In the afternoon on Saturday of February 18, Whitney Houston memorial service was held at her old Church of Hope in Newark, New Jersey and lasted over four hours. This signified a life and death of an artist and human being who will live long in our memories with her strife for life and beautiful songs. The FNC broadcasted the event in its entirety. We watched it from the beginning to the end.
She is reportedly died of drug overdose. She was only 48. But her funeral was somber and celebration of her accomplishment. Though she is dead, her business will remain flourishing for a while -- Who knows how many years. The CD record sales have reportedly increased after the unexpected sudden death. Meanwhile, there seem to be disparaging eyes among some toward her, because she had been scandalous of drug addiction. Certainly this was her weakness. She paid dearly for it by death.
I am not familiar with her personal life. But I remember her resoundingly beautiful voice which filled the whole air of the world when she sang the Star Spangled Banner at the beginning of the Super Bowl XXVI. Her young frame was fit for the most beautiful dress in the world. She was a world's great musician -- a pop artist in history.
I understand how hard it was for her to maintain once reached top level. She might be seduced to follow Michel Jacken, Elvis Presley, and many other predecessors and resorted to drug only to succumb to death. It is not clear to me whether her struggle was for her fame or artistic achievement. Since she is gone, this argument could be at best speculative. Regardless of the verdict, the usage of drug can hardly be justified.
The cause of death is in my humble opinion the pride in the Biblical term. Why could she not think what she had accomplished is already good enough for everyone she cared about including herself? She had talent. She had beauty. She accomplished fame. She had money. But she might have been stuck with instability lurking in her. She was intelligent enough to realize nothing she had achieved is forever to keep.
The life is more then meat. The body is more than raiment. The life is more than fame and wealth. She might have felt the prime of her talent and bodily beauty is in wane. She could not accept it as a fact. We are all mortal. Mortality looms as reality to a septuagenarian like me. Even, kings, queens, princes, princesses, nobles, rich, and famous could not escape from mortality. Death is our last enemy. The only person in history who claimed victory over death was from Galilee in Palestine 2000 years ago. He said only the sacrificial love can conquer death and showed it himself on the Cross. Hope becomes reality in love. He is risen.
(February 19, 2012, KYP)
I was worried about HJ (my wife) making herself too tired to the detriment of her health that may affect on her surgery schedule. She is to take a colon laparoscopic operation soon. But she insisted that she is alright. I knew she did not want to disappoint Cherry -- I call her darling daughter. Cherry has been a diehard UCLA football team supporter for perhaps million years that we have season tickets. We meet at the bowl multitude of people; with them our family mingle. We eat and drink; we yell and hold our breath with hope, joy, and disappointment. After all, we learn something at the end of the day, promising to come again to the next game.
Today is the last game of the season at the home ground, the Rose Bowl. Weather was chilly which is unsual to Californians. So we are prepared with warm clothes. Our tailgate party now has become an essential part of the game. HJ's hamberger was good. The warm barley tea was heartening our frozen bodies. Today's game is between UCLA (University of California at Los Angeles) and UC (University of Colorado). At the stadium, the alumni cheerleader's yelling was even lauder signifying the season' end.
Here is an interesting saga. Taylor Embree is a wide receiver of UCLA playing today. The opponent team coach is Jon Embree, his father. Not very far from our seats are his family members: his grandma, mother, and sister. Their jersey shirts were custom made only for them and were half blue (UCLA) and half black (UC) intertwined like a circus costume. Everybody could understand their inseparable divided feeling, because their minds probably were for both to win, which was not their fate. Jon Embree used to be an assistant coach of UCLA for three and now is the first year coach of UC. A neck and neck score would have been less cruel to some of the family members. The lopsided 45:6 must have been heartbreaking. But Rick Newheisel (UCLA coach) is also at stake. His performance this year has not been very inpressive. This man might be fired unless this game and the other scheduled next week should turn into his favor. The sports world is indeed tough!
My sympathy went to Jon Embree, the loser of the day. What would have been going on his mind? He has to win as the first year coach to secure position. His son, Taylor Embree, has to win graduating this year and seeking professional football career. Would he pray for himself, or his son, were he given only one choice? He was aware of many kids of his son's age depending on him. He might have sensed that his emotion was devilish. But I am sure he prayed for the better performing team to win after all.
(November 20,2011, KYP)
We were involved in a car accident on a beautiful Californian day last November. It happened in the parking lot of a Korean market in Buena Park, California. The market is very popular and a gregarious assemblage of Korean people: the young and the old and in between, new comers and old timers and in between, and the pretty and the ugly and in between. This indeed is a panoramic spectrum of people with varing shapes and different minds. The parking lot that day was packed with randomly moving cars, whose drivers might be searching for empty parking space or trying to head home -- Californians always look busy. You never know what sort of person you deal with until you actually face the situation. Here is my story:
HJ(my wife) with me in the passenger seat was for home, pulling out of the parking slot, and was about to pull toward the alley, when an SUV from the opposite parking slot pulled out backward to hit our car on the rear left hand tailgate light and its surrounding, and resulted in breaking the light fixture and making dent on the nearby body. The offending SUV immediately pulled forward to its original position. The SUV did not suffer even a scratch. Our car was stopped in the middle of the alley. We called the police authority only to learn that a minor accident in a parking parking lot is not worth their time.
The offending driver was an innocent looking Korean woman in her forties accompanied by a teenage boy sitting on her right. They looked young in our view, but in perplexity. We were ancient in their view, but in peace. It was clear that there were aware of the movement of their car before and after the collision. She hurriedly called her insurance agent and called him "Elder" in Korean. Then I guessed her agent to be an elder of a Korean community church somewhere, but not far from the place, which is common in Southern California.
We were to resolve the problem ourselves with none willing to stand witness for all so many observers present on the scene. The woman wanted to leave the scene quickly, telling me that she soon had to pick up her little child from school. This made me think for a moment and reflect back to our younger busy days raising kids. I care about young kids who would carry our still unaccomplished dreams. Though I could be duped by the lady, I decided to trust her integrity. I, using my cellphone camera, took several pictures of the accident scene at varing angles. I even blessed the teenage boy to be a good man, encouraged to study hard, and let them leave the scene. We returned home with our car demaged.
I contected my insurance company to report the accident by providing the necessary information and pictures taken. Within couple of days, our car was fixed nicely and I paid the deductible. I expected the deductible recovered at least in part, since no fault was on our side in our view.
Months later, my insurance company called to inform us that the offender had denied their movement of their car at the collision and had insisted that, contrary to our belief, we pulled out backward to hit their standstill car. At that moment, the faces of the woman, teenage boy, and Elder, the agent, came to mind. Did Elder advise her to deny her action? Did the woman teach her son not to tell the truth? Didn't the teen have courage to stand for the truth? I was disappointed! The teen may learn from his parent expediency over truth. His consciousness may be darkened and diminished from his heart before full blooming.I prayed this not to happen to the boy.
I knew Elder playing the insurance business game. He took the position, without searching for the truth or with taking chance, that his client is not guilty until legally proven guilty, which is a very expensive premise. He played "the game of denial and observation" without knowing when to stop. (Remember California is a liberal state.)
I refuted their denial by reminding the insurance company, with a picture sent for the claim, of the collision spot indicated by the debris scattered on the ground which is the alley, and not the parking spot of their car. But the dispute had been dragged all the way to arbitration. Very recently five months after the accident, Our insurance company sent us a check fully refunding the deductible I paid in advance.
I am thinking of the cost of settlement involved here. Several thousands of dollars at least must have been spent in time and money over the five month period. No wonder the insurance premiums are so high in this country. If the offender had conceded her fault, the total cost must have been reduced thus making Californians less poor. The society without consciousness could be very expensive to run and bankrupt eventually like Greece and many European countries of today. (March 22, 2112, KYP)
