[Meanwhile] Goodbye Sanel

I want to look back on life now because not just Korea but the entire world has become captive to anger. Let me start to look back first.

CHUN SU-JINThe author is head of the Today-People News team at the JoongAng Ilbo. This is not a typo. I am talking about Sanel — a famous beauty salon in Yeonhui-dong, central Seoul — not the luxury brand. It appeared in “You Quiz on the Block,” a variety show hosted by Yoo Jae-seok. The owner of the beauty parlor is the epitome of girl crush in the neighborhood. When Yoo asked her if she would solve the quiz, she said, “I don’t want to.”

Sanel, run by a native old lady, is not just a hair salon. While it is located in the “moon village” on the steep hill, many old ladies gather here every morning, put hair rollers in and eat kimchi noodles in the summer and tangerines in the winter. Over the Lunar New Year holidays, they shared rice cake soup. This place will close down soon.

Multiple neighborhood sources, who asked not to be named, said the owner of the building asked her to vacate the shop for renovations. The landlord initially asked for a rent increase but decided to renovate the entire building.

Can you imagine the formula for “a vicious landlord driving out a small business owner?” I am sorry but my writing is not aiming for such simple criticism. Life is complicated the more you live it.

Let’s think from the perspective of the landlord. In fact, the building was built more than half a century ago. Korea is a liberal democracy that adopts a market economy, and the Constitution guarantees property rights. Are all building owners and landlords really the rich and established? Many landlords who don’t belong to the vested interests are also trying to make a living.

“Search WWW,” a local television series, did not feature a secret birth or some sensational scene involving a kimchi slap, but it was still a good drama. One line from the show says, “What’s right and what’s wrong? You may be proud of living in the right direction, but remember one thing. You could be [expletive] to someone, too.”

Whether you look at Yeouido or the Capitol or the White House across the Pacific Ocean, most mainstream politicians are plugging their ears and only opening their mouths. Politicians should not be the only ones to blame. Aren’t those who only listen and say what they want to and leave judgment to commercial algorithms also problematic? Could the tolerance of “I may be wrong” rather than “I knew it” and “I told you so” be only possible in the 23rd century after Korea disappears from the map due to its ultra low birth rate?

I listen to Johnny Mitchell’s “Both Sides Now.” The lyrics go, “I’ve looked at life from both sides now. From win and lose and still somehow. It’s life’s illusions I recall. I really don’t know life at all.”

I want to look back on life now because not just Korea but the entire world has become captive to anger. Let me start to look back first.