CHRISTMAS 2001
After driving passed beaches strung with barbed wire where armed guards monitored foot traffic in designated swimming-only areas, we arrived at Naksan temple, near the North Korean border. Walking up a long winding path through woods a slow steady rain fell. We continued around seaside where we faced a Buddhist temple perched on the cliff high above the Pacific Ocean. I was a bit nervous about going inside while my friends seemed only curious as if headed to a museum. The female monk speaking in Korean, motioned for us to come in, sit and pray. We removed our shoes and passed sock footed inside to a sea of pastel colored lotus flowers in shiny silk material suspended from the ceiling. The room, only 20’x20’, was crowded with displays of Buddhist art. Incense burned my nostrils as I inhaled slowly. I immediately lost track of Youngim and Garry while I said prayers. I was worried – once again – about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and its spread so I prayed for world peace. When I opened my eyes Youngim motioned for me to put an incense stick in the alter urn which I did. Turning to leave the monk spoke again in Korean politely pointing at me. Youngim smiled at me saying, “The monk says that of the three of us only your prayer was sincere”. Creepy chills tingled down my spine, but I managed a smile in return. We stepped outside, put on shoes and walked away. The monk ran out after us and into the rain with a gift of rice cake and fruit. It was Sunday afternoon 9 September. In a few days my ‘sanctioned’ prayer for world peace would seem really spooky.
Mint, now called David at school of his own volition, although he still writes MINTER as his name, began half-day (really only 2.5 hours) kindergarten while I was flying around the world in September from Seattle to Korea to Croatia to home. When asked his name he says the whole darn thing “David Minter Goodlett”. Not sure how that goes over on the playground, but he’ll get it sorted out. His past annual bouts with bronchitis/pneumonia are under control thanks to a regimen of Claritin and a frustrated pediatrician willing to take my advice, “It’s allergies and the subsequent massive sinus drainage, not a cold, that cause the lung infections!”. He, apparently, has an inherited immune disorder that causes hyper-reactivity to allergens that he shares with me. So far he loves school including the homework and loves to practice playing baseball. Guess he might get to play T-ball next year if his asthma is under control. Meanwhile, Graham (aka Hammie-boy or HB) has blossomed into a chattering 4 year old with an infectious smile. I don’t quite understand him like I understand Mint and I don’t think it is lack of trying. He is just different enough to confuse me. He seems to be more mechanically inclined than his brother and has less situational fear. Unlike his brother who wails at the slightest scratch, HB rarely cries when hurt. I am more likely to hear from him “look Dad I am bleeding, but it doesn’t really hurt”. However, he can’t yet recite a simple prayer –most likely this is an “I don’t need to demonstrate this to you phenomenon” rather than a real problem. His Mom says that his uncle Eddie a former crew-chief (i.e. the guy who rebuilds/repairs planes often in flight) on a C-130 has a similar kind of hands-on intelligence demonstrable only on a need to know basis. So maybe it is an inherited trait. Intent on whatever the task at hand happens to be, HB is “like a duck on a June bug”. And speaking of bugs, both boys love them. They spent endless hours this past Spring-Summer hunting snails and spiders. Amazingly, they can spend all day digging in the dirt under the big cedar tree in the backyard and not have a squabble. Trouble between the two only starts when Mint dispenses his perverted idea of sharing, namely 70 for me 30 for you.
Notable for me this year was construction of a 40’ long by 5’ high retaining wall out of stackable 60 lb. blocks (i.e. dry weight and they mostly weren’t dry) across the backyard. Donna had bought these blocks a year earlier while I was in Spain. As summer 2001 approached and the monstrous blue-tarped artwork in the drive way began to fade, she was a bit skeptical of my intentions. I’m thinkin’, “What’s the hurry? They don’t look that bad in the driveway. It’s just 8 tons of blocks under a faded blue tarp”. In fact I waited so long that by the time I got ready in April of this year to get going on the wall the wooden pallets were rotting. This meant that prior to building I had to move and restack them by hand in the back yard some 50 yards away rather than use a forklift. The blocks were in fact so heavy that I could not lift one above my waist. Still it was fun and I wish I had time to build more retaining walls. Donna, now in her third year as a real estate agent, had profitable year! She even sent us guys off to Alabama for a week this Summer and re-painted parts of the house. She finds that she really can keep the house clean and tidy as long as we don’t live here. I think she was happy to know that she still had it in her to keep a tidy house and, as she suspected, we were the real culprits. It is difficult for us guys to escape our hunter-gather nomadic genes that focus our attention on gratification of single BIG goals.
Our prayers go out to our military family and friends this year that will be in harms way. To win this fight against terrorism, we have to believe our model of government that allows freedom of religion rather than suppressing it and the sometimes onerous freedom of speech, is the best one available. We also have to believe that one individual life in the fight for freedom is worth giving just as do the terrorists. So go ahead and travel but with both eyes wide open. As a country we have a lot of faults that engender animosity world-wide but this is nothing new to the relationship between the reigning dominant country in the world and those influenced by it. It is an aged problem – older than the celebration of Christmas. If they weren’t angry at us then it would be the Brits or the French and before that it was the Romans and the Mongolians, etc. There is always someone to be angry at. It is getting along that is tough. So pray for world peace.
Merry Christmas 2001 and Happy Holidays,
Dave, Donna, David-Minter and Graham.
