The Owner of Your Time is You - Hopeful Messages from our Grandpa
A couple of years ago, there was a figure on a TV show that caught my eyes. His look was rather eccentric and to be honest not so representable for a popular TV show, but the words he poured out were beyond my expectation. Those words of encouragement were like a light thrown in the darkness, letting us know the way which we should head for. His occupation is that of an author, but I’d rather call him a heart-warming grandpa of ours.
As an author, Lee Oi-soo doesn’t limit himself to one sort of writing, rather he crisscrosses between various types of writing, including novels, essays, fables and poems. And it is fair to say that he is a prolific writer. So far he has published 31 books, since he made his debut in 1975.
And I am pretty sure that our readers know Twitter. It is the social networking site which enables people to communicate on a real time basis. With the use of smartphones spreading, Twitter is getting more popular every day. Anyways the reason why I brought it up is that he is an avid user of Twitter. He has 138,817 followers as of May 10, and I am one of them.
His newest book is called A bul ryu, shi bul ryu아불류시불류(我不流 時不流) meaning “If I don’t flow, the time would not flow, either”. It is a collection of tweets from his Twitter page. Of hundreds of tweets, he picked 323 which were the most recommended ones by his followers.
Throughout the book, he delivers diverse messages from his perspective. As a person who went through an uneasy and needy youth himself, he expresses valuable wisdom and insight in his words, drawn from his experiences. Even though the world is harsh enough to make us forget what is really important to us, he suggests what posture and mindset we had better take in our lives.
At times his words are pungent and rather sarcastic when talking about the corrupt side of our society and greedy people; however he has such a good sense of humor that while reading his book I helplessly broke into laughter at many points.
He ends the book by giving us a question at the last page; “What is the 8 syllable word that can make the world bright?” Let’s take a guess. This is the word which our grandpa eventually wants us to have in mind. Curious? Go grab a book and flip the pages. Then, your worn-out soul will be rested by his priceless words.
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