These are days of helplessness. Under the hillside, where the spring light is pushing in, violets are blooming. The wind is still chilly, but even these small things are living, swaying their entire bodies.

One day, an acquaintance sent me a text message. Their words, expressing despair and anger at the current situation in South Korea, were a deep, resonant cry echoing through a winter forest. This individual, an engineer with a background in civil engineering, expressed their honest feelings of anger and sorrow. 

"A criminal facing 12 charges and 5 trials has become president, commanding the people from above their heads. The fact that national defense and security are being undermined, the ROK-US alliance is being jeopardized, and even freedom of expression is being trampled upon with a barrage of lawsuits and complaints, fills me with fear. 

I am filled with anger as I witness a South Korea where lawlessness and illegality run rampant, and common sense has collapsed. However, I don't know what to do or how to act. Seeing myself in this state of helplessness, I feel as if I am living in a daze. I cannot help but lament my own condition."

Science and technology cannot be mere figments of imagination. Science does not allow for lies. Engineering does not lie either. If you deceive or carry out shoddy construction, you are immediately expelled from that world.

Lies are mostly perpetrated by those from humanities backgrounds. Especially those from law schools deceive people under the guise of conscience and logic. It is a habitual behavior. Furthermore, those with law degrees who have entered politics are a different species from us who live by common sense. 

I am someone who urges my descendants not to pursue humanities studies. I implore them to go into science and engineering and become people who contribute to our society.

Whether it's building a bridge or a railway, or even a single rebar for a building, or the mix of cement, I wish for all to be done with utmost sincerity. I wish for people who devote themselves to building a strong foundation when preparing the ground, and who hope that what they create will be cherished by people for a long time. It is no exaggeration to say that the glory of present-day South Korea was built by individuals from science and engineering backgrounds.

The world created by intelligent individuals who graduated from law school is a society where common sense has collapsed, as it is now. They have caused our society to regress into a low-quality society.

My acquaintance is someone who has lived a life in science and engineering for decades. Witnessing the world of politics rife with lies, and the collapse of the South Korea that their seniors had protected and nurtured, they could not contain their lament. They also expressed their hatred for their own helplessness in such a situation. This was like the trembling of a tiny violet, swaying by the roadside in the cool early spring wind.

On days when sadness and heartache arise, I have a habit of looking at my palm. I carefully examine the dot under my pinky finger. It is said to be a reincarnation mark, indicating someone reborn from a past life. Who was I?

Whenever the question of what to do and what to leave behind before departing opens my heart without permission, I find myself looking at the dot on my palm.

The helplessness of having great anger but being able to do nothing but write. I wish I could fight head-on like Jeon Han-gil, but I cannot be Jeon Han-gil. 

The limits of fate, or rather, of ability. I have lived by constantly overcoming those limits. However, looking at the present, my life in this world, continuing from a past life, is merely shabby. It seems I did not save any nations in my past life. Nevertheless, however shabby, I must have been a precious individual with the abilities bestowed upon me and the heavenly mandate.

Thus, I have been rowing towards the world with only a pen. Since one cannot navigate the waters with another's oars, I can only write. 

Navigating one's destiny is not done with another's oars, but with one's own. It is with one's will, bestowed abilities, and the innate gift of ideals. Therefore, let us never be helpless or cowardly. Let us row as far as our abilities, our share, and our anger will take us.

Therefore, people, let us each row our own way through the world. If you cannot go out into the streets, write. If you cannot write, share others' writings. And if even that seems impossible, let us at least raise our voices together. 

I cannot be Jeon Han-gil, and you cannot be Jang Dong-hyuk. Even if it is a life without people, love, money, or fame, rowing on the river is my beautiful life. Even if a lonely life, with relatives and friends departed, is my entirety, I can still smile.

Today again, I look at the dot under my pinky finger on my palm. As time passes and I do farm work, it has become quite faint. I wonder, if I am reborn, will there be a reincarnation mark again? What will I be reborn as?

◆ Poet Jung Jae-hak

Poet, national merit recipient, columnist, Park Chung Hee presidential publicity committee member, 36 years of teaching in Jeolla Province.