Thursday, January 18, 2007

When I find myself in times of trouble, mother Mary comes to me,
speaking words of wisdom, let it be.
And in my hour of darkness she is standing right in front of me,
speaking words of wisdom, let it be.

And when the broken hearted people living in the world agree,
there will be an answer, let it be.
For though they may be parted there is still a chance that they will see,
there will be an answer. let it be.

Let it be, let it be, let it be, let it be.
Whisper words of wisdom, let it be.


About 10 days ago, major world media outlets caught wind of a small story with large regional implications. “South Korea has proposed calling the body of water between it and Japan [currently called the Sea of Japan] the "Sea of Friendship" so as to end a naming dispute, a presidential official said on Monday.” The Japanese response was, not surprisingly, an incredulous “No,” followed by an eye-roll, a quick elbow into Russia’s rib and a muttered, “Can you believe this guy?” As this particular dispute seems rather one-sided, the words above quickly came to mind. What is Korea gonna do? Round up the world’s cartographers and get them to switch the name on a whim, for the hell of it? Just let it be. Then again, did Paul just let it be after the Beatles broke up? No. He went off and started a little project called Wings. Did he just let it be after Michael Jackson out-bid him for the Beatles catalogue? Well, bad example. Did he just let it be after Jane Asher dumped him after finding him in bed with another woman? No. He picked up with some chick named Linda. Maybe you’ve heard of them? Did Paul McCartney just sit back and let it be after he lost Linda to cancer? No! He married an amputee/activist and, allegedly, knocked her around after knocking her up. That example isn’t so great either. Well, I guess letting it be has its merits.


Okay, okay, let's take a different tack. A dear friend to Seoulitary Confinement, who was for several years, during his formative high school days, stuck with a derogatory nickname he didn't like, decided to just change it. One day he said, “This is my new nickname, I don’t like the old one and this one makes more sense anyway…” And I’ll be damned if with a lame-but-rational argument and a LOT of persistence, the “Bear” was born. I guess this isn’t without precedent for geographical names either. I doubted the Cape of Good Hope always had such a sanguine name. Sure enough, in 1488 the Portuguese explorer Bartholomeu Dias deemed it, quite appropriately, Cabo das Tormentas (Cape of Storms). How heated was the debate among selenographers before settling on the “Sea of Tranquility"? So we say to the Koreans, do NOT let it be. Keep fighting the good fight! We here at Seoulitary Confinement are behind you. 100%. We shall champion this cause with all of our resources. Together we can change the hearts and minds and maps of the world. That body of water does not belong to Japan! And once we achieve this milestone, we can take up a new challenge, to cease the terrible balkanization of America by bridging the Cumberland Gap, by crossing the Mason-Dixon Line, by uniting the Continental Divide!!


4 comments:

Emmie said...

well i loved the poem here... thats so inspiring... i liked the views that u have put forward.... thanks for sharing all that information here... i would love to drop by your blog again...!!!

-al said...

i like your poem, too.
someone should put it to music.

Anonymous said...

As for random nicknames, I think that Rage worked well for it's time. Whatever happened to that guy...

Anonymous said...

Are you F*@$&#G kidding me? "i (sic) loved the poem here...thats (sic) so inspiring..."?!?!?!

Aside from the obvious oblivious joke, don't we teach people to use capitalize the letter "I" when referring to ones self? Or the proper usage of apostrophes?

meh...I thought that would be funnier than it ended up being after re-reading it. nevermind.