tea diaries ~~~~~ groooooovy

halcy0nX: at my college religion was sociology without the statistics
halcy0nX: philosophy without the accountability
halcy0nX: psychology without the experimentation
sethzeren: which leaves what...
sethzeren: ??
sethzeren: :-D
halcy0nX: yeah, thats what we were trying to figure out ;-)
halcy0nX: but somewhere along the line
halcy0nX: i graduated
halcy0nX: and then got a fulbright
halcy0nX: and then ... a scholarship to study this ephemeral something further

This past Saturday I was out with my friend JiHyoung and we decided to have a little campfire on the beach and drink some hot tea before we went down the road to the newly built Lotte Cinema to see MI3 (don't see it - that's my review). The beach was a small one, at the end of a walking trail by the southern cliffs of the island - rocky, secluded, and perfect. We got one going despite the wind, and it was just dying down when a group of maybe 5 people with backpacks came down the stairs, shining flashlights around and generally acting very confused. They settled down at the base of the cliff and we decided they must be a group of ajoshi out for a late night soju picnic. Just then, full moon peeked out from behind a bank of clouds and in that picture postcard moment a gong sounded maybe a hundred yards up the shoreline from us. One of the group had snuck down there with a kkwaenggwari . We put out the fire and crept closer. A group of ajummas were setting up for a shaman kut! I had seen a kut (ritual) before, but in the formal confines of a ... fish warehouse in Jeju City, with distinguished members of the community there, video cameras, and all the huzzah huzzah Korean culture buzz going all around. If we hadn't been there, these women would have only the sea as their witness. One of the women circled burning incense sticks above her head, another woman bowed to north south east and west, and another lit candles among the rocks. The gong continued to sound from the shoreline and we could make out chanting from that same direction.
Some of the peripherary members sitting on rocks could have been men, it was hard to tell in the moonlight. The women were just ... Korean women - they were wearing track suits and baseball caps, and one of them was texting on her mobile. But they were here, among the volcanic rocks and the sea and the gorgeous big full moon. Watching them felt like being invited into another world, one so close to ours that it might be separated by the most transparent glass. And that night, by some crazy twist of luck and fate, that I passed right through that glass for a moment.

So, I guess that's what religion means to me.