The West Commences: What goes around, comes around

The first time I heard the expression, ‘What goes around, comes around.’ that I now hear often, was about 15 years ago when my brother used it. He said he had learned it from the guys he worked with at Richardson’s elevator. Lately, I’ve being thinking of it in relation to Christianity. When I was young and going to Sunday school and C.G.I.T. at Wesley United Church in Thunder Bay, I remember that for a while there were boxes outside the door on Sundays with the words, ‘If your nylons run, let them run to Korea.’ Woman would drop their old nylons into the boxes and the word I heard was that they were collected and sent to Korea to be turned into lenses for glasses for poor Korean kids. As my maximum vision was at about 8”, I thought glasses were a worthy cause; although, I couldn’t imagine making them from old nylon stockings. Now that South Korea is one of the 10 most prosperous industrialized countries in the world, my Korean friends tell me that you can buy fashionable glasses there for much less money than here. I’m thinking of buying myself an extra pair when I visit Jay in May. I’ll have to ask what they make their lenses from. The ones I bought in Canada recently had to be made in either Thailand or Germany and cost about $700.00. Why isn’t anyone sending us old nylons?

Koreans are, however, trying to convert us back to Christianity. Last night I had my 2 Korean students and their mom for dinner. Over the last couple of weeks, I have made an effort to find out what they like to eat, and yesterday I spent quite a bit of time cooking, considering the fact that since I’ve moved to Vernon, I’ve hardly spent more than 20 minutes putting together a dinner. My efforts were rewarded. The kids loved the food and ate lots. I had gone into a box of Jay’s old toys and got out a few things for them to play with. One was a recorder, which they both could play. They had fun with it because they hadn’t brought theirs to Canada. The girl, Seung-A, is really musical. She can play anything. The mother has a beautiful voice, and after dinner they entertained me with music. Seung-A played the recorder and Keung-Wha and Jun-Yung sang. Some of the songs were in Korean and some in English. Most of them were hymns. They had quietly said grace before dinner, and later as Keung-Wha and I talked, it was clear that she is a devout Christian. As I am older than she and Koreans are very polite to elders and teachers, she was circumspect in her suggestions that it would be wonderful if I returned to the church. With my recent loss of Jim and discovery of the kindness of many different people, I was able to talk openly with her about my position outside the institution. We enjoyed each other’s company and the evening was a very pleasant one. It’s spring break this week in BC and they are off for a 2-week trip by train down the west coast of the USA. They are taking the West Coast Star Line, the same one that we took to Tucson when Jay was 15 and we spent the year in Puerto Vallarta.

This has not been my only recent brush with conversion. The woman I teach English to at Immigrant Services is also a convert to Christianity. Whereas Keung-Wha was a Buddhist, Kiran was Hindu. She mentioned in our last class that it would be wonderful if I could just come and listen to her minister. The seeds planted in the East by Christian Missionaries from the West in the nineteenth century produced fruit, the seeds of which are being blown back to our materialist shores. These boomerang missionaries have a refreshingly childlike conviction. It’s hard not to feel jaded in their company, but I’m determined to stay for the moment on my path of discovery, outside institutionalized faith.