chater 3 - first draft hansangdeok

My father

 

He is fat. Due to his excessive fat, at every physical examination, he gets the grade 'dangerous' as a fat illness. All of the family members are really worried about his weight. But the biggest problem is that he doesn't care about that.

 

Although I and other family members got quarrels with my father about his weight, we have never won the fight. It's because he didn't answer or reply at all.

 

"You need to have diet" I always say to him, when he eats at 2 o'clock in the morning. "Your abdomen looks mountain, you need to think about your health"

 

But he pretended not listening and looked at me till I shut my mouth.

 

My father had a very hard time when he was young. His family was refugees who came from DMZ. After settling in Seoul, circumstances were even tougher than expected. I heard that he had come close to die of hunger. He once said to me that during that hard time he was just happy only to eat. Maybe it developed to the habits that he has to eat anything in front of him till he gets satisfied. In other words, he became the person who can't control the appetite. That may be the reason why he just ignores the advice I and my mother give.

 

His parents struggled hard to survive. However hard it might be, his parents always taught morals and values to him. Following this, I often hear lots of moral disciplines from my father. Listening, I can find out that they are mainly about family thing. In fact there are only two maxims I can learn, be faithful to the parents! Have respect to the head of household! He knows that I and my brother are not listening but he keeps trying to teach that.  

 

Yes He can be seen as an authoritative and stubborn person to the family. But it could be partial to say he is just a total authoritarian in the family. In fact he has never beaten me, said harsh things to me, or forced me to do something that I didn't want to. Father and son relationship is normal as far as I know.

 

However, he hates talking to me. Irony isn't it? Especially, he hates talking about his health and parents. Whenever in the family meetings, in fact talking about his life and his parents is inevitable. As he has lots of physical problems and his parent (my grandmother) still is fighting against Alzheimer's disease, there are too much to settle down with him as a family member. But he seems he doesn't want us to talk about that. He even ignores everything related to that.

 

In addition to his silence and speechless, it is very hard to catch on his feelings. He is not the person who wants to stifle his emotions. About 3 years ago, I got accepted to the university. I thought that this could be happy news for my father who was working at that time. So I called him immediately to surprise him. However, though I told him this precious updated news, I got the expression that he didn't seem that surprised or happy in his voice. He seemed just hearing my 'happy' words. After all, the last word he said to me was "Good job, I'm sorry but I got a work to do." I was really disappointed at that time. Till the last minute I went into dormitory, I couldn't felt any satisfaction on his face.

 

After long time passed I could notice what my father really felt by my mother's voice. In fact he was really over the rainbow. He was so pleased with my acceptance that he treated all other colleagues in his team. Maybe it was the paternal authority which makes him speechless and unemotional.

 

Whether I like him or not, he is my father who raised me with devotions. He is a typical Korean father who wants normal Korean son. Sadly, I am not a traditional Korean son who obeys and follows parent's orders. However, At least I will try it for him.