The Korean idiom above was not what I was looking for (looking actually hanuel gwa ttang sai, meaning "the difference between the sky and earth," a huge difference) but similar words can mean, "love someone like the sky and the earth." Pretty interesting, but I love the sky and the Earth of New York City recently, especially on one of the longer days of the year (recently we just have the summer solstice, a day in which I went to Coney Island to watch the fireworks on a hot but breezy summer night), and I ended tonight watching the sunset at the Reservoir in Central Park with huge buildings on the sides, truly one of the better things to experience in the world. However, I would trade all of these wonderful views and sights to for being with MJ, my love...........or so the idiom goes. But it is kind of true, I forgo certain experiences nowadays because I know they would be more meaningful to me to have with someone, whereas if I experience it by myself I can only share that experience with myself (and write something nondescriptive and lacking on this blog), so I try to hold back and save it for a more meaningful experience. Rooftop bars, for example, seem like a big thing to do in New York City, and the Top of the Rock is getting a lot of attention for being able to see all the sights and sounds of New York......haven't gone yet. Carnegie Hall......haven't gone yet because MJ would like it. The Guggenheim and the Met.......haven't gone yet. The newly opened Hudson Yards........haven't gone on top of it yet.
I did go running though (I know for sure that MJ would not like to experience that with me) and I have found something: New Yorkers are FAST. It's not walking on the street, where older ladies and young kids pass me on the street when I walk my normal pace, and I feel like I'm holding up the pace of sidewalk traffic whenever I'm walking........it's the jogging, people go at a pretty fast pace, probably because the pace of life here is faster. People are in a hurry to make a quick buck, people have to get work, people have no patience for others. It could also be attributed to my body deteriorating as well as lapsing into bad habits (my pace of walking gets slow if I have no target to reach, no goal to set, which is why people probably run in a team or a running group, to motivate each other to go a certain pace. I don't, and I've started to just stop when my I feel like it, before I ever get to the heavy panting stages). There's a reason Haruki Murakami ran marathons around New York City and wrote a book about it, and the New York Marathon requires a time to qualify........people are fast here. I sometimes took pride when training in the marathon about passing people slower than I was, but here I get passed up constantly, by even some of the most unathletic-looking runners. It's really a hwaneul gwa ttang sai (the difference between the sky and earth) situation.
Fantasize on,
Robert Yan
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