in 1952.
He graduated from Miami with physics major in 1956 while begin to study abroad in 1954, received a master's degree in Pittsburgh University in 1958, a doctorate in science from Pennsylvania State University in 1960, after working as an assistant at the same university, he worked as a professor and transferred to a professor at State University of New York in 1965.
He work as a visiting professor at the University of Paris in 1968. Worked on theoretical physics implementation of Professor and Fermi Accelerator Laboratory of Theoretical Physics at Enrico Fermi Institute, University of Chicago.
Benjamin · W · Lee* faced a mysterious death right before receiving the Nobel prize while participating in nuclear development in South Korea.
President Park has killed a young tree, a wonderful talent to fulfill her ambition.
In what way is she better than Kim Il-sung?
Incident occurrence time 1:20 O’clock June 16, 1977”
Somebody’s words about Vietnamese
Confucian sayings
The following words are the contents on the book of Dr. Benjamin W. Lee of Korea.
I can faintly remember that time. The story of this man that my mother read and told me.
At that time, there was a story about President Park Chung-hee calling up Korean scientists who were abroad for nuclear development. A representative person among them was Dr. Benjamin W. Lee.
He was a scientist who's been drawing attention in the whole world as he was referred to as the next Einstein. It is said that President Park had a strong will to meet him even by sending a personally handwritten letter to him.
President Jimmy Carter of the United States, who was concerned about South Korea's nuclear development, pressed on Korea by the withdrawal of the US military in Korea, and in the meantime Dr. Benjamin W. Lee suddenly passed away in a traffic accident.
There are still arguments about whether his death was a simple accidental death or someone's intended interrogative event.
* Lee Whisoh (李輝昭, Benjamin Whisoh Lee [*], Jan 1st 1935 ~ June 16th 1977) was a theoretical physicist of a Korean-American born in Korea during the colonial period of Japan. He is well known around the world by his English name Benjamin W. Lee and Ben Lee.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_W._Lee
Recently, the sales of Korean publishers have been falling continuously.
People no longer wants to take time to read compact texts.
This was the case when the Internet became available, and I became more concerned when people started using smartphones.
However, I still believe that text is the root of all the information we see.
A great deal of reading makes me composed and humble.
It is difficult for me to explain this in simple words.
But the reader can feel it exactly when comparing myself when I read a lot and when I did not read books for a while.
It felt like a surprise gift from her to remind me of the will to read again, as I have not been reading for a while.
By recalling the stories she told me when I was a child, the memories of the house where we lived, the scent of the house, and the clothes that I wore at that time passed through my mind.
It was a time of a surprising interaction, an encounter with a woman of age 42 who enjoyed literature by going back to her and my past.Mother’s old notebook that makes me reminiscent of the old memories…
I am expecting great things as I will slowly read through her interests and thoughts from year 1995.
