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.
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.
These days, I’ve been wondering about my living in the two centuries (OMG, do I sound like a centenarian? LOL). Would it have been the same for those living in the 19th and 20th centuries? I bet it would have been nothing like my generation – the Lost Generation- the children of the 1970s Children – because we have witnessed the birth of the Internet and learned to use and enjoyed the privilege of incredible modern technology.
The offspring of the Internet comes in the form of Kindle, Music, and movie streaming, not to mention AI Personal Assistant Alexa. Kindle is impressive, although many people grimace about it as if it were beneath traditional books and thus unfit for their intelligent taste. Like YouTube, it has popularized the use and habit of reading everywhere, even in darkness. It will die out without batteries, but with it, knowledge and wisdom from time immemorial till today is stored. It is a compact Library of Barbel in my palm, even in my tiny apartment.
The Internet, however, is not a 21st prerogative because it has already existed in the military world. It was used in military defense for a long time till it became the convenience of civilization. I believe many other technological wonders have been unknown to the public. Who knows, there will be cars that do not require a Driver’s License because they will be auto-piloted. And what about changing faces like the one in the Mission Impossible series? What was once thought of as sorceries are the manifestations of science? Alexa is a ghost in the machine or the spirit of the AI. Maybe.
Describe your most ideal day from beginning to end.
I want to say my ideal whole day is traveling, hiking, getting together with families or writing and reading profusely. That’s what people think the ideal response should be, or it may seem so. But my ideal day is anything but the ideal, far from glamorous, but existential and small.
My ideal day would be free from duties and obligations as a Daughter and an Employee at home with my cats. That said, my ideal day lasts from Friday evening till Saturday evening, during which I don’t have to do anything but watch movie after movie with intermissions of playing with my babies. It will be perfect if it is raining during the pleasure time, but it has to be when I am home, not outside.
Ancient Germanic tribes would drink barrels of beer during the lull in battles with the Romans, according to Tacitus. So, this is my way of unwinding the overdosed adrenaline in the mind and spirit.
On my To-Do List for January 2024, all other plans were crossed out, except for reading the book borrowed from the library and losing weight by dieting and exercising. These boxes are yet to be checked with clear and victorious “V” marks, which makes me feel like Marc Anthony defeated by Julius Ceasar or Napoleon lost to Admiral Nelson.
I still have 11 days to return The Mystery Guest by Nita Prose, for which five readers are waiting. I have already downloaded it on my Kindle, and I check the due date daily like a condemned in a dungeon. My spirit is indeed willing for intellectual stimuli. Alas, the sensory pleasure always wins with the temptation of moving images and vibrant audio in the form of YouTube, Amazon Prime, and NetFlix when I am home.
As for losing weight, it has become a red herring I never thought I would have when I was on the East Coast. Not that I am obese, but I have gained weight since I moved here to Los Angeles. Blame the food and lack of discipline. But this place has a strange spell to make people gain weight because I have heard similar complaints about being adipose from people moving to Southern California, especially LA. Every place has its own aura or vibe, and this place has an atmosphere that prompts people to test their taste buds to the extent possible. Since eating affects losing and gaining weight more than exercising, before going to the gym, which I hardly go to these days, I need to curtail snacks and dinner after 6:00 pm.
Here comes Mr. Artistole again: You are what you repeatedly do. Therefore, excellence is not a performance but a habit. There’s no shortcut to achieving my and your goals – even in this advanced 21st century where Elon Musk says we will all have chips on our brains and travel to Mars. So, I have to carry the unresolved plans to this month because I don’t want to pine away for lamenting and regretting any longer.
Flame, Glass and Ink are Poems, essays, and reading notes by Stefania Joori Suh 
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