Timeline

of my life
(Part II).

The importance of my time in New York City should not be underplayed. What made it so important was that my intellectual and emotional development was occurring simultaneously. My body and my mind were going through a phase of intense growth, with the resultant growth pains—breaking hearts and broken minds. The reading, understanding, reflection, and searching into the self of the mind and spirit made of me something else. When I left, I was not what I was, I was what I was going to be: an artist, a writer, a wanderer, and free. I had been writing a book that was making my lose my mind called Fodder… it was suspended until I return to New York City.

That was the summer of 2008. I took a road trip across the country with my ex-girlfriend. We stayed in Tennessee. We were not meant to be. It was fun. We were not meant to be.

In the Fall of that same year, I sent my resume to a recruiter whose job it was to find jobs in Korea for teachers of English as a second language.

In September of 2008, I was on my way to Ochang, South Korea. On my first night in Korea, in a small town where I can’t seem to find ANY English, my co-worker Bon brings me a quart of milk and a two liter bottle of water. I thank him, cry, and nestle into my tiny bed.

While in Korea the most appropriate question might be: what didn’t I do. Most of it I did with one or two other people, but a lot of it was alone… honja.

There’s something called Mudfest which seems to speak for itself.
There’s BIFF—an international film festival in Busan.
I got paid money to play my guitar and entertain people.
I went busking on the streets of Suwon.
I hosted an open mic night.
I learned to hate Seoul.
I learned to speak some Korean.
I met the best human female I think I have ever met in my life (Park Inae… I love you dearly).

However, one of the most important things I did was reading. I read everything. I was in Korea for two years, and in those two years I put such titles as Being and Nothingness, The Republic, A Treatise of Human Nature, Phenomenology of Spirit, Dante’s Inferno and Purgatorio, and Vanity Fair among countless other novels and books of poetry.

It was during this time that I was also writing a book about the experience of being a foreigner/teacher in South Korea.

It was during this time that I wrote a play in three acts based on Voltaire’s Candide and the idea that man exists in three states: suffering, boredom and work—which became the three acts.

I fell in love with a Super-Korean girl named April. She was lovely, older, and a great lover, but her Korea streak made her need to seek other attentions. It ended.

I met truly good people. I was party to what I’d assume is a felony. Friends of mine who were in a band that was playing in Dagu on the same night as our city hockey team was playing Dagu decided to rent a giant bus and take everybody together. A mini-fridge was thrown out a window. A fire extinguisher was discharged into my room. Fleeing happened. We were involved.

Nights of soju and roses.

After my contract finished in September 2009, I went to another school in November in Suwon, but I took a wee break to visit my recently married friends in London (the aforementioned Italian bird and high school wrestling buddy) and Agent X in New York City.

Korea was a peak of freedom. I climbed mountains. I ascended where westerners hadn’t dreamed of seeing. I searched through the depths of literature and the soul. The very first F1 race in Korea happened in 2010, and I was there for it by myself. It was beautiful. I wandered around the tiny town of Mokpo. They have these little parks and tiny hills to climb. There’s a giant jjimjilbang next a bus terminal where we caught a shuttle to the race. I almost got stuck in the race parking lot… alone… in the middle of nowhere… but hey, we’ve been there before.

No fear. No edge. When having a plan is good, having no plan is fine, and needing a plan is as good as anything, something happens to the mind.

I suppose that it would be possible to say that I accepted the reality of nature. When put into a natural situation, even if harsh, I could survive or die and be happy either way. It’s hard to die in manmade situations if you’re simply paying attention. Be very aware all the time, thinking, “Now I am living in this way.”

The truth holds no fear for me, nor does the bone-crunching power of nature—unless you consider it in the same vein as the fear of god: knowing but at peace with.

It is 2011. I haven’t really been in Kansas City for a decade. I live with Agent X. The future is fuzzy, but I can see an outline. This residence is my seventeenth roof to live under in ten years. May all beings be happy…

and may my loved ones feel the happiness I desire for them in every moment. Share love. Share life. Be well. Be calm. Go forth. Go safely. Do intently. Do proudly.