Flame, Glass and Ink are Poems, essays, and reading notes by Stefania Joori Suh

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  • My offbeat review of Thunder Dog

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    Thunder Dog by Michael Hingson is a book of manifold genre: part memoir of a brave man who has risen above the obstacles, part an educational guide for the role of a Seeing Eye dog for the blind in our society, and part a great adventure story about two parters in action. The story of Mr. Hingson and his faithful dog Roselle is at once undeniably heartwarming  in describing how they stuck together in times of great distress and heart wrenching in unfolding prejudice that Mr. Hingson and Roselle  faced as a blind person and a service dog.

    michael hingstonMr. Hingson is truly someone I can look up to because despite his blindness, he did not escape from reality but always tried to do whatever he could to the extent possible among. Of course, there was a great family support who always treated him as if  he had been a sighted person. But still the author had to do all things by himself outside the safety of home, such as bicycling around  his town as a kid against the biased complaints from the neighbors who were afraid of any damages that the blind kid would cause on a bike. But Mr. Hingson did not yield to such unfair glances and kept on going. This is just one of many episodes that manifested Mr. Hingson’s resilient and brave spirit. Eventually, he graduated from university with a summa cum laude distinction and went on to become a regional manager of a company.

    hingson-roselle-6Roselle was  the author’s guide dog that stayed with Mr. Hingson at the time of 9/11 tragedy in the World Trade Center. The author narrated that Rosell was not alarmed but behaved normally even while they were evacuating from the building after it had been hit by the hijacked airplane. (The only thing that made Roselle agitated was thunder because according to the author, thunder ionized the air with the formation of ozone, which produced a distinctive smell of the weather condition unpleasant to her. ) In fact, Roselle was more of a partner to  Mr. Hingson in tackling challenges that both of them encounter ed in daily life.

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    For instance, when Mr. Hingson went to a restaurant with his company, waiters/waitresses ignored his presence and instead took the orders from other people with him. As for Roselle, many stores denied her access to the premises even though she was a working service dog. Nevertheless, the duo soldiered on in fulfilling the demands placed on their daily tasks to keep their lives moving on.

    Now Roselle is not here with us in this world any longer, and Mr. Hingson has a new guide dog named “Africa”. But the legacy of the brave duo as battle buddies in life still lingers in my heart. Since reading this book, I have learned that (1) there are no huge differences between the sighted and the blind in performing ordinary daily functions; (2) the blind should be treated just like our ordinary neighbors without condescending manners and biases; (3) the usual life span of a service dog is 10 years because of stress accumulated by years of sacrifice that it makes for the protection of its owner; and (4) when a handler/owner walks, he should keep his left foot by the front right paw of his dog.  Thunder Dog is a wonderful book about this incredible duo in their voyage of life together.

     

  • Lost

    my poem

    I can’t see where Life is heading for now alone
    With her head wondering in the sky clouded
    Far and away from her once beloved Home,
    A glass castle of Beauty forever vanished.

    I want to know… Does she know she is lost,
    Deluded by the wrong hands of Destiny,
    Leading her to the Paths of Disappointment
    To see her shedding veils of tears in Eternity?

  • Till the Tide comes in

    s

    My will glory in preservation.
    My mind will take heed of any good suggestions
    That are wise, thoughtful, honest, and sensible.
    My sufferings will be granted compensations,
    A reward, which will be priceless and noble.
    My hopes are high, my yearnings are strong
    while I breathe in my earthly life,
    Paved with many a trajectory,
    sailed on many an uncharted ocean.
    Dum Spiro Spera.

  • the unquiet mind

    The mind is its own place,
    And it is its own domain,
    Where it can make a celestial palace
    out of hellish dungeon,
    and vice versa.

    Or so it says, or so it believes.
    But what about a void filled with
    howling of a soul lost in darkness
    not knowing where to find the light
    to figure out whereabouts of the soul?

    Alas, the mind is at a loss,
    a loss that cannot even know
    where the mind can be at ease,
    that seems to be in labyrinth fraught
    with pebbles on the ground and webs
    in the sight that I must huddle thru
    to reach the meaning of my life.
    There my mind can be at rest at last.

  • Eating makes a difference.

    Balancing out calories is not a smart option unless you balance out hormones too. Especially when trying to get rid of stubborn inner thigh fat.

    Source: Get rid of inner thigh fat with these foods

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    I have been trying hard to keep myself in shape both by dieting and exercising for almost 10 years. Dieting is in fact a way of life, not a fad eating habit according to the etymology of the word derived from the Greek word diata. My diet is to forego dinner and be a lacto-ovo vegetarian. Having been in the military also helps me to incorporate in my dietary regime working out at gym at least 5 days a week in the morning before going to work. Thanks much to my religious efforts, I still fit into size 2 clothing and maintain a slim physique. However, like most of my women comrades all over the world, I am concerned about possibilities of having a loose skin, especially in the lower body part as time goes by.

    It is said that the key to a having thin lower body – i.e., thin thighs with a thigh gap and shapely toned legs – results not only from squats and lunges and running but also from what we eat due to our feminine hormones. Women have more percentage of fat receptive cells in the lower body than our better halves who have more fat dissolving cells therein. That is why we see many men with skinny legs. (Well, some of them have legs like chickens’…) So what’s the solution of making your thighs and legs gracefully thin or as thin as you expect them to be? In my case, it’s the food that does wonders.

    Healthy-EatingIt’s the carbs. Carbs are the worst enemy for me to put some of those unwanted, pesky, subcutaneous residual of fat on the inner and outer thighs. Of course, fats also play a pivotal role in cooperating the corpulent procedure. However, in my case carbs are/were the main villain because despite the rigorous exercises at the gym, the villain would not be killed without being forever barred from entering my body. Accordingly, I made a conscious research on the subject, and I found the above link which was a great help. The kinds of food that I have abnegated since are as follows:

    • Sugar (Yeah, that’s right. Being a sweet tooth, it was hard to give up eating gummy worms and gummy fruit snacks.) Any refined sugar, that is any “manufactured” sugar is harmful.
    • Cereals, Cereal bars (Surprised? These include Kellogg’s K series, as well.)
    • Wheat (Bread, Pasta, Biscuits, and Pastry)
    • Crisps
    • Chocolate and Confectionery (All kinds of candy!); and
    • Juices

    In fact, all of the above are not new to those of us women who try to slim down or maintain our already thin physique. But it is always better safe than sorry to avoid all these kinds of food to ensure our disciplinary action on keeping in shape. For example, after 1 week of getting rid of Haribo fruit gummies and Welch’s fruit snacks that claim to have No Fat on the packages, plus low-fat chips and biscuits, my thighs began to be small. In addition to the denunciation of the junk food, I incorporated in my dieting intermittent fasting and calisthenic lower body workouts, such as squats, lunges, and modified push-ups combined with 30 minutes of running on a treadmill and 10 minutes of stair master that boosted up the effects.

    aplessI am marveled at the effects of abnegating all the aforesaid food in a relatively short period of time. So, it was the food, the carbs that resisted going away from my thighs. Now I eat only fruits, mainly apples (my favorite is Gala, but if there is none, I go for Red Delicious.), cubes of watermelon, peaches, or plums. But it’s not that I COMPLETELY forbid any kind of carb because being an Asian I eat a bowl of steamed white rice once in a week when I am off from work. Nevertheless, having sworn of the above-listed junk food was a tour de force of losing more weight and thus slimming down my lower body.

    Therefore, my dear Reader, if you are a kindred spirit, you are kindly directed to click on the above link to read more in-depth article about the topic. Remember, what you eat contributes more to what your body looks like than how much you exercise at gym. Do you know what Ralph Waldo Emerson once said?  “A man is what he thinks about all day long.” Likewise, be mindful of what you put into your body because you are what you eat and because what’s more, “you are worth it!”

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  • About a livelihood

    Have you mulling over what you’re doing for living? This kind of question does sound banal and trifle, since you don’t have to necessarily “like” your job but to maintain your livelihood. However, you cannot help asking you such question when you face the existential horrors in your daily life relating to what you do and whom you encounter or deal with at work. Maybe you are okay to bear it and just grin. But I know there are people who are born with “Supra-perceptiveness” can’t just do so.

    It seems that what determines the course of human affairs is never really intelligence or talent; it’s the feelings of good and bad that really make things change. Also, physical attractiveness counts. As long as you are under the aegis of your boss, you are exempt from punishments and immune from termination. And if you happen to be a beautiful/pretty young woman and get along well with your boss and/or your co-workers, the chances are you will be protected from any kind of misfortune you can think of in your employment.

    What is incredible is that some people get away with their follies without getting noticed. I will call it a flair of sociability. If you are one of a clique because you laugh with them together at however humorless it may be, because you speak the same language with familiar culture and appearance, and because you are just very attractive-looking, you will be immune from being sacked. In sum, you ARE one of them, and they will shield you from all possible harms like a family. Like the Mafia.

    Somerset Maugham once said, “The more intelligent a man is, the more capable is he of suffering.” Rightly so. Maybe we should not think deeply about the buffoonery of our co-workers. Maybe we should just be past caring about all the emotional commotions arising from observing such meritocratic tendencies based upon irrational standards at work. Because wearing a poker face will be your saving grace to keep your weary soul guarded in public. Grinning on the outside, grimacing on the inside. Comedy and Tragedy. What a farce.