SAM McGEE

Jukjeon, Korea; I know that March is still winter and you can’t expect it to warm up just because you’re in a hurry for spring, but I was hoping. After three weeks, the wind has kept its bite. Even though the weather report says it’s 45 degrees, it feels much colder. People on the streets keep hands deep in pockets and walk with a sense of purpose, to get where they’re going and be inside. I kept hoping but soon realized that spring's arrival wasn't about me. On Sunday, I felt the need for exercise so I put on my coat and hat, headed down the stairs to the street. Normally I swim or ride my bike but walking is my only option here. The sky was clear but city streets are almost always in the shadows so I stayed zipped up, hands in pockets. 

I knew there was a soccer field across the highway, on the way to Yongin, but I had not been there. The facility is modern, maintained and open to the public. When it came in sight, people were everywhere, and many weren’t wearing coats. I took my jacket off. It was warm and the slight breeze was warm, what I had been waiting for. An informal soccer game was going on with adults, wearing colored vests. Parents had their kids out on the track, 9 lanes of all weather surface. Kids on bicycles, tricycles; parents pushing baby buggies and young couples strolling, hand holding and I thought of the epic poem, “Cremation of Sam McGee” by Robert Service. A gold miner in the Klondike, before he  froze to death, begged to be cremated . So his partner dragged his frozen body across the wilderness until they found a ship, frozen in the ice. His body was thrown in the furnace and the ship set on fire. The man looked to see how the fire was progressing and the dead man was sitting, warming himself. He called out, “. . . it was the first time I’ve been warm since I left Tennessee.” It was kind of a long stretch but I was warm for the first time in a long time and thought of Sam McGee. The last few days have not been so warm but neither have they been so cold. Maybe I’ll be able to put the coat in the closet and rely on a sweat shirt soon.