[A Sip of Books] Poems, Words, Books, and Movies That Grew My Life

This is a book about words and writing conveyed by Lee Jeongheon, former JTBC anchor. It unravels four-character idioms, poetry, words, books, and movies that have nurtured his life from high school to the present. He says, "I hope the words and writings I have realized become messages of dreams and hope for you as well."

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I do not belittle myself by comparing with others. The path I have walked was not a straight, smooth road. Even if I went a bit slowly, I took winding turns, walked my own path, looked around, and cared for my neighbors. My life may not be a smooth road going forward either. However, I have great expectations that many people around me who walk with me will enhance the charm of the serene curved path rather than the straight road. A certain tree expert says this: straight trees have good value as timber and are cut down quickly, while twisted and bent trees just remain in the mountains. But an apartment landscaping expert says differently: straight trees have little artistic value, while twisted and bent trees have a remarkable charm and are recognized as valuable landscaping trees for expensive apartments and sold accordingly. We are all valuable people. Each has their own path, their own life. From

"When you look at the evening, look as if the day is dying there. And when you look at the morning, look as if all things are being born there. May what reflects in your eyes be new every moment. A wise person is one who marvels at everything."

This is such a beautiful sentence that I want to memorize it entirely. I really like Minumsa’s World Literature Collection, and I found this passage in Andr? Gide’s . It conveys an attitude of savoring life as if chewing it thoroughly. Our lives are always hard, so we cling to the past or worry about the future and miss the present. They say living focused on the present is a happy life, but it’s not as easy as it sounds. Andr? Gide laments in the same book, "You do not marvel enough at this dazzling miracle called life." In fact, life is nothing special. It is a repetition of trivial things, but we look at these trivial things in a truly trivial way. Because trivial things repeat, some say life is boring. We take the subway or bus to work just like yesterday, eat food similar to the day before yesterday, and always drink the same coffee. You might ask what meaning can be found in the repetition of such triviality. From

On Christmas Eve 2022, writer Jo Sehee passed away at the age of 80. He depicted the pain of urban poor and the vulnerable through the lives of a dwarf family living in unauthorized housing during the late Yushin regime. I remember the day in high school when I read 'The Dwarf' on a teacher’s recommendation and spent the whole day in a daze. Now, older, he called himself part of the ‘Corpse Generation’ who has lost even the strength to be angry against an unjust system. But that is not true. His resistance naturally flows down to the next generation, accumulating the anger to confront injustice. The book contains sharp warnings against compliance and non-resistance that remain as sharp as blades. And I too most despise when evil becomes charity, hope, truth, and justice. But it is true that countless heinous acts of evil have suffocated us. The book contains many writings criticizing the Yushin regime of the 1970s, and even now, reading them stings because some things have not changed since then. So although the writer is no longer with us, I am confident that his spirit still lives within us. From

The Power of Words That Save Lives | Written by Lee Jeongheon | Saebit | 360 pages | 18,000 KRW

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