In the Bosom of Nature

By Kim Song-roi

I often derive much pleasure from my morning walk because it always blows away the cobwebs from my head.

For this reason, on an early morning some days ago, I rose in the wee hours of the morning to catch the freshness of the morning, and strolled through a forest path surrounded by green areas that stretches for hundreds of square miles between Sadang-dong and Cheongrim-dong. Since I live in a house in Cheongrim-dong, it is only a short walk to the place that is one of my favorite resorts.

That day, I started on my walk before the dawning sun peeped over the sky. It was as if I was making a patrol as a security guard or a ranger in the dead of night. A breeze began to blow from the east and the mild sensuousness of it at this hour of the morning put me in a bright frame of mind. The sounds of my steps were softened into silence.

While I enjoyed walking through the hilltop path in the gray of the morning, I looked forward to the moment when the rising sun would reveal itself in the eastern sky.

Prior to the sunrise, I climbed atop a hill to take up a good vantage point to watch for the rising sun. It was not long before the first streaks of daylight began to glimmer on the farthest bounds of the eastern horizon and slowly brightened the nocturnal skies still strewn with stars.

I watched the ineffable beauty of the rising sun in a feeling of awe ― a moment that I always await with delicious anticipation. Soon the sun had cleared a distant mountain and hung free in the sky.

In the meantime, I noticed that blades of grass in fresh verdure were covered with dew and shined brightly in the reflected light of the sun. The dew-laden green occupied all of my attention in an atmosphere thick with life.

A little later on, however, I fell into a brown study after seeing clear evidence of environmental pollution. I found out that the leaves of grass, which had apparently dropped off to a quiet sleep at night, were slightly covered with dust.

In my estimation, it is probable that the plants that had taken root in the suburbs were in a precarious state of health and weren't in any sense normal.

At that time, I felt the urgent need to probe the causes of the environmental pollution. It seemed to me that the chief causes of the polluted atmosphere of the city would be found in the illegal acts of unscrupulous citizens.

Most likely, the pollution was made possible through the peddling of administrative favors. However, I think that environmental pollution is not a problem that defies a solution within the framework of the present system. It leaves no room for doubt that we have benefited much from nature.

Under these circumstances, however, we cannot be positive about the future of this relationship unless necessary measures for its safeguard are provided. The problem should not be passed unnoticed lest it becomes too late.

On account of this, I put forth an opinion that all of us together, both inside and outside of the government, have to take drastic measures to rescue the environment. This is because we cannot entrust only the government agencicies with complete responsibility over the matter.

At any rate, I would like to say that we should dismiss the idea of monopolizing the profits of the earth. The earth, in reality, is the mother of all things though humans act as if they own her; they do so in forgetfulness of the source of their vitality. Like the baby suckling at its mother, it is nature that sustains us.

The writer lives in Gwanak-gu, Seoul, and can be reached at kwanak11@hanmail.net.

[출처 : 코리아타임스]