UmbrellaIt rains a lot in Korea. In the last 3 weeks we've only had maybe 3 dry days. A typhoon even hit Korea a few days back. One of the necessities in living in such a place is a good umbrella...It was given to me by another Canadian teacher within a few days of living here. He told me in a thick Newfoundland accent "you'll be needin one of these, it rains a lot in Korea". He went on to tell me that he bought the paper thin blue and black checked umbrella for 2 000 won ($2.00) outside of Seoul Station when he landed here. He exclaimed with caution "this will due for now, but won't stand up to the Korean Monsoon Season".I was grateful as I felt a slight trickle on my cheek. After all, this was not just an umbrella, it had a living face. There was a lot of live put into this umbrella. Someone gathered the raw materials, or at least, produced the chemicals that make up the cheap plastic handle, the see-through canopy, and the hollow metal stem and arms. Someone had to produce the parts, assemble them, ship it, and then there was the poor vendor with his business in front of the train station. This umbrella was truly a living thing.Months went by, the rainy Fall season turned to the dry Winter season and then came the off and on showers of Spring. Through it all, my flimsy umbrella held its own. During this time it dawned on me that I don't, in fact, need to buy another umbrella and that this one was just fine. After all, it was compact so I could fold it down and carry it in my pocket and, on top of that, blue is one of my favorite colors. Did I really need a new, bigger, 'cooler', automatic umbrella ??? I thought not, but little did I know that I would have to part with my trusty umbrella sooner then I imagined...The rainy season really gave my umbrella a shit-kickin. The nonstop rain just seemed to wear at it's thin little metallic umbrella arms. The arms that push the top of the umbrella canopy out when you manually unfurrow the umbrella were now a little corroded and bent, and they were only getting worse as the rain seemed to be never ending. Gradually, the jagged edges of the metallic umbrella arms chewed away at the little blue threads connecting the arms to the canopy. The end was coming and I had to accept it, but truly, I thought that, with only a few weeks to go in the Monsoon season, my reliable little guy could make it. Then it happened- one of the rusty, little, metallic arms gave way. Now I could be spotted jaunting about in the rain proudly upholding my gimpy little umbrella, refusing to even glance at another as I past the street booths packed with all different types of shinny new umbrellas.
A few weeks pasted with no problems. The end of the rainy season was almost in sight as my crippled blue umbrella continued fightin the monotonous tide of rainfall, and unsuspecting wind gusts that trashed it day in and day out. Then things went from bad to worse. In the morning just as I was leaving for work, I reached for my little blue saviour and noticed that the beat up, little, metallic umbrella arms, trying to support the weight of his fallen neighbour, started to bend and crinkle. This was not good, if anything, I started to think about my health and safety. What if one of those nasty little unsuspecting wind gusts were to hit us hard? It wouldn't take much for those dangling jagged arms to fly like a tetniuss torpedo into my eye sockets just inches below... I had a bad feeling about things but as I glanced out my open window to the onslaught of rain I knew I had little choice but to try to just make it through the day...
When I was walking home that day it really started to come down in thick sheets. The umbrella twisted and creaked all the while keeping me as dry as could be expected in such conditions. The rain and wind were unrelenting then, at about the halfway point from work to my house, it happened.
As I walked cautiously in the pouring rain, tightly griping the handle, I watched as the little arms tore like tinfoil. Then seconds latter, in a show of nature's awesome power, my umbrella was torn apart by one strong gust of wind. I sadly let the wind rip what was left of my umbrella out of my hands and throw it into the distant sky. In an instant it was all gone.
As I took my next step, unbrellaless and completely vulnerable to the whims of nature, I looked down at my feet. There lying in the middle of the sidewalk all folded up and compacted was another newer, stronger, and funkier white and lime green umbrella!
As I gratefully unfurrowed the new found treasure, I noticed that it had a small ink blot on the side. I wasn't about to throw it way just because of that. After all, this was not just an umbrella, it too had a living face.
