Clara Cho 칼럼

     
The Good Earth is a novel by Pearl Buck published in 1931. The story is about a farmer's life in China in the 1920s. Later she was awarded the Nobel Prize for writing about Chinese farmer’s story.
During 1931 and 1932, this book was the best-selling book in America. The author spends half of her life in China due to her missionary parents. I will not introduce the book of the story in this column.

When I grew up in Korea then, it was a top-rated book to read. After reading the book I was very much fascinated by the life of farmers and the desire of farmers to own the farmland.
Besides my grandparents were farmers who owned big vegetable farms in our village.
When I got up in the morning, my grandfather was already coming back from the farm after walking around all the sections of farmland where the vegetables were growing. It made me feel secure and gave me feel of happiness. Since the farm provided us with more than enough food and could lead a comfortable life as well could send all of his grandchildren to University.

After when I came to Canada, I always wanted to purchase a farm, so I have become a small-scale grain farmer. As everybody knows the land on this Earth is not possible to expand forever, yet the population of this Earth is growing every year. So, the farmers have to grow enough food to provide to feed almost every living thing. Before 1 acre's farmland produced ½ tons of grain, now it grows four times more with the help of fertilization and cultivation skills of better farmland like installing drainage pipes in wet areas. Still, it has limited to do that as well, so the big high-tech companies introduce AI[ Artificial intelligence] to improve the quality of soil and better equipment and labor.

As farmers, we are members of OFA, which represents the farm sectors. They support and invest in research into processes and issues that play a key role in developing land and providing knowledge and new plans for agriculture. However, the communities grew fast and needed the land for residential, commercial, recreational, and factory sites that had to be used for good farmland causing more strain on the farmland.

Another thing is that soil health is very important, so we have to set goals for short and long-term practice for the soil that has to practice crop rotation. Besides we have to think about the environmental impact on land.

During the past couple of years, the farmland price has gone up a lot, which is why the price of food has gone up a lot like everything else. Even as a farmer, the price of land is too high to acquire more farmland.

The world is growing, now we need more new awareness for farming and food.

April 7th, 2024.

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The most common forms of betrayal are harmful disclosures of confidential information, disloyalty, infidelity, dishonesty. The effects of betrayal bring shock, loss, grief, anger even damaged self-esteem.

As look into the history the notable 25 of Betrayals that changed the course of history. In between them, Judas Iscariot who is one of the 12 apostles betrayed Jesus after the Last Supper in the garden of Gethsemane which is the most betrayal in our history.  Actually, Jesus was betrayed by two of His disciples, Judas and Peter.

The saddest betrayal is not from an enemy. It is from trusted -friend, family member or acquaintance that is truly makes betrayal so hurtful and sad.

Another the Greatest Betrayal in history is the action of Brutus against Dictator of that time, Julius Caesar.

His wife gave him the hint that was her dream, yet he joined the Roman Senators who murdered Caesar.

We can not ignore Shakespeare who wrote so many stories, one of them is Othello and Desdemona.

Othello believing Desdemona has betrayed him, even though she does not betraying him at all.

Instead, Iago betrays Othello by lying to him about Desdemona's faithfulness.

The end Othello kills Desdemona.

Since we will celebrate Easter, I looked into the Bible and the help from Google search that I choose 10 Betrayals,

1. Satan betrays Eve[ Gen. 3]

2. Cain betrays Abel [Gen.4;1-12]  made the movie, The East of Eden.

3. Joseph's brothers betray Joseph [Gen.37]

4. Deliah betrays Samson [Judges 16] made the movie.

5. Saul betrays David [I Sam. 18-26 ]

6. David betrays Uriah

7. Ahab betrays Micaiah [I Kings 22]

8. Joash betrays Zechariah [2 Chron. 24]

9. Judas betrays Jesus [Luke 22;47-48 ]

10. God's people betray God [ Ezek. 16 ]

To wish for grant us our forgive of our trespass and lead us not into temptation, how about read one of betrayal from the Bible during this time of Easter time.

To celebrate the Easter,

March 26th,

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Art is long and life is short.

When we become quite mature, the word live a long life is very important in our minds and concerns.

No matter what we do or think, our lives are shorter than art which is why art has value to collect or view.

Especially Aging Alone candid guide to money, health, and living. Now, baby boomer becomes retiree who is satisfying retirement or herself as the most standard candidate for retirement for example with enough money, good health with a smart education to become a retiree.

In 1950 only 22 percent of American adults were single. Today more than 50 percent of Americans are single and 31 million roughly one out of every seven adults, live alone. The reason why I mentioned Americans is their figure are mostly accurate and studied. I value my privacy and my space as well as most people value their privacy.

So, I choose to live alone, say Going Solo that some solo living promotes a lot of responsibility.

Now, with the rise of networking sites, smartphones, and constant connection we all can rely on companionship and support. Besides our Korean community, we could rely on the church a lot.

However, there is always a worrisome matter is dying poor, and alone since some people have no family, and no friends if they outlive their friends and are all dead which will be very depressing.

If we are positive people like cheerful, optimistic, and upbeat that will help a lot. Another thing will be positive thinking on religion, medicine, academia, and even the business community.

Being positive can feel good and we like positive people. Yet trying to be positive too much will give us stress.

We do not have to think about too much getting old or dying alone, just accept it as the natural process of our life, we might easily smile often and die alone is not the end of our world.

No matter what death will bring to us, or even thinking about death, one thing is fair, since nobody escapes from death the world will keep moving around and life will go on. We might live our lives more happily without thinking too much about death which will bring us mature happiness.

God bless us.

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The word covenant meaning is very simple it is an agreement between two people or companies or even countries. Yet, it is very formal, solemn, and sometimes even scary.
However, their meaning in the Bible is much stronger than what we know. Because it is an agreement between God and his people in which God makes promises to his people and usually requires certain conduct from them as well.

When I got familiar with the word covenant after I read the book, "The Covenant" novel written by James Michener who is an American author who wrote Hawaii, Texas, Sayonara, Alaska, Chesapeake, Poland, and many more.  
The Covenant novel is a story about beautiful African land, an epic tale of adventures, scoundrels, and ministers the best and worst of two continents who carve an empire out of vast wilderness. The story of land from the early settlements by the Dutch, through the expansion of it by English immigrants and others to South Africa during the Apartheid age shortly before it was eliminated.

Now, when I read the first reading last week, God said to Noah and his sons with him "As for me, I am establishing my covenant with you and your descendants after you '-----(Genesis 9, 8-15) that gives me a chance to look into that word.
In the Old Testament God made several covenants, the Noahic Covenant, the Abraham Covenant, the Mosaic Covenant, the Davidic Covenant and the New Covenant that is Christians view the New Covenant as a new relationship by Jesus upon the sincere declaration that one believes in Jesus Christ as Lord and God with each Covenant are four elements like promises, terms, blood, and a seal.
 

Especially the first 4 Covenants in the Bible are made by God, yet, the last New Covenant was inaugurated by Jesus.
We have to be drawn to Jesus through repentance and faith, be reconciled to God, forgiven of our sins.
The New Covenant is the promise that God makes to mankind that He will forgive sin and restore communion with those whose hearts believe in His son, Jesus.

I read the whole book of the Bible during COVID-19 times, yet, I did not fully understand that time, about the Covenant, now, all I can say is the most important thing I learned this time of Lent, the New Covenant is the most important I could keep for myself with God.

I never studied the Bible solely, yet, just reading the Bible got me to write this article, I hope a lot of information on this the article is proper, meantime, some of the information was from a Google search.

It is a beautiful morning that is God's blessing for this world.

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     This week I want to write about AI(Artificial Intelligence) which I like to know more about.

By Google search, AI refers to the simulation or approximation of human intelligence in machines.

The goals of artificial intelligence include computer-enhanced learning, reasoning, and perception.

AI is being used today across different industries from finance to healthcare.

     Whenever I hear AI involved in a company, it reminds me of a long time ago of advertisements on TV. about "Equity" that two of the children withhold a flashlight looking for Equity at night when their parents not home, they heard about Equity from their parents, so they are wondering where Equity is hiding their home. Equity is their house's value aftermarket price of their house minus mortgage.

Now, we only hear about mortgages rather than equity.

I think around 8 years ago Microsoft's share price was only $80.00, now more than $400.00, since the company advanced from AI, semiconductor companies that make computer chips like NVDA shares more than $700.00.

I followed from $ 300.00 to more than $700.00. The investors made money just by holding technology company shares.

Every time the market opens at 9.30 in the morning, the market goes up endlessly.

I guess it is not easy to invest in real estate, since the interest rate is higher, so the money flies into the market or a lot of people working in remote places like their own homes which gives them enough time to invest in the market.

Whatever the money is always moving around.

So, I try to closely look around where is AI connected to my personal life, yet, I can not find anything.

My computer is still old, so not connected to ChatGPT, and my car is old not a self-driving car, The robots that I only own are iRobot and Roomba which I never use for the cleaner.

We are very lucky not to worry about being overweight since Lily Pharmaceutical's company invented losing weight drug, their share started going up from $200.00 to $700.00.

Some people say most of the money 95% of the U.S. invested in Wall Street that place is the place could raise capital when companies want to invest more, they could get the capital.

Our human beings tend that natural desire to live a simple life which is why some people who live around where I live do not have a passport which means they were never out of Canada.

In one of the articles, I read this morning, we do not have to do too much exercise, just live quietly like listening to music, reading books, and meditating ourselves, sometimes meeting friends with that attitude will make us live longer lives.

Even though that does make our life live longer, yet, it will be no fun at all. The technology company brings us AI-related items that we can not apply or share in our lives and that will be of no use to our seniors.

Too much information makes us confuse, maybe AI will be our beneficiary or will give us more harm. I wonder?

Feb. 12th,

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Genocide is a form of violent social conflict of war, between armed powerful organizations that aim to destroy unarmed civilians, and social groups intent to destroy the existence of that group. Even though the acts do not kill or cause death, they could be causing serious bodily or mental harm.

The most serious act was from the 1940s about Nazi rule in occupied Europe. Nazis murdered between 5 to 6 million Jews become an example case of Genocide. However, that did not only happen in Europe Genocide of Jews also happened in Rwanda. This incident was not too much publicized, and the Rwanda Genocide against Tutsi happened in 1994 during the The Rwandan Civil War only over 100 days, and almost one million Tutsis people were killed.

Now, the famous coffee shop, Starbucks facing boycotts over the Middle East War, and that could happen in business as well.

The United Nations General Assembly designated every year January 27 as International Holocaust Remembrance Day in memory of the victims of the Holocaust. Holocaust commemorations are an occasion to remember the six million Jewish victims as well as the non-Jewish victims of Nazi oppression. To mourn one of the darkest chapters in human history.

This year Jan. 27, most all day News and movie media participated in the events. Again I happened to watch the movie called "Sophie's Choice". I sometimes thought Sophie's destiny was not her fault, just circumstances that brought such tragedy in her life. I remember a long time ago reading that book after the first time watching the movie.
The book was written by author William Styron who wrote this book in 1979, because to write this book took him 5 years.
We could say that this book was his writing as well as his relationship with the main characters in the book.
He just arrived in New York to become a writer, so, he chose to rent a boarding house in Brooklyn where the rent was cheaper.

At that boarding house, he met Sophie and her partner Nathan. Through friendship, he finds out Sophie is the Survivor of Nazi concentration camps who have found a reason to live with Nathan who is an American Jew obsessed with the Holocaust.
In the movie, Sophie arrives by train at Auschwitz with her two young children, one daughter Sophie holding in her arm the other boy holding his mother's hand waiting for the Nazi officer to get an interview. Even though she is Polish, yet, the officer forces her to choose only one life for her children so that she only keeps one child, and the other will face death.
What can we do? yet, she chose her son, since he is older, and if they sent him children's camp, someday she could meet him.

After the war, without meeting her son, she arrives in New York with extreme weakness from undernourishment, yet, tries to learn in English, she attended school, and from there she collapsed in the lobby where Nathan rescued her, and looked after her.
Nathan who is a brilliant but unstable Jew falls in love with her passionately.
As trying to be a writer, he becomes involved as good friends with them. And watching their turbulent love-hate affair the end he involved with Sophie who tells him her secret which is how she has to choose the children's life or death that gives her torment.
In the end, Sophie and Nathan commit suicide.

The movie was sad, yet, beautifully made and the actress Meryl Streep acted brilliantly, from that movie she won the Oscar.
First, she happened to buy that book, and after reading the book, she wanted to make the movie and gave it to the producer to make the movie. After all those years as being actress, performing a lot of acts, yet, still in that movie as Sophie, she thinks she acted most brilliantly as a regular human being.

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This morning, when I read the Gospel for this week, we could hear the story of how Jesus called his first disciples to be fishers of people. The response from the apostles was immediate. And there were no doubts at all.
They assume that that was an expectation of the coming of the Messiah.
Yet, in this world to accept something to be true without question or proof, to take it for granted would follow risk.
By always assuming we know what others think and feel yet, we also block out learning good things and true others would like to share with us that we are assumption often wrong.
These days everybody is hurrying to do that is one of the reasons we assumed very quickly, especially personal matters.
I can not say that making quick assumptions can lead to lazy behavior if we do not do it frequently.
For, I suffered almost one year from a quick assumption that I made that I could not disclose information.

However, we only imagined something useful, without assuming for positive thinking that the force of progress will be limited. 
We can not be like the first disciples who were humble people whose hearts were receptive to the call.
We could assume that God chose us to listen for truth and live in that manner.

Another matter was on my mind this morning, wrong assuming can lead people big tragic in their lives.
For example, most people know about the classic novel written by Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet.
They could not love each other because of a family feud and the troublesome of society, Juliet has feigned death by taking poison, and her family put her in the church tomb. The person who knows this scheme, Frain Laurence lost the letter which wrote true intention supposed to tell Romeo about Juliet's plan. So, Romeo assumed she was truly dead. He kills himself at her side. When Juliet awakens and sees Romeo's death, she assumes very quickly and kills herself.

It seems too much passion as well assuming too quickly.
Maybe, Shakespeare wrote to try to make it more dramatic to boost his novel, yet it stays in mind long time.

Now, it is not proper space to talk about nuclear weapons between South and North Korea, I hope they should not assume too much each other that could cause bigger tragedy.

January 3rd week, 2024

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The third Monday of January each year is Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.(사진) Day, this year 2024, Martin Luther King Jr.
The day is January 15th. He was born on January 15, 1929, and was a Baptist minister and social activist who played a key role in the American civil rights movement from the mid-1950s until his assassination in 1968.

He wanted to advance rights using nonviolent civil disobedience based on his Christian beliefs.
His famous words "Darkness cannot drive out darkness only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that." It is a federal holiday in the U.S.A. 

Last night when I turned on my favorite TV. channel, TCM, and the movie called "Mississippi B urning”(1988) is playing.
Set in 1964 when three civil rights activists were murdered in a small town by the Ku Klux Klan.
Even though two of them were white and one of them was black.
Two FBI agents investigating the murder of civil rights workers during the '60s seek to breach the conspiracy of silence in a small Southern town where segregation divides black and white.
Even though I am not a black person, I felt so much pain as a human being that very hard to watch the movie.

I more thought about the book "Beloved" by Toni Morrison who was a black woman writer, who said the reason why she only wrote about black people is that is the only known subject and only her main concern.

The main character "Sethe" kills her newborn baby so as not to make her another slave like her. And even did not give a name, so her baby's graveyard tombstone only marked "Beloved".
The ghost of her dead baby, Beloved follows her mother, Sethe, to try to avenge her death. She causes Sethe to remember more and more of her painful past. Yet, Sethe maintains that her killing her child was an act of love.
After a few of the women break into song in a kind of exorcism, that makes Beloved disappear.
After Beloved's departure, Seth's household seems to become normal.

All those incidents and stories represent the '60s dark black American people's history. 
However, if still existed?

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The first time, when I was interested in the country of Colombia was my husband got an invitation from a couple of friends who work there or live in that country. After visiting there, I paid more interest in that country.
Later when we made a cruise trip to Panama Cannel, the cruise ship, Princess embarked on the city of Cartagena for a few hours and we visited the museum and drove around that city by sightseeing bus.

Later I was very much interested in Colombia writer who became world famous after he was awarded the Nobel Literature Prize.
The first book I read was "Living to Tell the Tale" and after that "One Hundred Years of Solitude", "The Autumn of the Patriarch" the last book for me I read his book was "Love in the Time of Cholera."

In the book, Love in the Time of Cholera a young man named Florentino Ariza falls in love with Fermina Daza secretly yet, she marries a wealthy Doctor, his heart broken, his mind had always loved her, since he was a very romantic man.
After waiting for more than 50 years, one day suddenly the Doctor who is Ariza's husband fell from the ladder. The reason was a bird flew into their house and he tried to catch the bird yet, the bird flew away and he lost his life.

In the meantime, Florentina Ariza became the owner of a steamship that cruised the river of Magdalena as a passenger ship.
Florentina Ariza did not lose this time, he attended the funeral of the Doctor the husband of Fermina Daza, and announced publicly to Ariza of his love for her. After they married and on their honeymoon riding his ship on the river of Magdalena.

He asked his crew members to put a flag on the ship with his sign on the flag Cholera.
That means if one of the passengers has Cholera, the ship does not have to stop at every port to take customers.
They just cruised the river of Magdalena freely without disturbance.

After I read that book, I was very much interested in that river, yet, I never had visited that river.
A couple of days ago, I looked around the advertisement and I read the article about the year 2024 for the first time,
First-ever Luxury River Cruised to set sail on Colombia's upscale river cruise line Ama Water will sail Colombia's Magdalena River from Cartagena to Barranquilla starting in 2024.

I could not believe my reading and I thought about that book written by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, after he died, still he helped his country's benefit. Someday, before too late, I like on that cruise ship. 

2nd week of Jan. 2024

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Barnes & Noble Booksellers is an American bookseller store that is a Fortune 1000 company and a bookseller with the largest number of retail outlets in the United States. As of October 2023, the company operates 592 retail stores across all 50 U.S. states. 
In the middle of December, the CEO (Chief Executive Officer) came out on CNBC in the news and informed us that his company is now fully in operation. As before, because of Amazon Com, Inc. which started selling books on the Internet
at discounted prices, and even the delivery system that makes the Barnes Noble Bookseller Co., went bankrupt.
Besides that cause makes the customers stop visiting bookstores to buy books.

Some other activist investment companies took over the bankrupted company and invested in online bookstores like Amazon system and expended on toys, games, and other gifts. Meantime, especially young people are starting to visit bookstores to buy books that have changed the company's future. It is a good thing to hear about younger generations who are only interested in online shopping and the internet. Besides the first time, eBooks were introduced they getting very popular.
Because e-readers have to only download the eBooks from eBook companies.

One day reporter from a newspaper company asked Umberto Eco is Italian novelist writer who is a brilliant, experimental funny, literary, and philosophical writer according to the New York Times. "How did you think about eBook?"
He told him if someone dropped an eBook it would break, yet the paper book would not have any damage at all."

Before X-Mass, I went to the Indigo bookstore where I live to buy the book which was "Beloved" written by author Toni Morrison.
When I arrived there, I was so surprised that I could not believe it. Before when I passed by it was not that busy.
4 cashiers were working very hard trying to accommodate the business, still, customers waiting in line to pay for their buying books and I was one of them. A few more workers helped customers who wanted to locate where they could find the book they wanted to buy I was one of them and the workers were very friendly helping us to find the book with their cell phone.

To talk about the book Beloved written by Toni Morrison who was an American Novelist, editor, and educator who wrote mostly about black Americans especially Black women's experience in an unjust society. Above all, she was the first Black American woman to be awarded the Nobel Prize in literature. She wrote quite a lot of Novels, yet I read only Beloved and Song of Solomon.
Sadly, she passed away on the year of 2019.

Beloved is a 1987 wrote, set in the period after the American Civil War, the novel tells the story of a dysfunctional family of formerly enslaved people whose Cincinnati home is haunted by a malevolent spirit the life of a black woman named Sethe who was born a slave and escaped Ohio, but eighteen years later she is still not free. She has too many memories of Sweet Home, a beautiful farm
where so many hideous things happened. And Sethe's new home is haunted by the ghost of her baby who died nameless and whose tombstone is engraved with a single word, Beloved.

Song of Solomon is a 1977 novel by her and it follows the life of Macon "Milkman" Dead 3rd, an African-American man living in Michigan from birth to adulthood. Song of Solomon explores the quest for Cultural Identity. Based on the African-American folktale about enslaved Africans who escaped slavery by flying back to African Pilate Dead (daughter) Milkman Dead (son) Ruth Faster Dead(wife), their last name is "Dead". Pilate Dead was once dear to her brother 'Macon', but she no longer remains so.
Macon Dead, the father was killed while defending his land, and his two children, Macon jr. and Pilate were scarred by witnessing the murder and became estranged from each other. Eventually, Pilate has become a poor but strong and independent woman Macon Jr., like his grandfather acquiring wealth.

The Song of Solomon describes in the Bible both marriage and God's relationship with his people.

As we grow old, we have to read more books than when we were young, now we have more free time to do and it will be good for our mental health. Sometimes I wonder where the seniors could buy the books that they like to read.

the first week of January 2024,

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