The Regrets of a Diaspora Life
“At this moment, I deeply regret having become a diplomat.
I have lost far too many precious things along the way.
Living from country to country, I lost touch with friends and failed to be there for my relatives.
And now, even my father is gone…”
- Ban Ki-moon, Study Like a Fool, Dream Like a Genius -
These were the regrets that former United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon confided to a friend at his father’s funeral, after his father had suddenly passed away in a traffic accident.
But surely such regrets belong not only to diplomats.
They are shared by countless Koreans of the diaspora who have made their lives far from home, carrying a quiet ache somewhere deep within their hearts.
A telephone ringing late at night is enough to make our hearts sink. Even the sound of a KakaoTalk notification can fill us with sudden dread. We hurriedly pick up the phone.
“Everything is all right, isn’t it?”
Only when we hear our parents’ voices do we finally breathe a sigh of relief.
“How are the children?”
“Is work going well?”
And then, almost before we know it, the call is over.
Yet across the distance, through that small telephone, we can feel the loneliness in our parents’ hearts—the depth of their longing simply to see their children again.
No matter how far away we may live, in our parents’ hearts we remain the children we once were.
And in our own hearts, our parents remain like the warm light glowing from the windows of our childhood home.
No matter how many years pass, that light never goes out.
- From Dawn Light Notes by Ki Jun Kwon -
Reflection of the Day
★ On this Chuseok, I will call my parents before anything else.
“Mom, I love you.”
“I just called because I wanted to hear your voice.” ★
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