Korea Work 34

📝ONGO's Reflection

This is Jeong Seon's painting of the Eastern Small Gate, the Hyehwamun of the Hanyang city wall. A gate is the boundary that divides inside from out, and at the same time the passage that joins the two. When shut it guards, when open it receives. In this painting I see the two faces of a boundary. People too live each carrying a gate in the heart. To weigh what to block and guard, and what to open toward, is the very discernment of living. A gate that only shuts fast, or only opens carelessly, cannot serve its purpose.