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

Tag: Writing

  • prompt 116 on beautiful stranger

    Describe a random encounter with a stranger that stuck out positively to you.

    No, it’s not Madonna’s kind of Beautiful Stranger, but the one whose act of kindness flows from all her deeds and demeanor expressed to the other stranger.

    Back in the days when I worked full-time and studied full-time at college, my purse was often thin, which Benjamin Franklin would have disapproved as a sign of excessive spending. I had to sacrifice two meals a day and leisure to make a living as the family’s eldest child. One day I got on the bus to school, but it was too late to realize that I was short of money. I was embarrased to be a public display of poverty, so I was about to got off the bus crestfallen and misrable. The fact about me is that I am tranparant of my feelings and emotions, which are blatantly shown on my face.

    Then, a beautiful lady resembling one of those figures in the ancient Greek urns offered me help. With a gracious smile, she paid it forward with her money, and I could ride the bus to my classes. She sat next to me and started chatting with me. It dawned on me that she was an exchange college student from Greece and would return to her country soon. I thanked her, and she said she had been in my shoes before. We parted with smiles and hearts that are universal in all humankind.

    John Milton in Paradise Lost describes, “Those graceful acts, those thousand decencies, that daily flow from all her words and actions.” Hence, my beautiful stranger.

  • prompt 114 on books to repeat all times

    What book could you read over and over again?

    If I am a miraculous survivor of a plane crash or a sunken ship on an uncharted island, I will not become a mad woman with these books to read repeatedly.

    1. Jane Eyre by Charlott Bronte – Since I first read it when I was thirteen, I have always found a kindred spirit in this classic but timeless book. As Ben Jonson called his rival and friend William Shakespeare not a man of the time, but a man of all seasons, Jane Eyre is a classic in the sense that it was fabulous in her time as it is in my time. Unlike Jane Austen’s characters, who are more vibrant and energetic with dashing young men and society, Charlotte’s characters are somber outside but passionate inside, like a condensed energy blasting, untamed, powerful, and beautiful penetrating the heart of the readers and lingering in mind changing the colors with forever lusciousness. Jane Eyre may not be Botticelli’s Venus or a Helen whose face launched a thousand ships, but her subdued beauty withstands the change of seasons and doesn’t stale.

    2. Ancient Magik and other books by Philip Matyszak – I love ancient history before Christ because the world was packed with pagan gods, goddesses, and spirits. But to solely focus on occultism is not my cup of tea, as I wouldn’t say I like the precarious approach and perception of things supernatural as if it were a domain of young adults or teenagers. Matyszak, an eminent ancient historian who is deeply conversant with the ancient magik elements from Love Spells to Drawing the Moon to summoning the dead from the Underworld, fits my taste for historical accounts of supernatural practices prevalent in the ancient world from East to West, north to south. His wealth of knowledge draws on extensive reading and impressive research, but he wears it with general readers in mind in wit. So much so that he reminds me of Herodotus, the father of history as we know it now in individual account narratives. With Matyszak’s books, I can quickly and willingly find myself lost in the misty past in one fell swoop.

    You may think I am a classic reader, but I also read books written in our time like magazines, which I do not read more than once. So the above-listed books are my favorite all-time books, like a cup of hot oolong tea that I always seek as my comfort drink, never out of fashion.

  • ptompt 113 on morning rituals

    What are your morning rituals? What does the first hour of your day look like?

    The mornings are the busiest time in my daily life. It starts with fresh drops of liquid eye lubricant, followed by a simple morning prayer devoid of meaningless mechanical abracadabra. I am unsure if my letter of wish is delivered, but I think it is because otherwise, the whole world seems apocalyptically hopeless and lifeless.

    Then my eyes meet the eyes of my cats, Toro and Camille. I say, “Good morning,” and, “Let’s have a great day!” After that, each of them does his morning rituals: Toro goes out to the living room, and Camille wants to eat breakfast. Boy, is he a voracious eater! Although he is agile and lithe, Camille eats at least five times daily, contrary to Toro, who prefers snacks. I wish I could be like Camille, but then that’s Camile, and I am this.

    While my cats are doing their rituals, I clean their toilets and make sure the litter is fresh and ample. After that I begin my toiletries and dressing up. The last ritual is to make iced Americano and pour it into my favorite Starbucks tumbler that keeps iced coffee until I return home in the evening.

    Sometimes, I wish my morning to be more relaxed so I can start my work day more fresh and have time to ease my nerves. But what I am always amazed after I wake up in the morning is I am still alive. Otherwise, I may miss all these morning rituals.

  • prompt 112 on strategies

    What strategies do you use to cope with negative feelings?

    When I feel like I have plunged into the lowest abyss and hope is just a vain, dangerous illusion, I watch supernatural movies or funny comedy shows to channel the fear into scare or laughter.

    Fear because it will take me to the world of those who forget they are dead and wander around in this world. Laughter is what others self-prescribe for symptoms of dark spells, but it works in most cases, like excellent over-the-counter medications to relieve temporary pain. If these do not function effectively, I opt for a coloring book or decorate my journal with stickers and other ephemerals.

    However temporary the effects may be, engaging in those above surely helps me not to dwell in the pit of the most bottomless abyss and stay there for a long time.

  • Prompt 111 on TV Series

    What movies or TV series have you watched more than 5 times?

    I like movies or TV dramas with interesting characters known and unknown, modern and classic, and stories with universal themes that citizens of the world can associate with. That said, these are my all-time TV dramas I have watched more than 5 times:

    1. Jane Eyre (1983 BBC Miniseries) – This 1983 BBC miniseries of Jane Eyre always arrests my full attention to every scene of the episodes without the infelicity and pomposity that classical period dramas sometimes tend to produce on account of obsolete diction and rude gestures that look incongruously emphatic to our modern senses and sensibilities. It is a quaintly gorgeous drama without the ostentatious glamor of television drama exhibiting luminous Vanity Fair; it shows that just simple good scripts based on the loyal adaptation of the original novel and excellent performance of the fine cast that seems to be destined for the roles can translate the imaginative world of the author into the visual firmament of television drama this beautifully and realistically.

    Mosss (L) and Lewis (R)

    2. Inspector Moss – I first came to know Moss when I lived in a dorm during my college years. Inspector Moss is cranky, uptight, and stubborn, but he is wonderfully intelligent and surprisingly good-hearted when you come to know him. His sidekick, Sergent Lewis, is a perfect partner for his boss because of his mild manner and street-smart sense that complements Moss’s lack of touch with the real world. Each episode has characters we can see every day, and the stories are connected with dots and lines like a tessera put together by Moss aided by Lewis.

    My favorite travel show and dream destination

    3. Other travel-related YouTube programs – I love watching travel shows or travel stories on YouTube when I work from home or do not feel well to clear away the clouds in my mind. As John Steinbeck said, sometimes it’s better to experience the joy of seeing the world by book or any other visual aids than actual traveling because of the hectic schedules and pesky arrangements of lodging. I agree with him.

    For someone who gets easily bored with repeition, the aforesaid television dramas are worth watching repeats because they do not present overtly paid celebrities with freakilsy good looks or presposterous story lines that many people do not feel related.

  • prompt 110 on question

    What is one question you hate to be asked? Explain.

    A seemingly innocent question can be out of the question depending upon time and place. I have two such questions I hate being asked:

    1. How old are you? – I don’t see the importance of knowing one’s age unless I am in a doctor’s office. Oscar Wilde said a woman revealing her age will tell almost everything. I am not that woman, and I think age should not matter, especially for a woman’s nature to be beautiful.

    2. Can you do me a [big] favor? – The question itself is arbitrarily imposed upon the asked. How dare the other be! Why do I have to perform something that satisfies the id or ego of the other? It is a blatant expression of a market bargaining of human relationships.

    I am easily moved into tears when I see a person in need or watch sad movies. I also forgive people who broke my heart if they apologize to me or treat me nicely later – without asking for a [big] favor. So, the questions mentioned above trouble me extensively with pain, knowing that I have to answer them reluctantly against my true self.