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

Tag: writer

  • prompt 92

    What do you complain about the most?

    I get irritated when things are not going the way they should, so the litany of complaints is as follows:

    • I can’t find what I want to wear – My closet is so tiny that all my clothes are crammed together, making it difficult to see my choice of clothese to wear. It happens constantly, so I must prepare my wardrobe for work at night to avoid the hassle in the morning. The closet has more than clothing because it is also used as a multi-storage room for everything from the food for my cats and parakeet to a set of Christmas decorations to miniature dollhouse articles. Searching for what to wear is like finding a Nemo.
    • The buses are not coming, and I am waiting forever… – I commute to and fro work and home by bus, which used to run on time until last month. But now is a morning ordeal. Either I have to get up earlier than now or leave home late. Either way, I am not late for work, but it’s troubling my yearning for a calm morning. What with attending to Mom’s healthcare attention and tending to the morning needs of my cats, fish, and parakeet, my morning is never in the doldrums.
    • I hate when people do not listen to me or ignore my presence – There is nothing more disheartening than being treated as if I were invisible. For example, when you say hi to everyone but me, I will be very shocked, vexed, and disheartened through a process similar to Kubla Ross’s five stages of dying. I will be more in sorrow than in anger if I am ignored.

    So these situations prompt me to burst into complaints, but my complaints usually dissipate into the echo of the air no one hears.

  • Prompt 91

    What would you do if you won the lottery?

    If I won the lottery, the first thing I would do is pay off all my dues in one fell swoop, just like Alexander the Great cutting the Gordian Knot with his sword in one fell swoop.

    Once debt-free, then I would fix my teeth with braces. Orthodontists and dentists make fortunes because, most of the time, dental insurance does not cover the expenses entirely. That is why people do not visit them as often as they should. The ancestors of the professionals were barbers, butchers, and even cooks before the middle-class professionals replaced the aristocracy and became the new ruling class after the French Revolution. It is not to demean dentistry and its professionals out of malice. Still, the medical professionals, except for physicians who did not deal with the blood and pusses from the fleshes, were not regarded as highly as they are now. Today’s exorbitant medical and dental expenses are the pride and prestige of the coveted class status.

    Finally, with the rest of the money, I will buy either a unit of an apartment with a commanding view or a townhouse with a nice little backyard well guarded by a security system somewhere in northern California, Oxnard, or Northridge. If the money’s still left, then I would use it to keep up my appearance and to go to Capri and Positano in Italy for holidays with my cats, Toro and Camille.

  • prompt 90

    What books do you want to read?

    My choice of books is nonfiction, preferably history, particularly about ancient civilizations. Also, I read books about psychology and memoirs of people selected based on their philosophy and characters I find relatedly interesting. A few fiction may claim the places on my list if they are short stories or stories about relatable characters.

    That said, the following is a list of my immediate books to read:

    • The Mystery Guest by Nita Prose – This is my second book of Prose. Her characters are so down to earth with real jobs. She makes the invisible visible. I mean how many books are written about a hotel maid solving a mystery unexpectedely?
    • The Greeks by Philip Matyszak – I am reading it now.
    • Lost Cities of the Ancient World by Philip Matyszak – I enjoy Matyszak’s history books. He draws on sscholarly knowledge with his trademark witticism, which is very entertaining and informative.
    • The Storyteller by Dave Grohl – When I heard it first, I thought it would be a fashionable memoir of yet another millionaire celebrity. But I changed my mind when I read his letter published elsewhere. He seems like a good writer.

    My first choice is The Mystery Guest, which I borrowed from a public library this week. Then I will finish reading The Greeks, which I am in the middle of reading. I habitually read books from one to another, depending on my mood. I should curtail watching YouTube the so that I can finish my books. But when I am home from work or on weekend, I watch aviation or travel contents from YouTube for refreshment because as I mentioned in my previous prompt, reading is studying using the faculty of mind to chew and digest it to be nourished.

    But this is not to say I am a luddite for YouTube, which is also an effective medium for transmitting knowledge of the world. A balanced acquisition of knowledge via optical illumination and linguistic stimulation is what I should do. I just have to make it a habit, as Artistotle said a repetition can make a strong result.

  • prompt 88

    Name an attraction or town close to home that you still haven’t got around to visiting.

    It takes about an hour and 30 minutes from Los Angeles to San Diego by drive, so it’s not precisely near one another. Still, I love to visit the San Diego Zoo and Sea World on vacation.

    Disneyland and Universal Studios are the closest attractions, but I want to meet the animals, including Red Pandas, Tigers, Cheetahs, and Orcas, in person! I contemplated bringing my cats to introduce them to one another, but the Zoo and Sea World policies don’t allow it, so that they will stay home. But I turn on the Wildlife videos on YouTube before going to work, so I hope it will be a vicarious encounter. Of all the animal residents at the zoo, my special interests are Cheetahs and Orcas because they are exquisitely beautiful. I heard there is a unique safari program about Cheetahs, so I look forward to it.

    Wild at home: Toro and Camille from L to R

    Since my life with Toro and Camille, animals – Wild or Domestic – have become friends to me, or so I feel. I think animals know and like me better.

  • Prompt 87

    List five things you do for fun.

    First, I will call it a “leisurely” instead of a “fun” thing. Since Virginia Woolf said, “If you are losing your leisure, you will lose your soul,” these are the five leisurely things I do to refresh my fogged brain and stifled spirit at work and home:

    1. Writing prompts – It’s refreshing to unwind a stressed mind when jotting down short flights of thoughts and images captured in daily prompts, such as I am doing now during my lunchtime in the office.

    2. Decorating my diary and notebook – I like my writing accompanied by images, so my notes are filled with words, stickers, stamps, and drawings. I love cute stationery stuff to make my diary and notebook pretty.

    3. Coloring – I like coloring figures, such as fairies, flowers, cats, and other pretty things, using coloring pencils. The coloring activity takes off the worries and other malaise of daily life.

    4. Playing with my cats – Freud says the time spent with cats is never wasted. Indeed so. They are so adorable to play with when I am home. I don’t have to worry about what and how to speak when playing with my cats, unlike when interacting with my fellow humans. And I do believe animals have souls.

    5. Singing – I love singing to my favorite tunes, from hymns to pop songs. My repertoire consists of these songs: “Faith of the Fathers,” all the songs by the Cranberries, and some others that slipped my mind now.

    I didn’t include reading because it’s considered as studying in the sense that I read it with diligence and attention to acquire knowledge and to chew and digest it, just as Francis Bacon once realized it.

  • prompt 85

    Bloganuary writing prompt
    Write about your first name: its meaning, significance, etymology, etc.
    View all responses

    I have two first names: one is given by my paternal grandmother according to our centuries-old family tradition, which is Joori (주리). The other is by the centuries-old Church, Stephanie. Both names rhyme well, like eurythmics of serendipity, and they are originally Asian.

    Joori (주리) combines two words, Joo, (주), meaning Red, and ri (리), meaning Beneficial. According to the book of the family tree, the children of our clan must have the same characters as their first names. My cousin, the daughter of my father’s older brother, is named Joohyun (주현) and bears the character Joo (주). Hence, my first name also has Joo (주). It used to be quite a unique Korean name when I was little, considered exotic compared to other Korean names for girls. However, a soothsayer once told me that it’s not a good name for me because it obstructed any fortune ahead of me, and I should consider it for another. Nominative determinism, I call it. But I am too lazy to go through all the seismic name-changing procedures in two countries.

    Stephanie is my Christian name. My maternal family has been Catholic for three generations in Korea, so baptism was the beginning of a rite of passage to be received in the Church. The original version of Stephanie is Stephania, a feminine form of Stepehn or Stephano (Hebrew: סטפנוס, Greek: Στέφανος Stéphanos, meaning ‘wreath or crown.’ Mom once told me that a religious sister at a parochial church we used to go to when I was tiny looked at me and told her to name me Stephania. So, there’s nominative determinism with this name as well. I was named after St. Stephen, the protomartyr of Christianity whose feast day is December 26th in the liturgical calendar. He was a Hellenistic jew, a decon, and a Jewish community leader in Greece, who was not afraid of holding his fatih high and facing stoning to death by exclaiming, “Lo, the door of heaven is opening now!” Hence, he was crowned with the wreath of faith.

    Names are what endows people with presence. We are no longer immaterial spirits but materialize as corporeal individuals once the names are given and called. My first names, Stephanie Joori, constitute what I am. And to the people who ask me why I use a Western name, such as Stephanie, hark! The etymology of the name Stephanie is derived from Hebrew סטפנוס, and Israel is located not in Europe but Asia. And just like my patron saint, I am a Korean diaspora living in the States, speaking both Korean and English and helping those in both communities. So, nominative determinism seems to work on my names. A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.