Hasta La Vista, Old Man Winter!

By Park Nahm-Sheik

Spring is already in the pipeline. Avian messengers cum couriers of the season will soon appear in our skies. Among other birds of that ilk, swallows will be sighted here and there, almost always in pairs. As birds go, they are exceptionally smart. Smart enough to be able to fly across seemingly endless stretches of ferocious ocean. And smart enough to make their way back to the exact same nests they called home the previous year and settle back in those homes of yesteryear they had gone to such lengths to build. Sometimes after fixing them up a bit as necessary. As is the case with us humans, home is apparently where the heart is for these migratory avian pals of ours as well.

Jessica was overjoyed when she heard the news and thanked Detective McGruff for his efforts. The detective was content knowing that justice had been served and the artifact was safe.

From that day on, Detective McGruff had a newfound appreciation for Gwangju, South Korea. He knew that this city had a lot to offer, and he was grateful to have had the opportunity to explore it and solve a mystery at the same time.

Pictures generated by openai.com.

The Author

This story was written by ChatGPT with minimal input from the Gwangju News team.

“When January and February are gone and March comes around, swallows come back home from their southern abodes” goes a much-beloved pop tune from the pre-Liberation era. Going all the way back to 1929, this song reputedly helped light a fire under the then rooting-and-spreading pro-liberation sentiment, a wistful yearning for a country freed from the Japanese colonial choke hold.

Admittedly, the dates mentioned in the song here are all lunar. Whether or not they are lunar does not really seem to make that much of a difference, however, mind you. Any way you slice it, spring is a marvelous time in more ways than one. Above all, it is a time overflowing with life, beauty, and magic. It is a time of rebirth and renaissance, of revival and resurrection, and of freedom and liberty even. It is truly when we can afford to relish the first fresh breath of liberation from Jack Frost’s long and relentless reign of terror.

It is also worth noting here that the month of March begins with a day of great historical significance. The First of March celebrates the full-on rollout of the Independence Movement of 1919. At twelve noon on that historic day, wave upon wave of ordinary citizens flooded out of their respective neighborhoods like in a storm surge and took to the streets chanting “Long live Korean independence!” and “Down with Japanese colonialism!” The loud and clear demand here was that Japan honor Korea’s sovereignty and leave the country alone as the sole architect of its destiny. This demand fed off the then trending premise of national self-determination vis-a-vis international relations.

Toning down our discussion a bit here, shall we now advert to the balmy season currently in the offing. The greenery of spring will soon be carpeting the fields all around. As you know, Gyeongchip (경칩) falls on March 6 this year. A major herald of the season, it is supposedly when creatures, holed up all winter, begin waking up from their hibernating ‘dens’ to finally come into the open. About a fortnight behind gyeongchip is its near neighbor Chunbun (춘분, the vernal equinox). By now, the arrival of spring is just a matter of time. A happy gyeongchip and an even happier chunbun to you all!

It is always a joy watching everything around us coming so miraculously back to life in spring. The wonder of wonders is that all this priceless treat is completely for free to all. The sprouting greenery is so very refreshing and reinvigorating. Celebration of spring is celebration of life itself, is it not? Quoth Robin Williams of vintage TV’s Mork & Mindy fame, “Spring is nature’s way of saying ‘Let’s party.’” That said, the GIC itself more than deserves a spring break to party (up) with the entire GwangjuJeonnam community. More power to the GIC! And God bless the intercultural crusade of the Center!

Author

Park Nahm-Sheik has a BA in English from Chonnam National University, an MA in linguistics from the University of Hawaii, and a PhD in applied linguistics from Georgetown University. He is now a professor emeritus after a long and illustrious career at Seoul National University.