Letter from Seoul 56
Yonsei-ro in Sinchon
You don’t miss your water until the well runs dry.
If you are a photographer, this proverb also reminds us that you don’t miss your cameras until your vision starts to fail you. This is no way to live, especially as a Gray Panther.
To squander the best years of a life for a pocketful of promises that are often lies told in jest is a heartache devoutly to be avoided.
It’s commonly held that when an old person dies, a library burns to the ground. This epilogue is not for me. Not yet; anyway. I’m not in the mood for Unctio in Extremis (Anointing at the point of death).
I still don’t know what I want to be when I grow up. So, I still have places to see, new experiences to pursue. This is a consummation devoutly to be enjoyed.
Hapjeong Subway Station: Line #2 for Sinchon
For the first time in 10-months, I hit the streets of Seoul the other day with my Ricoh GR II. We are both old, yet at the ready to document this addictive experience called life, the mundane, the glory and the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.
Sookyung, the treasure, has questions
I’m eternally indebted to my wife who has brought me back from the edge countless times over the past 15-years. She is my greatest source of wealth. Elon Musk is a pitiful fool compared to this treasure of mine.
I also owe a Five-Star shout-out to Dr. Tae-im Kim. She is a prominent ophthalmologist and professor at Yonsei University College of Medicine, who is also on staff at Severance Hospital. I am lucky to be her patient.
Like many major urban centers, there is that collaborative relationship between both a leading Seoul medical college and a corresponding university. Severance Hospital, considered a premier facility, is literally next door to Yonsei University in the nearby Sinchon neighborhood close to where we live in the city.
Dr. Tae-im Kim specializes in cataract and refractive surgery, corneal diseases, and ocular surface disorders like dry eye.
Hapjeong Subway Station: Line #6 for Gwangheungchang
All doctors at major hospitals in Seoul are fluent in English and Korean. As an American expat, what’s not to like?
With her expertise, Dr. Kim has prescribed an amazingly effective three-step eye drop cocktail of a special serum, steroids, and anti-biotics administered four times daily. This regimen is working like a charm, and I can now dispense with magnifying glasses to read and wearing sunglasses indoors because fluorescent lights have played havoc with my eyes for so many months. It’s enough to make a person rave with delight.
Unlike the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave, Korea believes health care is an essential Human Right.
And by Korea, I mean South Korea – not that ghastly prison camp north of the 38th Parallel, led by that fat fuck Kim Jong Un ... a role model for Head of the Trump Crime Syndicate, America’s Looter-in-Chief.
Yonsei-ro in Sinchon
South Korea features a highly efficient, government-run single-payer system known as the National Health Insurance (NHI). It is financed through mandatory payroll contributions and taxes. The system provides universal coverage for nearly 100% of the population, guaranteeing access to care with minimal wait times and highly subsidized services.
“O America, America, wherefore art thou America?
A despairing nation turns its lonely eyes to elected leaders.
What’s that you say?
Trump, Schumer and Roberts are corrupt
and don’t give a fuck, anyway.”
I’m not dead yet.
Have passport, will travel and photograph what I see.
