Fighting Fate

Annyeong! (Hi!)

Are you ready for another walk down the Korean drama lane?

The quote above from Publilius Syrus is just one of the many quotes featured in the ongoing Korean t.v. series entitled Criminal Minds starring Lee Joon-gi (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Joon-gi).

By the way, Publilius Syrus was a Latin writer famous for writing sententiae which are brief moral sayings such as proverbs, adages, maxims often quoted without context.

Anyway, as expected I am pulled again into the vortex of my mind and sent various thoughts spiralling into it as I tried to decipher the meaning behind this line.

Lately, the events happening in my life make me feel like I am riding the craziest ride of my life. The ups and downs I had taken made me dizzy and felt suspended in bated breath all throughout the ride. I feel I haven’t reached the end of it, my heart still on my mouth, choking me with apprehension. 

Seeing the quote made me agree with Publilius Syrus. Fate indeed is not satisfied with one calamity. I just hope and pray that when it released its hold on me, I can still stand on my feet again. I am beginning to weaken under its relentless onslaught but my faith won’t allow me to get carried away and wallow in depression. I am maybe weary and wary, my heart often beats like a deafening roll of drums in my ears, but I can’t afford to acknowledge my weakness for the sake of the people dependent upon me. 

I may cry out my frustrations and fears and doubts in the best possible way I know but I can never let them seep into my every being. I have to fight over and above these calamities fate brought upon me. I have to win this fight!

Faith Changes Everything

Annyeonghaseyo! (Hello!)

It’s another serious talking today, guys and so as not to disappoint you, I have another quote from a Korean drama to share with you. 

The photo above (yehey, I was finally able to upload photos!), show a quote from the Korean tv series entitled Falsify starring Nam Goong Min (http://wiki.d-addicts.com/Nam_Goong_Min) as Han Moo-Young, who became a media jackal to unveil the truth behind the death of his brother who was murdered through a seemingly vehicular accident by a man with a tattoo for trying to correct falsified stories he published instigated by the director of the newspaper company he worked for and revealing social corruption involving the biggest newspaper company, the chief prosecutor and a secret organization.

The quote Han Moo-Young said to one of the victims of false accusation in the drama was this:  

“You may feel like you’re in the desert without a compass, but nothing will change if you keep on dwelling on your emotions.”

There are times in our lives that we feel how unfair fate it seems, that we feel like we were left in the middle of the desert without a compass, uncertain of which direction to take.  It is somewhat akin to a fish taken out of water and left to gasp for air and plop itself helplessly, seeking a way to breathe and survive.

No matter how much we wail and “plop” and let ourselves be enslaved by our dire situation, nothing will indeed change if we kept on dwelling on it.  

And although according to Friedrich Nietzsche: “Hope, in reality, is the worst of all evils because it prolongs the torments of man,” I’d rather continue to hope while positively thinking that all will come to pass.

My Dear Friends, what we all must bear in mind, when the road ahead becomes so difficult you can’t see a thing beyond a foot, when it seems all that surrounds you is a boundless desert, when life is seemed hopeless, is to never, ever lose faith.

Remember:

Survive Through Love

My Dear Readers, I recently finished watching the Korean drama entitled Bride of the Water God or Bride of Habaek (http://asianwiki.com/The_Bride_of_Habaek), starring  Nam Joo-Hyuk (http://asianwiki.com/Nam_Joo-Hyuk) and Shin Se-Kyung (http://asianwiki.com/Shin_Se-Kyung).
This is a story about a divine being, the Lord of the Land of Water, born to become King, reigning over the Land of rhe Sky, Land of the Water and the Land of Earth.in the character of Nam Joo-Hyuk, who was sent on a mission on Earth to find the sacred stone safeguarded by other minor gods Moora, Bi Ryeum and Joo Dong, with the help of the Descendant of the Servants of the Gods in the character of Shin Se-Kyung.

Predictably, the main male character, Habaek, fell in love with the main female character, Yoon So Ah.  A Korean love story would not be complete without a love triangle, so there were two love triangles that ensued: one between Habaek (God of Water), Moora (Goddess of Water), and Bi Ryeum (God of Sky) and the other between Yoon So Ah the Servant, Habaek, and the God of Fire, Shin Ju Ye,  who happened to be a half-God, half-human, starring Im Joo Hwan (.http://wiki.d-addicts.com/Im_Joo_Hwan).

The story revolved on Habaek’s completing two missions:  FIRST, find the sacred stone the minor gods kept in safekeeping on earth. The problem was, it got lost and the God of Earth, Joo Dong, is nowhere to be found. The first mission was accomplished when they did found Joo Dong, but at this point, Habaek was already reluctant to leave So Ah. So Ah had to let him go and he had to go back to be proclaimed King of all the Lands.  SECOND, he is to find the reason why the sacred stone had to be kept on earth.  The second mission made Habaek come back to earth and meet So Ah again, in order “to love properly”. They both knew Habaek needs to leave again to claim his birthright as King but this time around they will spend the time together to properly love each other while Habaek search for the answer to his second mission. On the last two chapters, So Ah found out that on the night she tried to kill herself, her father witnessed it and tried to save her, dying in the process with Joo Dong’s tablet which can grant Servant’s wishes. The gods tried to take him out of the river but only So Ah could do so. Habaek sacrificed his one grace which would have to be used to go back to his kingdom to give So Ah the strength and breath to swim down the depths of the river to retrieve her father’s body protected by the tablet from being ruined. But by doing so, he was also able to find the answer to the second mission, and that is, if a God can’t save even the one person most dear to him he is not worthy to be called King. So Ah would have also sacrificed the one wish the Servant’s tablet can grant on wishing Habaek’s return to his kingdom if the High Priest had not appeared on time to tell them Habaek can return even without So Ah’s wish. 

In the end, So Ah’s wish was for Habaek to stay and live with her as long as she is alive.

Oops! Had I already revealed the entire story?  Oh, but don’t you worry, watching the entire drama is still much more fun despite all that. Must watch the kissing scenes between the two main characters.  Be ready to fall in love with Nam Joo-Hyuk! 😉

There are actually two lines from this drama that caught my attention but on today’s post I choose the last line as shown on the photo above.

“People can survive anything with the strength they have but life would be better with love.” – Habaek, Yoon So Ah.

Indeed, inherent in us, humans, is the strength to survive anything as long as our mind is willing to fight for our survival. Life is full of trials and hardships, but we have the strength to face and surpass them. And what makes the ordeal much easier is when.there is love amidst it all.

Each day as I took this journey called life, I had to groan at how heavy the burden I had to carry along, I had to sigh to see every member of my family suffer along with me, but what keeps me stronger and more willing to take each step is the knowledge that I love this family more than life and that I know I’m loved as well.

Is Conviction a Foe or Ally of Truth?

Convictions are more dangerous foes of truth than lies. – Friedrich Nietzsche

This week I am following an ongoing Korean drama series entitled Criminal Minds which mind you features one of my favorite Korean actors, Lee Joon-Gi.

This drama  focuses on a group of highly-trained profilers in the fictional National Crime Investigation (NCI) team who tries to profile and track down criminals to solve cases.

When we say profiling, by the way, it means “the recording and analysis of a person’s psychological and behavioral characteristics, so as to assess or predict their capabilities in a certain sphere or to assist in identifying a subgroup of people.” (https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/profiling)

Anyway, while watching it, the above-stated quote came up and sparked my interest and imagination.

So, our topic today is about conviction.  What does conviction mean?

Conviction means a strong belief or opinion or the feeling of being sure that what you believe or say is true.

If conviction is such, how then it becomes a dangerous foe of truth rather than an ally?

Let us site an easy example how this line of thinking must have come about.

For example, in common household products we use, detergent powder for one, let’s say I have been using this one product for several years and strongly believe that this product is the best ever product by far. Even when surveys or vast promotions occur, since I firmly believe that the product I have been using is the best, I probably will insist on what I believe and deny whatever evidence other people will present.

On that example, you can probably see where and when conviction can become a threat to what is true. Can you picture out how much more dangerous can it be if on a larger scale?

A person who firmly believes he is not doing a grave mistake despite of it being morally wrong will continue to commit the same mistake over and over again despite the fact or truth that it is wrong, for he had convinced himself he has abide by his own beliefs.

This must be how those committing crimes from petty theft to plunder have convinced themselves to do what they do so as not to buckle down at the prick of their conscience.

That is when conviction becomes the truth’s foe rather than an ally. That is, when we let ourselves be blinded by our wrong beliefs to the point of denying the truth despite of it glaring at us like the sun at midnoon hour.