humans-of-pdx:

brianacerezo:

Wounded world,
Are you sleeping through the pain?
Is your wakefulness consumed by wincing?
Do you look away from the busyness of production and ambition long enough to lick your wounds?

Wakeful world,
We can find the roots of our grief
Untangle each snare and release
Breathe peace long enough to be willing witnesses to each other’s unraveling.

Loving world,
Let us be light on the shadows of this place.
Light that illuminates
that warms
that empowers each of us to find our own loving light.

Hold space for each other, if you can.

If you cannot, hold space for yourself.

humans-of-seoul:

“(Left) Our 10th grade teacher told us about a book called, If Fools Unite They’re Happier.”
“(Right) He even showed us the actual book, because he said it looked like a book about us.”
“(Left) But those words seem like they’re right. It’s not about us being ignorant, but about the idea that in being together you can be brave and be happier.”
“(Right) We graduated and found our teacher, and he told us that now we shouldn’t enjoy spending time with each other anymore. He said, if we want to get boyfriends, we’d be better off not hanging out all the time.”

“(왼쪽) 고1 때 담임 선생님께서 저희 보고 그러셨는데 책 제목 중에 이런 게 있대요. ‘바보들은 뭉쳐있으면 더 즐겁다.’”
“(오른쪽) 그게 저희 같다고 직접 책까지 보여주시더라고요.”
“(왼쪽) 근데 그 말이 맞는 것 같아요. 저희가 무식한 건 아니지만 같이 있으면 더 용감해지고 더 즐거워요.”
“(오른쪽) 졸업하고 선생님을 찾아갔더니 이젠 너희끼리 놀지 좀 말래요. 애인 만들려면 둘이 안 만나야 된다고요.”

humans-of-seoul:

“When a war comes, you think you don’t need us elderly, right? That’s not the case though. If that sort of situation really was to arise, us elderly all find our role. In that regard, the elderly in Korea are mentally armed. In a time of war, I can stand at the very front of the line. During the Korean War, while we were making our way through the sewers over to South Korea, my mom said, ‘You go on ahead. I think I’m going to die here.’ So, I left my mom behind the 38th parallel and crossed it alone. I’m someone who has gone through something like that, so if I’m allowed to take a gun and hold my position at the fortress, even if I am to die there, I will bravely fight for our youth.”

“전쟁 나면 우리 노인들은 필요 없을 것 같지? 그렇지 않아. 정말 그런 상황이 온다면 우리 노인네들이 한 몫 할거야. 그 정도로 우리 노인들은 정신무장이 되어 있어. 전쟁이 난다면 나는 제일 앞에 설 수 있어. 내가 6.25때 말이야, 시궁창을 통해서 넘어오면서 우리 어머니가 ‘그냥 가라. 나는 여기서 죽을 것 같으니까’ 이렇게 말하셔서 어머니를 뒤에 두고 홀로 38선을 넘어온 사람이야. 총 한 자루 주고 고지에 세워 준다면, 난 그자리에서 죽는 한이 있더라도 젊은이들을 위해서 용감하게 싸울꺼야.”

humans-of-seoul:

“My child is around 16 months old now. Since I work at a theater company, I often go on a regional tour. When returning from a regional tour, I often end up getting home late, and most likely my kid has gone to bed at the time, so I usually see her the next morning. When I wake up feeling groggy, her face seems quite blurry to me. Then, as my vision gets sharper gradually, her face emerges in my sight clearly. That’s when I feel it, ‘ah…I’ve come back home.’”

“이제 아이가 16개월 정도 됐어요. 제가 극단 생활을 하다 보니 지방 공연이 잦거든요. 지방공연을 갔다가 집에 가면 아이는 거의 자고 있는 경우가 많아서 만나는 시간이 아침일 때가 많죠. 아침에 갓 일어난 몽롱한 상태에서 아이 얼굴을 보면 얼굴이 뿌옇게 보여요. 그러다가 점점 시야가 밝아지면서 아이 얼굴이 뚜렷하게 보이죠. 그러면 느껴요. ‘아…… 내가 집에 돌아왔구나.’”

humans-of-seoul:

“I’ve been running a bar in front of a university for 14 years, but now I’m secretly thinking about quitting because it’s really physically demanding. Come to think of it, occasionally I work until dawn, go home, lie down in silence, and have these kinds of thoughts. ‘At my age, would it be possible to have a space where I’d be able to talk to young students again?’ When students come, sometimes the music is squeezed in there, while we smile and chit chat with each other, and I often watch them hanging out. I wonder, where I will be able to do that kind of thing again. Sometimes if students are sitting at the bar, I give them free alcohol. They thank me, but actually the pleasure is all mine. While talking and having fun with these young people, I often forget my age, and time and time again I’m surprised I’m as old as I am. While working at a bar here, what I’ve gained is exactly that. Being young.”

“대학교 앞에서 14년 째 술집을 운영하고 있는데, 이제 슬슬 체력적으로 힘들어서 그만 둘 생각도 하고 있어. 그러다 보니 새벽까지 일 하고 집에 가서 가만히 누워 있다가 가끔 그런 생각을 해. ‘내 나이에 젊은 학생들하고 대화를 나눌 수 있는 공간을 또 다시 가질 수 있을까?’ 학생들이 오면 가끔 음악 틀어놓고 같이 웃으면서 얘기도 하고 걔네들이 노는 것도 구경하고 그런 걸 어디서 다시 할 수 있을까 싶어. 학생들이 가끔 바에 앉아있으면 내가 술도 주고 그러거든? 그러면 걔네가 나한테 고맙다고 하는데 오히려 고마운 건 나야. 걔네들과 대화하고 같이 놀다보면 내가 내 나이를 잊어버렸다가 가끔 내 나이가 벌써 이렇게 됐구나 하고 깜짝 깜짝 놀라. 여기서 술집을 하면서 내가 얻은 건 바로 그거야. 젊음이라는 거.”

humans-of-seoul:

“Whenever I meet my friends they brag about their husband, brag about their kids, and brag about their wealth. I thought I could do that as well, so we kept moving to a bigger house. One day, we realized that we weren’t capable of handling such a house. Since we had to pay both the debt and interest as well, it quickly became hellish. So we sold our house for a much lower price and moved to a smaller place. Living there made me realize something I missed. I thought, ‘Ah…why should I live my life conscious of what others see?’ When I had a big house, it took me all day to clean. However, now that I’m in a smaller house, I only need to clean a little….How about an even smaller house then? Other people won’t see how I live. I think I started to let things go more easily since then.”

“친구들 만나면 남편 자랑에, 애들 자랑에, 재산 자랑을 하는 거예요. 그거 보니까 나도 할 수 있겠구나 싶어서 계속 큰 집으로 막 이사갔어요. 어느 순간 보니 내가 갖고 있는 건 한 주먹이었는데 두 주먹 정도 되는 그런 집을 갖고 있더라구요. 그렇게 빚 갚고 이자 갚고 하다보니 그게 바로 지옥이었어요. 그래서 그 집 살 때 가격보다 훨씬 낮은 가격으로 팔고 작은 집으로 이사 갔죠. 거기서 살아보니 느껴지더라구요. ‘아.. 내가 왜 다른 사람 눈을 의식하면서 살아야하지’라고요. 큰 집에 있을 때는 청소하는 것도 하루종일 힘들었거든요. 근데 작은 집으로 가니 청소도 조금하고… 더 작은 집이면 어때요? 다른 사람이 나 사는 거 보는 건 아니잖아요. 그 때부터 나 자신을 내려놓은 거 같아요.”

humans-of-seoul:

“What do you want to be when you grow up?”
“I want to help animals.”
“Why is that?”
“I heard that people are cutting down bamboo trees, so pandas can’t eat.”

“커서 뭐가 되고 싶어요?”
“동물들 도와주고 싶어요.”
“왜요?”
“대나무를 사람들이 깎아가서 판다가 먹을 게 없대요.” 

humans-of-seoul:

“(Left) We were born 1 minute and 22 seconds apart. In the past we didn’t care who was the older brother, but when we turned five and entered kindergarten I started calling him the older brother. However our friends in kindergarten who were the same age as us said, ‘What? If you call him older brother then you also have to call me older brother’. They kept insisting on it, so I went crying to my mom.”
“What did your mom say?”
“Just tell them, ‘Hey!’”
“(Right) Since then we haven’t made a distinction between who is older or younger, we just treat each other like we do for our friends.”

“(왼쪽) 저희는 1분 22초 간격으로 태어났어요. 그전까지는 누가 형인지 신경 안 쓰다가 5살에 유치원 다닐 때 제가 형이라고 불렀었죠. 그러니까 동갑인 유치원 친구들이, ‘어? 쟤한테 형이라고 부르면 나도 형으로 불러’라고 우겨서 제가 울면서 엄마한테 갔었죠.”
“엄마는 뭐라고 하셨어요?”
“‘그냥 야라고 불러’”
“(오른쪽) 그 때부터 위 아래 없이 편하게 친구처럼 지내요.”