It was the holiday season in Korea. It was also my first Christmas in Korea. It was so hard to believe that so much had happened since I had arrived in country. I had immersed myself in the culture of the country almost immediately upon arriving, and I spent what seemed a lifetime, but I know it couldn’t have been more than a week at the turtle farm before I received an actual assignment to a unit. If you haven’t already, perhaps you should check out those epic stories. Of course, if you’re familiar with the band Jefferson Airplane, you will know the point I am about to make. That band changed its name as often as the members of the band changed. But they did put some epic songs out on the street. For example, there is one about a white rabbit that you may or may not know. Well, if you do, you know that it, like rabbits, tends to lead you down rabbit holes. Where I’m going with all of that? Excellent question. Well, you see, I have a tendency to tie one story to another story to other stories via links. The beauty of links is they lead you down rabbit holes. Just like links on the rest of the Internet. They take you down rabbit holes and you can get lost for days. You can start out with the best intentions to be in and out in 10 or 15-minutes tops. Only to find out that you got lost when you went down one of those rabbit holes and you have been down there for two hours or longer. Perish the thought. And you actually had fun. Unless of course, you thought you were wasting your time, in which case you get angry with yourself. Worse yet, somebody else caught you goofing off wasting time going down all those rabbit holes getting lost in Neverland and finding nothing. Then what? The world came to a halt, right? I seriously doubt it. At worst, you had to beg for forgiveness and swear it would never happen again. But is that true? Was that your first foray down a rabbit hole? I don’t think so? And I don’t think it will be your last. That’s why I’m here. Anyway, where was I. Oh yes. I was talking about my first few months in Korea. As I said, so much had happened. Even the most epic event of my life up to that point had happened. I had met my future wife. Oh how I had to bedazzle and impress her to the point of her completely falling for me. There are those that may argue with that point, including my wife. But I’m pretty sure that’s the way it happened. I thought that was going to be the high point of the year. It turned out that I was wrong. My wedding was actually the high point of the year. My beautiful wife and I got married in December. So, it turned out that my Christmas present had come a little early that year. Actually, Christmas had come early for both my wife and I that year. We got married in the middle of December. Unfortunately, when Christmas rolled around, we didn’t have much money left because we had spent pretty much all we had on the wedding and our reception. We did that because we wanted a wedding to remember forever. However, when Christmas rolled around, I asked my wife what we should do to celebrate Christmas? She suggested that we go to her mother’s house in northwest Seoul to celebrate Christmas with her family. She said she thought that this was the best idea because we only had about $40 total to spend on presents for her younger sister, her two brothers, her mother, and her father. We went on the principle that it’s not how much you give but the thought that counts. We were just hoping that her family would see it that way. As luck would have it, they were not expecting us at all. So, when we showed up for Christmas with gifts for each of them, they were happily amazed. I had never seen such joy and happiness on people’s faces over such small gifts. It seemed to me that Americans had somehow lost the ability to value these simple pleasures. I was amazed that a family in a foreign land could open their arms and their doors and accept me into their family as one of their own so easily, especially on a holiday such as Christmas. I felt more like one of their family than I did with my own family. Thus, my new wife and I enjoyed our first Christmas together with our extended family in Korea. My brothers-in-law and I spent a lot of time together, hiking the mountains near their home to visit and bond. I would learn in time that the older of the two brothers was my favorite, but I liked both brothers. I truly enjoyed my first Christmas in Korea. It was a simple Christmas. We didn’t have any elaborate decorations. We didn’t have any elaborate Christmas dinner, rather, we ate a traditional Korean meal. Then, we went to visit the presidential palace in Seoul. Our final stop of the day on Christmas day was at a Buddhist monastery. I was truly awestruck by that experience. I can honestly say that my first Christmas in Korea was not by any stretch of the imagination an exercise in futility.
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