그리고 수용이 오늘 나의 모든 문제에 대한 답이다
And Acceptance Is the Answer to All My Problems Today
Today Neil and I saw a play called Kim’s Convenience by a Korean-Canadian playwright named Ins Choi. He was born in Korea but raised in Toronto, where his father was a pastor at a Korean church. In an interview, Choi reminisces about his father’s spiritual yet entertaining sermons, and this is when Choi realized he wanted to be an actor. He couldn’t find roles for a K-C actor, so he wrote a play with a role for himself. It took him 7 years to write it, but he couldn’t get Toronto theaters interested, so he staged the play himself 25 years ago.
There are 5 characters in the play, and they’re all people of color. A Korean Umma (mother) and Appa (father) in their 60s, a 32-year-old son (Choi’s role), a 30-year-old daughter, and another 32-year-old male. The play took off and then Netflix got involved, so Choi turned his poignant 75-minute play into a 5-season series on Netflix. Now the play’s up and running again, so Choi’s playing the Appa character which he’d imagined for himself from the beginning. He laughs and says he just needed to get old, and sure enough it happened!
Tomorrow I see my Korean podiatrist, so I’m bringing playbills in case she or any of her patients are interested. After the play we went for dinner across the street. We’d never been to this French restaurant, and they had their big patio doors open, and the gorgeous overcast skies changed the silver color of Disney Hall across the street to more of a golden hue. It felt New York-y. I had my Rollator parked next to my table with those playbills on the seat. A guy barrels through knocking it over—sending playbills flying. I wince, and he shouts, “You shouldn’t have left it there,” as he races away. My first thought’s usually my dad wouldn’t have done that. He would’ve stopped, apologized, and handled the mess he’d made. But my dad’s gone, and this guy’s not here to do what I want him to. It’s not the job of any of you to appease Queen Sheila. An employee dashed over to help, we finished our dinner, and on the drive home, I rebooted and got grateful.
Parents and children. We’re always mirroring that which we’ve been taught.