not necessarily the safest place to be

"I was having a lot of problems with my dad. . . We had an argument, and [my dad] says, 'You didn't suffer. He says what you are you whining about? You had easy duty.' Which was true."

"Right. But. . . it's still the military. You're still away from home. It's still not necessarily the safest place to be . . . that's where I struggle with the hierarchy of service. . . [E]veryone served. We just served in different capacities."

The Life and Times of a Korean Veteran Renaissance Man

Once he gets going, this artist-writer-veteran-polio-survivor-German-translator-mime-masseuse-soldier-on-the-Korean-wall-during-Vietnam is good. Have a listen.

 

a life could vanish

"He thought of these years as another life within the one he had.  As though it were a thing he was able to carry. A small box. A handkerchief. A stone. He did not understand how a life could vanish. How that was even possible. How it could close in an instant before you could reach inside one last time, touch someone's hand one last time. How there would come a day when no one would wonder about the life he had before this one."

~~ from Snow Hunters by Paul Yoon

walleye pollock roe

"After hopping off the train, I walked for such a long time that my legs became stiff as boards. But finally, I got to Hyesan. I hadn't eaten for two days, so I headed for the market. It was huge, and there were so many products, I felt dizzy. Rice . . . flour . . . walleye pollock roe . . . you name it. Some people were clearly shopping for something to buy, while others looked like homeless people, unable to do anything but look on enviously.

"I had no money, of course, so I tried to find something on the ground. I eventually spotted some abandoned corncobs. There were no kernels on them, but I fastened my teeth on the cobs and ate what I could."

~~ from A River in Darkness: One Man's Escape from North Korea by Masaji Ishikawa

however hard I worked

"Seeing my baby's face as she slept so peacefully made me determined to work harder than ever. But the reality hit home late that night. I had a wife. And now two children. And however hard I worked, I would always be poor. I would never be allowed to better  myself, no matter how much effort I put in. My children would be faced with a life of hardship regardless of what I did."

~~ from A River in Darkness: One Man's Escape from North Korea by Masaji Ishikawa