Kim Gu (Baekbeom)
Was I remembered today for what I gave, not what I had?
📝ONGO's Reflection
Baekbeom lived his whole life as a poor exile. The only thing he possessed throughout was one thing — a clear picture of what kind of country he wished for. The "country I want" he left at the end of his memoir was neither a wealthy nation nor a great one. It was the nation highest in the power of culture. The measure of a person decides the size of the country they envision. Baekbeom showed how a man with little can hold the greatest picture of all. What picture do we hold today? That picture makes us.
"I wish our nation to become the most beautiful in the world. Not the wealthiest, not the most powerful — only this: the boundless power of high culture."Kim Gu (Baekbeom), 白凡逸志 「나의 소원」 (Baekbeom Ilji, "My Wish", 1947)
🌱Apply It Today
Tonight before sleep, write in a single sentence the kind of person you want to be remembered as five years from now. It need not be grand. That one sentence is your personal version of Baekbeom's "the country I want."
