By Shin Hye-suk
This summer has been longer and hotter than ever, making sleep difficult and underscoring the harsh reality of climate change. Typically, we expect cooler weather around Chuseok, but this year we visited our family graves while sweating under the unrelenting heat. This shift raises an important question: should we consider alternatives like cemetery parks or planting trees instead of maintaining traditional burial sites?
While families should gather during holidays, the burden of maintaining ancestral gravesites may warrant a more practical approach that remains respectful. Having lived by Confucian values — benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom and filial piety — I now see the fairness in adjusting traditions to fit modern realities.
During this latest Chuseok, I participated in a meaningful volunteer service, providing lunch to older adults living alone and people without housing at Tapgol Park in downtown Seoul. Under the recommendation of Park Soo-bu, former governor of Seoul Rotary District 3650, seven members of the Rotary (Central) Club of Seoul, including myself came together to serve.
We divided into groups: some distributed bread, rice cakes and chestnuts at the entrance, while others handled rice, side dishes like curry, pickled radish, fish cakes and kimchi. Another group served meal trays, guided people to seats and washed dishes. I helped distribute side dishes and meals, greeting each person with a warm “Welcome, enjoy your meal.”
Although the task seemed simple, it took an immense toll on my body, as it was both demanding and physically exhausting. After serving a few hundred people, I was so tired that I spent the next day lying down, aching all over. I couldn’t help but wonder: how do these older volunteers, some even older than those we were serving, manage to do such demanding work? They were quietly focused on their shared task, but I worried — do they not feel pain? I admire their dedication, turning on small but meaningful lights in the darker corners of our society. They are true role models for younger generations.
Observing the volunteers and recipients evoked mixed emotions. Many recipients appeared somber, some visibly with disabilities. One man had lost his legs, while another pleaded, “This is all I’ll eat today; please give me more.” I greeted them warmly while other volunteers cheerfully said, “Please come again.”
While some celebrate holidays joyfully with family, others struggle alone in the streets, subsisting on just one meal a day. Their fate wasn’t a choice — many once lived stable lives until hardship struck. However, a change in circumstances could lead to a more hopeful path.
Good and evil are fleeting perceptions; the devil and the saint have different names, but their essence is one. If you judge others by the assumption that the wicked wear dirty clothes, you only see the surface, not the soul.
As summer fades, the cool autumn breeze arrives with hope.
Shin Hye-suk (sinesu@naver.com), who also goes by Shindy, completed a doctorate in sociology and has devoted two decades of her life to academic pursuits at a university in Japan. She is also a florist and has served as president of the Rotary International Seoul Club Korea.
