A friend of mine was once attending an evening
college campus seminar on some topic like "Living Life to the
Fullest." Early on, someone in the audience suddenly remembered that it
was the same night as one of the baseball World Series games taking place that
year. He went up and told the seminar leader he'd be leaving early and hoped
that he would not take it personally. Minutes later, the speaker had woven the moment into his opening message.
"If you need to leave this auditorium for any
reason, go ahead, but for goodness sake, do it with enthusiasm. "Stand up from your seat with gusto," he declared. "Walk up the aisle with conviction in each
step. Slam the door behind you. Leave here as if it really meant
something." In life, he said, even an exit should be something to
behold. Spending precious time sitting on the fence isn't
beholding, it's withholding.
I've noticed there are some things, some rather innocuous things in life, that people seem to have strong feelings about, one
way or another. Americans, for example, either love or hate black licorice. Same
thing with cilantro and anchovies. Like anchovies on your pizza? For most
Americans, there is no sitting on the fence when it comes to these foods. Similarly, my
Korean friends tell me that in Korea there is no sitting on the fence when it
comes to eating sesame leaves (깻잎), pig blood sausage (순대), roasted silk worms (번데기), or dog meat (개고기). You've
no doubt heard the rap on Koreans for the now archaic custom of eating dog. One
either loves dog meat, or finds the whole concept totally repugnant. Just ask Korean pet activists.
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Korean silk worms ready for snacking
But for the things that really matter in life,
sitting on the fence should be a place that provides little
comfort."Sitting on the fence" is an expression used in
English to describe one's neutrality, a hesitance
to choose between two sides in an argument or a competition, or an inability to
decide due to lack of courage. Interestingly, we can get excited about
anchovies or eating dogs but often have a harder time taking a stand on meatier issues.
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Several examples of not accepting
a seat on the fence caught my attention recently. This week the U.S. confronted
yet another example of senseless violence--the Naval Yard shootings in
Washington D.C. Instead of the usual emotionless press briefing given by hospital
executives numbed by the carnage they routinely see, Dr. Janis Orlowski, the
Chief Medical Officer at the Med Star Center, took the podium and stepped off
the fence stating her views that “there is something evil in our society…there
is something wrong here. I’d like you to put my trauma center out of
business…This is not America…this is not good.” Many Americans were struck by her courage and candor--her willingness to tell it exactly as she saw it.
We were also reminded of the 50th anniversary of the church
bombing in Birmingham, Alabama, that tragically took the lives of 4 young girls
who, at the time of the bombing, were in the bathroom of the Sixteenth Street Baptist
Church. The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, never one fond of fence sitting, lost his
patience with his fellow black Americans. “What murdered these four girls?” he asked. Then, answering his own question, he continued, “The apathy, the complacency of many negroes who sit on their stools
of ‘do nothing’ and not engaging in creative protest to get rid of this evil
system.”
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| Dr. Janis Orlowski takes a stand |
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| Dr. Martin Luther King stricken by the death of 4 girls in Birmingham |
Think about it. If we can get riled-up about anchovies, licorice, silk worms, and dog
soup (보신탕), surely we can take a stand on more essential matters. Will
that be on the level of vanity, a football score, or something more meaningful? Whatever
it is that pulls you off the fence, remember to slam the gate on your way out.
