Things Korean

The chopsticks they used for eating, the sashes they used to fasten their clothes, the ceiling rafters they gazed at as they reclined on the cool floor in the summer—all of these creations together formed a constellation in their minds. The nature of this constellation, in turn, reflected their mind. The things they lived with, more than being objects of simple utility, were the expression of what they saw in life and what they felt about life.

Is it just that the rays of stars come from so far away that the stars have now lost their luster? Is this why we in modern times are unable to hear what they are telling us? The things we use every day, too—even when we do regard one of them as more than a mere tool, it is because we see it not for what it is, but for what we can get from it. We regard it as a quaint or cute piece of handicraft, or we admire it for its value as an antique. We have lost the poetics of seeing the object as part of a constellation with many stories to tell, of seeing these objects together as a book with so much to tell us.