house rules
saw on talking points memo that dr. k.a. paul--the evangelist highly backed by republicans and the one hastert garnered publicity by praying with not too long ago--is having a press conference denouncing hastert for breaking a promise to him that he would resign over foleygate.With the midterm elections next month, Paul has launched a crusade to
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han really is very difficult to describe. at a basic level, it's a type of very deep sorrow--but with a korean flavor to it. han feels deeper than culture, which leads many to feel it has to do with the soul. korea has been ripped apart in many wars: sino-japanese war, russo-japanese war, the japanese occupation, the korean war--all on korean soil. there was a constant pattern of families being split apart. it's a deep sadness, but one that is accepted as part of life, perhaps the way a parent might feel 5 years after having lost a child--but the feeling has pervaded an entire nation. it's there, it's indescribable, and yet it's mixed with a heroic degree of strength.
if you understand han, korean music is very intense. the flute and traditional vocals are really a musical interpretation of that type of sorrow...like a grandfather's wailing and crying but put to music. whenever my grandmother cried, which often had to do with some of the very tough times her daughter--my mother--was going through, she would lean over the kitchen sink and sing-cry a story of the problem to the melody of something that sounded like arirang. seeing my grandmother do this is heartwrenching beyond comprehension. but to witness it is to get a glimpse of her han.
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