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On December 24 last year I celebrated my birthday. Many people in several countries were kind in congratulating me. They were gracious to give me flowers, gifts, and a cake in Seoul, Korea. However among all the gifts, their sincere heart and love were the greatest gift to me.
This brithday gave me an opportunity to reflect on the first major event of my life–my birth. I was born December 23, 1950 (November 15 on the lunar calendar which is used in Korean reckoning).
Back then, the whole Korean peninsula was in a state of great turmoil with the tragic Korean War underway. All residents of Chun Ahn, a village in South Korea, were ordered to evacuate the village, as a serious invasion of that region was expected.
Most ran away seeking refuge, but there was one small house in which a woman was giving birth to her baby, with her mother-in-law's help. The older woman grabbed the young mother-to-be's hand as she gave birth to her son saying, "If you die, I will die too."
The women could hear fighter jets making a bombing raid far away. The young lady had a very difficult delivery. After hours of painful struggle, she could hold her son in her arms. Without her mother-in-law's help, the delivery might have gone much worse for mother and child.
The young mother is my mother and her mother-in-law is my grandmother. I guess the fact that I had such a beginning might have been the reason why the concepts of war, peace, life and death have remained vividly in my memory since my childhood.
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