Thinking About 4.16.

I begin this piece with something my mother said.

4.19 wasn't a matter of our generation so I didn't know it, but 5.18 was my matter. But because people spoke of it too negatively, there was no helping it. And now it's become 4.16, and this thought comes to me. If no one talks about today, how heartbroken those families would be — I suddenly came to understand.

Whether 5.18 or 4.19, they've all become commemorative days now, so when someone honors that day, at least the families of those who were sacrificed on that day would surely feel grateful to the people who remember the event, wouldn't they..

Because rain falls today, the countless bereaved families can remember it as a day the sky too wept, and I hope it becomes an even more impassioned memorial than last year. Perhaps, perhaps for them, just as much as the longing for direct reform of social structures and the desire to prevent such a disaster from ever happening again, they may also wish for this present-progressive event they experienced to be remembered. By remembering this, I hope it can become strength and courage for those people.

P.S. While telling this story, my mother said this. Holding a 'memorial rite (jesa)' is similar to this too. That is, when I, or someone, am remembering someone who is no longer in this world, there could be no more wounding and heartbreaking words than to say of that, 'once you leave this world, nothing remains.' Indeed. That's why we hold memorial rites, and hold requiem masses, and remember in our own individual ways the people who are no longer in this world..