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<\/a><\/em> Mixed Korean: Our Stories [Boston, MA reading — Nov 2, 2019]. Photo Credit: Don Gordon Bell<\/em><\/p><\/div>\u201cI need to listen well so that I hear what is not said. Thuli Madonsela\u201d<\/strong>[1]<\/a><\/p>\n After having my first discovery session, I realized that I needed to pay attention to what was not being said. \u201cIt demands that we ask if there is another reasonable explanation for the events that have occurred.\u201d[2]<\/a> My mixed Korean tribe is a combination of mixed Korean adoptees and non-adoptees. There is a symbiosis of pain and hope, suffering and rising up. If I listen and\/or read each story I hear differences, and if you look at us, as a group, we also look very different.<\/p>\n Thinking long and hard about the \u201ctic in our mental machinery\u201d[3]<\/a> that shows the world one thing or a myriad of things that cause a person to make a snap judgment is \u201cover-concluded \u201cbased on the available information.\u201d[4]<\/a> There is no logical explanation. It requires having to sit and listen to each person to know that we are different but the same as others, even within the community.<\/p>\n What makes us the same? The obvious is that we are all mixed Korean. We all yearn for a family \u2013- a group of people where we look the same. We all have felt invisible in the world, always living in the in-between, which spurs a sense of loneliness. What has been beautiful about our tribe is that for several us, it is the first time in our lives that we are in a community where we see others that look like us and we no longer feel alone.<\/p>\n Hanlon\u2019s Razor also points out that the world who sees us doesn\u2019t always make an error, but that\u2019s the point, right? When the brain malfunctions because what someone sees doesn\u2019t fit into the normalcy of what they know, the brain tells them one thing. With the mixed Korean tribe, we all look different, act different and live very different lives, but somewhere deep inside of us, we are the same.<\/p>\n The common struggle of feeling alone is heard from many mixed Koreans. Last year we had a reading in Washington DC and afterward, a gentleman came up to me and said, \u201call of these years I sat in my apartment feeling so alone. Now I know I am not alone.\u201d<\/p>\n None of us are the oldest mixed Korean to come from World War II and the Korean War, but we are all old enough to have been the only mixed Asian\/Korean growing up. It is one thing to be a 100% Korean adoptee and another to be a mixed Korean adoptee. Part of this comes from the fact that South Korea, for many years, has not recognized us as human beings. The phrase that is often applied to us is that we are lower than dogs. This thought process is just recently beginning to change. It is not a complete change with everyone, but the ship is starting to turn.<\/p>\n \u201cHanlon\u2019s Razor, when practiced diligently as a counter to confirmation bias, empowers us, and gives us far more realistic and effective options for remedying bad situations.\u201d[5]<\/a> It\u2019s difficult to not vilify the people who say and do mean things to us. Instead of assuming malice, I do my best to choose to be more like Vasili Arkhipov, and not allow someone else\u2019s ignorance to be the weight I have to carry.<\/p>\n When I think of my end goal for this project and the art form that I hope to create, the idea of family is very much a prominent thought. How do I create art that becomes a theological message that shows the fracture of our souls and still allows for the Spirit of Love and Beauty to be shown?<\/p>\n \u201cAnybody can make the simple complicated. Creativity is making the complicated simple. Charles Mingus\u201d<\/strong>[6]<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n [1]<\/a> Parrish, Shane. The Great Mental Models: General Thinking Concepts. Latticework Publishing Inc. Kindle Edition, Location 1746.<\/p>\n [2]<\/a> Ibid., Location 1754.<\/p>\n [3]<\/a> Ibid., Location 1773.<\/p>\n [4]<\/a> Ibid., Location 1773.<\/p>\n