jayyoo

[jayyoo]

Full moon. Gazing in cosmic insignificance.

[jayyoo]

Cleveland airshow and the Blue Angels. Gorgeous day, perfect seats.

[jayyoo]

“Aristotle looks upon the slave as an animate tool, and thinks that slavery will continue in some form until all menial work can be done by self-operating machines." The Life of Greece, William Durant, Page 280

So funny that Republicans chant and pound their chests that they freed slaves, while creating the 14th amendment. They got rid of slavery in one form, but made everybody a citizen under the jurisdiction of the federal government, effectively making everybody a slave.

If you pay taxes, you’re a slave with privileges and no rights.

Happy Labor Day

[jayyoo]

Hydrangea paniculata sways in the wind—unbound by speed limits, moving only at the pace of nature.

[jayyoo]

Yoo Poet Fam Night: Full Circle

So proud of all my kiddos. And on this night, it was doubly special. Grace Yoo was the featured poet at the Friday Plumb (The Cleveland Gallery) Open Mic, and Micha Micha (13 y/o) was the youngest to speak her word. What an honor as a parent to see my kids take a creative journey and become known for it. Grace has been at it a bit longer and did not disappoint with poems about the breakup, growing up with divorced parents, sexual assault, and personal growth from each. And Micha claiming her own with the wordplay commanding snaps as she reminded us of that weird coming of age period as a teenager in America.

What made the event for me was all Yoos present getting up to speak their word. Going into the third round @mama.yoo moved the room, reciting a Native American poem about interconnectedness and the circle of life. Lurking in the shadows of the real poets in the room, I was then called out and had the honor of ending the night with words I heard a father speak a while back at a middle school event.

“People, it is far easier and less expensive to build a child than to repaid and adult.”

[jayyoo]

Micha Yoo: Coming of Age Credo Statement

Unitarian-Universalists honor several rites of passage that mark important milestones in our life.  My baby Micha Yoo recently participated in our church's Coming of Age celebration. It is a time for young people to explore and take responsibility for their spiritual pursuits through the lens of Unitarian-Universalist history and traditions, as well as various theologies, philosophies, and approaches to civic engagement. The program culminates with a Credo Statement, whereby each person expresses what they believe. As a parent, it is a process of knowing that I can only aim the bow and give it tension, but ultimately I cannot control the flight of the arrow that is life. I could not be more deeply proud of my growing arrow. May you fly far, Micha, Micha - Godspeed.

Credo Statement (Video)

Credo Statement (unedited)

Hi, I'm Micha Yoo daughter of Jay, and Caryl Yoo, and sister of Grace, and Monti Yoo. But I also don't really know who I am. I know that I'm 13.

I know I like strawberry's, and I know Micha means beautiful girl in Korean. But I have recently questioned that statement. Beautiful girl to describe someone who has gone through wars in her own head angels and devils fighting, trying to control. Somone who mentally cannot stay put together as if she is a puzzle someone has thrown onto the ground she shatters.

But in this lifetime of 13 years I have realized that that's not all I am. I have found myself bringing smiles to individuals faces bring joy, and life and in my opinion I think that is beauty at its finest. I have found myself stuck where no matter how slowly I walk away from people they will never run back to me.

Last I have found that if you were to ask me 2 years ago what I valued most in life I would have said love. I have changed my perspective because although love makes you feel like you are on a roller coaster you never stepped onto, it can also make you fall, and hurt. Today my value is the human voice. Vocal cords playing symphonies of jumbled up letters containing value to the person speaking or the person listening. Words have so much meaning in violence or in gracefulness. Words are like nothing else. Words can have human functions, words can stumble over their shoe laces or be cut off by the second.

I would also say I value pain which isn't always picked. I see pain as something to be grateful for once it's stopped. Because I've learned you can't feel true happiness without feeling pain first. I don't see myself as ordinary but more weird in a good way because there is no real definition of normal. No one can hurt me by saying I'm weird. People can make of me for writing poetry, for my clothes, shoes, the fact that I'm bi, but really they are just making fun of me for being myself, so I have nothing to be ashamed about.

I have never really thought about what I believe in until this year. I used to believe in god, maybe pray to him once in a while to check up on my passed loved ones. Now I'm not all the way sure. I would like to believe that we all get 5 life times, 5 chances to go to heaven. If we already live a life full of good meaning in round one we get the reward just like that and go to heaven. If we do not then we have 5 chances, after those chances depending on the last chance you will either go to heaven or hell. So In a way I believe in reincarnation, heaven and hell.

I do not know if I believe in a higher power such as a god or goddess or multiple gods or goddesses. In my own mind and soul I truly cannot see someone or something having so much mental stability to take care of so many things at once. I cannot picture that they don't get angry with the world which would explain climate change or racists sexists, ageism, and more.

I do believe that faith is an amazing part of a human. I believe in nature, in fairies, and magical places, I believe in Hogwarts, I believe that even if the rest of the world is burning into a fire ball of hatred there are still flowers there is still the sun the stars the moon the butterflies to look at. I believe in smiles and how they are contagious because if you radiate one it will just bounce right back at you.

I thank my friends and family for everything, my mentors who have bought me through a journey of finding my beliefs, and anyone who has directly or indirectly helped me through my life. And a huge thanks to Natalie for being a support system for me, and helping me write my credit and making me laugh.  

I always appreciated my family. My brother who is always there for me, my sister who has such strong opinions and speaks them with no shame, my mom who is like a super hero because every day she helps someone with something they are going through, and my dad who has always said to paint like a child.

Painting like a child is something most adults forget how to do and I am scared because I am forgetting how to do it myself. I am forgetting how to paint new adventures onto a blank canvas I am forgetting my crayons and markers at my house. Instead, I only have books. I think my memories all have been painted by a child. The fairy gardens I would build with my friends, the unicorn shirts I would wear to school every day. It's all there it has just been tucked away.

This year has told me to grow up, that I am a young adult but I would rather be an older child, if there is something I have learned it's that we all can have an imagination, that is what I believe in.

[jayyoo]

Jeasung J. Yoo - Asian American

When people see Jeasung J. Yoo or Yoo Jeasung, what runs through their minds? 

Let offer a few stereotypes:

Cold, Conformist, Conventional, Hard-working, Inhibited, Kind, Non-confrontational, Obedient, Passive, Polite, Pragmatic, Regimented, Respectful, Rigid, Risk-averse, Routine, Scholar, Soft-spoken, Undesirable, Unemotional

Some of these apply, but not all. We all have immediate judgments, and we need to be careful.

At 16, when I got my license, I affirmed my identity as an Asian-American. I did it by formally declaring my name as Jeasung J. Yoo (vs. Jay Yoo). It was a memorable event. I had to think about how I wanted the world to view me by a combination of letters, and I recognized the weight of meaning wrapped in a name. 

You might think, "well, you do not look Asian." And I am not 100% (1/2 Korea, 1/4 German, 1/4 English). That matters very little because I feel Asian and was raised Korean. I am fully aware of the things people might think when they see my name (Jeasung J. Yoo or Yoo Jeasung) but have not met me. Let me give you an extreme example from an exchange on Facebook with a friend-of-a-friend. 

"i think you're a north korean peasant who lives in an apt. with no electricity and eats grass for dinner and drives unpaid for volvos around pyonyang..."

Really? This was over an opinion I had about people naysaying wind turbines in Cleveland. He made plenty more derogatory and flat-out racist comments; this was the least offensive. If this person met me without seeing my Facebook name at the time (Yoo Jeasung), would he have treated me differently? I think so.

While I share some of the typical stereotypes of being hard-working, organized, polite, and respectful, I am not the "Model Minority" people might immediately associate with my name. Nor am I North Korean. And a lot of other people who are not Asian have these characteristics. They are not uniquely Asian. 

Stand up to hatred and people's mistreatment at every opportunity, big or small? And not let it slide. People with bad ideas are watching and may act out eventually. Don't permit these people. Every act (big or small) to stand up to hatred, misogyny, sexism, bigotry, and racism matters. And let's not forget little people are watching. Very closely. These are defining moments that can shape people for a lifetime. Take it seriously.

To all my friends and friends-of-friends who let racist comments towards me slide on their Facebook page - don't f****** do that again, or you will be indirectly complicit. Next time stand up to hatred. Don't be a coward.

Lastly, can we make a little room to be surprised? Are we open to the idea that, as good of a human as we think we might be, we all still have automatic, preconceived notions? Are we open to changing our minds before we ask that of others? It’s cliche, I know; but necessary.

The violent attacks on the eight Asian women in Atlanta are a gross manifestation of giving someone with sinister ideas permission to act out. Peace and love to the victims' families.

[jayyoo]

Korea 1969 -

I was given this 1969 National Geographic featuring a story on South Korea recently by a good friend. The article is incredible. From a time just 15 years after the Korean War marking an essential point in the country’s trajectory.

Reading it made me proud, which I could not say growing up; Korea was this tiny developing country in Asia trying to turn a corner after being dominated by Japan for nearly half a century. And they lived in isolation for hundreds of years before that. I was made well aware by my father of the struggle Korea endured under Japanese imperial rule and the Korean War. But he always shared hope for his mother country based on what my grandfather was doing in the 1950s to lay the groundwork for democracy, modernization, and prosperity.

From my first visit as a young child in 1979, something was markedly different each time I visited after that - Korea was in motion and ever-changing. Importantly, the significant shifts could have only happened with seeds of vision, years of compounding effort, and sheer will.

“Our great resource is the human one. We must compete with more highly developed nations by using our great reservoir of industrious people.”

A tall bet on people dominated by Japanese imperialism; one that paid off.

1979 there were dirt roads in Seoul, and many rural people had never seen a car. A year later, half of my father’s family moved to the US.

1986 there were many student protests against government corruption; all the roads were paved.

1992 fully industrialized with its eyes on being a leading world economy. All of my cousins were doing well.

2006 most textile manufacturing in Korea had moved to lower-cost regions.

2018 Creeping vanity settled in with fashion houses like Louis Vuitton, Givenchy, Prada and Off-White lining the streets of Gangnam.

Korea is now a creator of culture, and I can get Kimchi in any major grocery store.

This article is a critical lens an how the “The Hermit Kingdom” preserved culture, pushed modernity, topped industry, and is now a leading world economy(12th).

Amazing.

#koreanamerican #immigrantstories #southkorea #modernity

[jayyoo]

Black Lives Matter: Take Action, Speak Out, Protest. No Justice, No Peace.

"Progressive, radical, or even revolutionary change has always come from below." - Tom Morello | Rage Against the Machine

The tragic death of George Floyd is unspeakable, unjust, inhumane, infuriating, and an outright overreach of power. Standing in solidarity at the Cleveland Black Lives Matter March (2020-05-30) was energizing and eye opening. What was mostly a peaceful protest, the rage was palpable, ready, and easily understandable.

The African American Community is losing too many at the hands of those who are supposed to protect them. Something has to shift, and it is up to every one of us who are up for change to make something happen. Don't think you cannot make a difference. As an individual, there is a lot you can do to serve the collective. There are petitions to sign, movements to fund, help you can extend directly to the Floyd family and ways you can protest.  

ACTION:

• Ways You Can Help

(https://blacklivesmatters.carrd.co)

PETITIONS:

• Text “FLOYD” to 55156

• Text “JUSTICE” to 668366

• Text “ENOUGH” to 55156

• ‘Raise the Degree” A petition to raise the murder charge on Derek Chauvin, the officer directly involved in George Floyd’s murder.

DONATE:

• George Floyd Memorial Fund: Help the Floyd Family directly.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

• Black Lives Matter: Help end state-sanctioned violence:

• Color for Change: Designing campaigns powerful enough to end practices that unfairly hold Black people back, and champion solutions that move us all forward.

• Black Visions Collective (BLVC): Believes in a future where all Black people have autonomy, safety is community-led, and we are in right relationship within their ecosystems.

SPEAK OUT:

Racism exists in the open, but also behind closed doors and gated communities. For its insidious nature, "quiet racism" is highly potent and potentially lethal. It's a virus that spreads, even in soft whispers. Children are listening and gathering ideas, people brewing with hatred eavesdrop and further justify their positions, minorities inadvertently overhear comments against them or other groups, and it confirms an inferiority complex.

We cannot let racism linger in any corner of life if we want real change. Stand up to ignorance and hatred in the slightest, and don't let it go. Declare it to be unacceptable. You might lose friends, relatives, business partners, and even family. On the flip side, you might inspire someone else to do the same, give someone new freedom to change their mind, or provide a child with new ideas.

Confronting hatred, bigotry, and racism is no simple matter and takes courage. We cannot let it slide at any level and have to take a stand. There is no scale or range of racism. It either is or isn't. We each have the power to make change, and there is no need to wait. If you hear a racist or bigoted remark behind closed doors or in public, stand up, speak peacefully and powerfully in protest.

Get off the sidelines, take responsibility into your own hands, or be complicit. Stand in solidarity with the Black Community by donating and signing petitions. This is too damn important for us all.

In faith and rebellion,

Jay

[jayyoo]

Humans and Nature: Innovation vs Evolution

Fascinating articles on saving the Planet (curbing global warming) in this month's (April) Wired Magazine, which is dedicated to the "The Climate Issue." Honestly, I am not worried about it: Nature is our most excellent teacher of evolution. It will survive.

The titles of a few articles ironically tell all in terms of our collective ability to solve problems (we create) and the power of Nature: "The Warm War” and "Force of Nature."

Both offer interesting perspectives on how to deal with a warming planet. The former focuses on political will, VC investment in green initiatives, and Human's miraculous ability to innovate. The latter offers insights into how Nature continues to prove itself out as the ultimate survivor over time, reliably providing many answers on how to thrive in the face of chaos.

In the end, I believe in Human's ability to overcome, but also know we can be our worst enemy. We are always at war with something lol. And in the case of this article, we do not have unified leadership or vision for where we, as Humans, can play our part to curb greenhouse emissions. In the end, it does not matter who/what is creating excessive CO2; the science around the consequences of a warming planet is solid and believable. And to make a significant difference in short order, we need a "moon shot." The article provides fantastic examples of Human's coming together to do the impossible, like going to the moon, which undoubtedly requires longterm will, capital, and failure. Moreover, in each case, they needed a national plan or unified political action. The private sector alone always falls short.

"But the one thing we know is if you don't define the horizon of change you want to see, and you don't plant those seeds of innovation (failure), then you won't ever get there."

And if we cannot stop waging war on ourselves, I have faith in Nature taking care of itself. It has done so forever and will survive. The book Antifragile: Things that Gain from Disorder, is most revealing around Nature’s relentless ability to adapt, overcome, and plan for the future (redundancy). We have two lungs, two eyes, and two kidneys for resiliency. If one fails, we have another as a backup. The same is true of ecosystems and diversity of species with lookalike functionality. If one species providing a critical task dies off, there is another to pick up the slack.

Juxtaposed to the first article, "Force of Nature" is a reminder that Earth is doing a fantastic job on its own, providing necessary carbon sinks (things that absorb more carbon than they emit) to keep the Planet in balance. However, Human's meddling in the carbon balance (fossil fuels), as well as taking from Earth faster than we can give back responsibly (consumerism; waste), is no match for any natural, redundant carbon sink system to keep pace. It is just that simple. The Planet is going to get hotter with dire consequences.

It is the taking away from Nature that is most ironic and concerning in terms of global warming's threat:

"The largest 1 percent of trees contain fully half of all the above-ground live biomass, which also means half of all the carbon since the two are directly correlated. Young trees sequester carbon faster, packing it on in the vigorous growth of their early years, but they can't begin to compete with what large trees have been able to build into their trunks and branches through years of maturation."  

As trained consumerists, we cannot help ourselves. The more we live as consumers, the more big old trees will come down, the more carbon we will emit, and the more waste that will end up in a landfill. I am no exception, and while I recycle and compost as much as possible, I am well aware that it is not enough. I do it out of a moral/spiritual obligation for my kids (teaching them one at a time), and that is good enough for me.

Will there be enough political will to invest in keeping the planet green (now) like we did to deter the threat of communism or going to the moon? Will the private sector alone do what it has never done before? Can we recycle way, way more and waste less?

The good news is that if the Crown of Creation does not provide answers, Nature undoubtedly will. And we are not a necessary redundant fucntional species as much as we are an Achilles heel in her eyes.

[jayyoo]

Optimizing, Organizing: Goodbye apps for Mac

I cannot believe I got trapped into using apps from Evernote to Apple Photos. I am now using iTunes far less due to constant issues with corrupt playlists and vanishing album art (loving Spotify streaming and do not want to own my music). While these apps are seductively easy to use from the outset I have found them to be a disaster to manage over time and not that good at keeping things organized.

Example: One great thing about Apple photos is allowing one to chronologically go through pictures to find them. Often times, however, I find the need to get photos out of Photos for both work and personal use. The main reason: sharing. Yes, sharing by iCloud is nice, but not everyone has it and photos are not titled in a chronological manner once you get them out of the app. Unfortunately, Apple missed the mark with the img_xyx123.jpg naming format. Why they do not title images by date like Dropbox Camera Uploads is a mystery; a tiny thing that makes a world of difference when it comes to organizing and finding any file outside of the app.

Over the years I tried a lot of things (ie. Getting Things Done) to effectively keeps things organized. Lots of good wisdom out there but nothing perfect for my needs...

After a lot of trial and error, here is how I keep digital files organized: 

Four domains: Files, Photos, Video and Projects (a combination of all three) mainly because they all take up different space. Files in alphabetical order, and photos and video by date. And I keep them in large folders as opposed to having them nested, which I found to be a temporary shortcut and lazy substitute for titling correctly. All of my files are in shared directories on Dropbox.

Here are some tips for keeping files organized and available to share (note that I am a Mac user.) Nothing is perfect but this works for me:

Keep files in folders on your machine and out of apps. It took me 2 months to move all of my notes out of Evernote (10 or so a day). Good riddance.

Title files using keywords (makes them easily searchable and easier than adding tags).

Use Text Edit to create notes and not Microsoft Word, Apple Pages or any other app. RTF and TXT file formats are universal.

Use Dropbox. Again, it will automatically download and title photos by date.

Easily combine photos using preview by Apple to make PDFs (great for screenshots). Just move thumbnails in and out of files and export the final version as a PDF.

Use Exifrenamer which allows you to change the name of multiple files at once by date based on their metadata. You can add any prefix or suffix which works with my File, Photo, Video organizational scheme. 

What works for you?

[jayyoo]

What a treat. Yayoi Kusama’s Infinity Mirrors plus other works. At 89 she continues to create and push boundaries. Kusama’s fascination with the infinite particularly resonates, as well as her personal story as an immigrant from Japan coming to the US in the late 1950s to pursue passions in abstract impressionism. Daring to say the least given the times. Fascinating story of personal struggle, prolificacy and fame. -•- #infinitymirrors #yayoikusama #cma #cle #art #abstractimpressionism #abstractart (at The Cleveland Museum of Art)

[jayyoo]

Getting a ‘frequency imprint’ today (physiological software reboot and update). Chilling in the Himalayan salt room (positive ions) before learning all the things to which my body is sensitive (causing too high or too low cellular frequency). It’s about ‘knowing’ what to eliminate and limit to feel great. The best part is that the process is painless (zero blood work). Crazy how long this practice of functional medicine has been around, but marginalized and cast aside more or less as witchcraft over the years lol. Love this... It’s all about energy... -•- #fireyourdoctor #wholebodyhealth #paleo #organic #functionalmedicine (at Whole Body Health)

[jayyoo]

Happy 4th of July, America. -•- “Where there is Peace, there is Culture; where there is Culture, there is Peace.” - Nicholas Roerich -•- #america #jasperjohns #art #science #america #paxcultura #peace #art #nicholasroreich (at Cleveland, Ohio)

[jayyoo]

2018-03-24 12.08.57 from Jay Yoo on Vimeo.

This video is about 2018-03-24 12.08.57

[jayyoo]

These words... Oh my. Power. 

(Llorca)

The Novel Sound

Though we are told to mourn it,

We must know that it was a novel sound.

As we gather here to mourn the passing of this novel sound,

We should take the pains to remember something.

There are some of us,

Who do not accept the dreams of dragons as their own,

No matter how grand those dragons might say they are.

Yes there are some, who refuse to drop the candle,

Even when pushed into a dark cave and locked there behind a stone.

There is, you must recall, the kind of serious study,

That will give you confidence to strike your match to the mighty wick,

Which will illuminate yet another portion of the darkness.

You must be willing to accept that the pain, Is a part of the process of revelation.

You must be willing to take the field and stay on the field,

The way dukes stayed on the road.

Out there somewhere, are the kind of people,

Who do not accept the premature autopsy of a novel art form.

These are the ones who follow in the footsteps of the gifted,

And the disciplined who have been hurt but not discouraged.

Who have been frightened,

But who have not forgotten how to be brave.

Who revel in the company of their friends and sweethearts,

But who are willing to face the loneliness that is demanded of masters.

[jayyoo]

Have you forgotten me completely?

Have you forgotten me completely? Filling the space with a new? Feeling your life is ready now? Have you found new happiness?

Or does the hook of a memory get to you? One that scares you? One that dares to be real? Or have you forgotten me completely?

I thought it would be easy to forget. To leave those moments behind. To fill the space with a new. I thought it would be easy.

Society’s mind says to move forth to a new. Analyzing to say no to the past. Nothing can be what was they say. So don’t try or even look. Society does not know Life anymore…

It works from the heart and not the mind Finding tendrils to handles of Love Finding and winding a way back to the mind It is not reality, nor is it fantasy

It is Love my dear Life dares to be as bold as Love Life is saddened by Society falling short It is okay to be crazy, dare and be bold

For it is Love my dear. It is Life.

A love letter.