If there was a biography about you, what would the title be?
Wandering Ghost without face
A ghost wandering with the streams of sorrow’s salt fire billowed on her glass heart, shattered, changed forever, has no face because she knows not what face she has. She sees it beautiful, yet severe, bright but dark. No one wants to see her, and everyone decides to ignore her. She has become invisible, and by and by, she loses her face and thus becomes invisible as people want her to be. Just like her star losing the brightness of the fire, her spirit loses the luster of light. Alas, never to acquaint joy, footless to wander evermore.
If you had the power to change one law, what would it be and why?
I will abolish the At-Will Employment law so that the employer cannot terminate the employee at any time without notice.
I have seen people fired, and most of the time, it’s not because of the poor work performance of the employees but because of personal traits that collide with their supervisors/managers/colleagues, who appear to be all neurotypical.
Charlie Chaplin’s Modern Times depicts how a man is treated as an expendable component of the systematic organization. We are neither AIs nor toy soldiers marching forward unquestioningly at the command of winding tape. Therefore, I will abolish this inhumane At-Will Employment law so that people don’t need to fear losing financial security and mental stability. It will decrease the increasing rates of homelessness and poverty.
I prefer the sea to the mountains. The sea opens my heart to infinite possibilities, imbued with mysterious hopes and yearnings. Accordingly, my dream home is an apartment with a view of the sea, preferably the Mediterranean Sea, whose image is always the Sun, the Azure Skies, and the vibrant ambiance that speaks PLESANTNESS.
I will decorate my balcony with pretty flowers and a table with a parasol to have breakfast or read books with a glass of iced coffee. My bedroom will also view the ocean from the sizeable sun-filled window. I prefer one bedroom, which is large enough to be both a home office and a bedroom. Of course, there will be plenty of space for my cats, Toro and Camille. Because of my fur babies, I dream of my dream apartment where they can roam around, run around, and play around.
There are lovely apartments with such ocean views here in Southern California, but they don’t have the same ambiance as their counterparts on the Amalfi Coast. Something about that place captures my heart, so it will be my dream to live there in my dream home with my cats. That will be lovely.
Are there any activities or hobbies you’ve outgrown or lost interest in over time?
Scene from The Sylvanians
I should have gone to bed after a long day at the doctor’s office and a trip to the pharmacy to pick up my medication. But today’s prompt question is too inviting to decline.
I used to write weekly episodes of “The Sylvanians” with the pictures I took to illustrate each episode before my brother left us for his life abroad with all the yokes of filial duties thrown at me. I still have the Sylvanian figures and the miniature items used as pictorial illustrations for my episodic writing. By the way, the German Romantic composer Wagner, also Hitler’s favorite composer epitomizing the greatness of the Germanic/Aryan race, used to wear costumes or grand wardrobes as a visual aid to provoke his musical muse.
The stories evolve around Sally
But that was the time when my mother did not need medical/psychological attention daily. That was when I used to work in a boutique law firm with no office politics among staff. Now that I work with and among people who are as philistine as the inhabitants of Earth after the end of the world, my energy is nearly exhausted at the end of a day’s work. Yes, I must gird up the loins of my spirit to push myself to take pen to paper. Still, I am neither a zealous would-be writer who wants to wow the world, nor am I a demimonde of the intellectual elite nor a fabulous amateur writer who wants to exhibit a perfect command of English.
I am all sweetness. I have sweet teeth. Too sweet to discipline, not to be sweet. My darling sweets are Gummies, and chocolates must have sweetness filled with flavors, preferably from Germany.
Of all gummies, gummy worms are the sweetest. I’m not too fond of worms, but strangely, I am charmed with gummy worms. Nothing macabre or carnivalistic is associated with ritualistic pleasure, but I like its flavor, which tastes particularly delicious to be addictive. The gummy worms from Black Forest are the best. And I like the gummy worms from a market or a sweet store sold by weight. American gummies are the best.
As for chocolates, my love goes to Milka’s strawberry-filled chocolate bar and Lindt Sport Chocolate bars with flavors. Who says Godiva chocolates are the finest? They are overpriced and overhyped even though they are only chocolates. On the contrary, Milka and Lindt have democratized quality chocolates so everyone can enjoy the delicacy. I may be biased in my preference, but how can it be when it is an empirical opinion?
My sweet teeth may bear the consequence of my lifelong love affair with sweetness, but I will not forego it to wear a prim and grim face of being freakishly healthy. Because without sweets, the world will be drab and dreary. And I don’t want to grow old without the sweetness in my soul.
Ad Astra (2019) and The MArtian (2015) from L to R
I know a thing about loneliness: willing and unwilling. It is lovely when it is mixed with white noise, like the sounds of raindrops or bells tolling afar. But too long quiet becoming dead silence unwanted is dreadful and miserable, as if I were forcibly cut off from the rest of humanity. That’s what happened to the spacemen on Neptune in Ad Astra (2019 film) or Mars in The Martian (2015 film) in their fated space odysseys.
Fall from heaven and the man in search of life
Ad Astra shows Major Roy McBride (played by Brad Pitt) is a cinematic version of Classical Greek drama. Roy is a hero because he has conquered his fear of not being true to his sensitive nature. It is also an epic tale of man’s voyage to the end of the world in the sense that he reaches his ideation of dream in truth. One of the most memorable scenes is when Roy falls from the ladders of the International Space Station’s spacecraft to the Earth, a spectacular rendering of the Fall of Man from high to low. Still, it also means an escape from darkness to light, which the Blue Marble symbolizes.
Left Alone On Mars
If Ad Astra is sentimental, the Martian is jovial in approaching a man in solitude. Mark Watney (played by Matt Damon) is a resourceful botanist who makes the possible out of the impossible. His brilliant mind, blended with his adorable wit tipped in cheerful disposition, propels him to survive on Mars and never surrender to hopelessness. Watching Mark growing potatoes on Mars and telling jokes to the camera to cheer him up reminds me of Horace Walpole’s following quote: “This world is a comedy to those that think, a tragedy to those that feel.” Charlie Chaplin adapted thus: “Life is a tragedy when seen in close-up, but a comedy in long-shot.”
Miss Universe
Man in space seems romanticly adventurous and mysteriously atmospheric. Still, it is a metaphor for being alone, the existential distress with no sense of direction in life with no one to speak to but the sound of silence that echoes loneliness aloud. Yet, those moments of darkness will pass if you let them go away with the will to live. Indeed, Matt Watney is brilliant in figuring out how to live in such an adverse environment, but he would perish soon without his will to live. So is Ron, who could have been lost in space had he given up to disappointment. They are Nietzschean superheroes who have whys to live and thus huddle through any hows. Also, nothing is more beautiful than Earth, sparkling like a gorgeous blue marble. Therefore, there is no point in war, conflict, or any unrest among ourselves because we are all family in Humankind in the universe.
Flame, Glass and Ink are Poems, essays, and reading notes by Stefania Joori Suh 
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