How would God respond to making a mistake? Would planets collide or mountains slide into the sea? Or would the ledger of all life simply remain out kilter until a series of small events forced that ledger back into balance again? It's probably the l...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
9 years later (34 years before today)
on a hill outside Busan, South Korea
looking out onto the Five-Six Islands
According to those who study matters such as these, the moon appears larger when it's at the horizon than when it is located directly above us. Even though the size hasn't changed at all, most people sense that it has. Some will swear that it's twice as big. This has been called the Moon Illusion. And for centuries, there have been differing scientific and mathematical theories to explain it. To date, however, none has been completely satisfactory. Given all those failed efforts, it seems possible that the correct answer might actually be more irrational than rational. As simple as it sounds, we might just be happy to see the moon rising and sad to see it set. When it's in the middle of the sky, the moon may not feel as special as it did a few hours before.
The moon, however, has a mind of its own. It doesn't worry about how big it looks when it's floating one place in the sky or another. That's because it has more important things to think about. While we are looking up in amazement at the size of the moon, full moons are making high tides higher and low tides lower. It's like the moon is reaching down to the surface of the Earth and dragging the soul from the center of the planet. At the same time, the Earth is reaching out to the moon. It stretches and squishes the moon like a huge inflatable ball. The two are tethered by gravity and they work together to form a bond that covers and uncovers all the secrets that the oceans hold dear. We are just their audience.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Five-Six Islands
The ocean goes up and down. When it is up, there are 5 and when it is down, there are 6. Five-Six Islands is what people call them. And the best time to see them is at sunrise when the water is calm and almost as high as it can be. The ocean will lap up the sides of rock and sand making the smallest island look like a flattened island breast in a large bathtub world with a single glowing nipple floating above the surface.
The hillside above the islands was Ryung-Il's favorite place on Earth. The sky was open and the ocean was vast and endless. For anyone wishing to feel small, it was a perfect place. And Ryung-Il was terribly small for a nine-year old. Standing there at the top of the hill, she was just a blip on the sand. She looked more like a crooked line drawn on a piece of paper than a little girl. And whenever the wind blew, she had to spread her feet and lean sideways so she wouldn't topple over. So, on that early April day, all you need to imagine is the blip, the sand, and the ocean with its 6 islands. For all practical purposes, the rest of the picture can be blank.
