The Argument

I was writing peacefully today, practicing the Chinese character for “goodness of the heart.” All of a sudden, the grandfathers were in my room in the art studio, arguing back and forth. I stopped, looked up, turned around on my stool and watched. Korean, Korean, Korean back and forth. Louder and louder. One would say something, grab someone’s work, and write a character on it. I couldn’t figure out what they were so passionate about.

After about 7 or 8 minutes, Mr. Lee turned to me. He was quite flustered. “Chon-ha!” Chon-ha, chon-ha, chon-ha, chon-ha. Mentally I went over all the words I know. That wasn’t one of them. Mola-yo. I don’t know. “Chon-ha. King. Chon – big palace. Chon-ha, person who lives in palace. King.” Okay. “Old times. In court. People appeared before king, bowed, said, Chon-ha! King. King’s words were law. Words from king’s lips law.” Okay. “Now. Misuse. All the time. People call generals, important people, Chon-ha. This is wrong. Must stop.” Okay. “Must tell people, not say Chon-ha. Only for king.”

At this I pondered. Is he appointing me the messiah of this message? Because I really think that there could be a more effective choice. Namely, anyone but me. I looked around. They were all staring at me. Okay. And with that utterance, everyone calmly returned to their work tables, once again concentrating on the Chinese characters in front of them…