I don't watch TV often. I haven't watched the K-drama 'Fooled by the Bombshell' that's currently popular on Netflix. Even though people around me are making a fuss about it. Everyone says it's fun. They say I must to see it.
When Life Gives You Tangerines -Korean Drama on Netflix
I used to spend a lot of time watching YouTube instead, but now it's like a TV channel for me. I have a bad habit when I sit down in front of the TV, which is to flip through the channels without finding a place to settle down.
I'm lost in the sea of information, flipping channels here and there, and not finding anything interesting to watch. I feel like I've already seen everything there is to see. Should I say that I've become bored because the content is the same?
The YouTube algorithm used to tell me, "Here's what you'll find interesting," but now the algorithm has become stale. How fickle human tastes are!
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On that lazy Saturday afternoon, I was lying on the sofa, flipping through the TV channels. Then I came across a program title that caught my eyes. The title was 'The Millionaire Next Door' The millionaire's living room was filled with paintings and artworks worth tens of billions of dollar. From David Hockney to KAWS, the masters of modern art
I was interested in collecting art myself, but I was curious about the abilities of people who could collect so many works of art. What on earth do they do for a living to be able to fill their homes with so many pieces of art?
To conclude, the millionaire of this house was a single woman who made a big fortune through logo design for large corporations in her youth. Her house was a large mansion in the outskirts of the city, too big for a single woman to live in alone.
For your understanding, I have attached a YouTube link below.
The Next Door Millionaire
I thought, once she had been a top in her field and had been successful in her career, she must had a lot of friends and connections, but why did she live in such a quiet place where there are few people?
Don't rich people have more things to do in the city? Social parties, city lights, department stores, luxury goods, etc. How many benefits of the city can you buy with money?
Living in the countryside means you don't have to wear fancy clothes, carry expensive handbags, or wear high heels, but you don't have the opportunity to show off the things you paid a lot of money for, do you? Aren't people who have too much money and are overflowing with it supposed to show it off? I've never had too much money, so these were the prejudices I had about rich people.
The TV hosts showed her the artwork hanging in her living room. Wow! There were all kinds of works by artists who are famous these days. These included adult toys by pop artist KAWS, who is called the Andy Warhol of the 21st century, and large-scale landscape paintings by David Hockney, as well as works worth hundreds of millions to billions of won.
Is this person talking to the paintings hanging on the wall?
Does she find happiness in having these expensive collections on display in a house where no one else is around?
In conclusion, she was not just an ordinary woman living alone as the TV title suggests, but an art collector and art museum director. Some may criticize her for promoting the art museum, but shouldn't we acknowledge her pure passion for the artwork?
Most people live for money. They don't know why money is good, but without money, it's inconvenient. They have to pay the rent, they have to pay the bills. Once the essentials of life are taken care of, and you have enough money to live a little bit extravagantly, what's next? Is it a numbers game, who has more until they die? Some people live shouting "more, more, more", and some people find a different path.
Then, What is that different path means? I guess the value of something invisible rather than something visible, something whose depths are unknowable and therefore endless, something that doesn't grow tiresome.
'The emptiness that comes after having it all, and the boredom with material things.'
Is life destined to eventually become weary of everything we enjoy in this human world? Other people I know, Bessie Johnson and her husband, have lived similar lives. I have admired them for a long time. The reason they still remain in my mind among so many great people is because of this one line from Bessie Johnson.
"You may have your cities and electric lights, movies, dancing parties, and surging crowds;but for thrill, give me the moon light in the dessert."
Was the phrase "give me the moonlight" originally such a sad and hazy one? My heart aches every time I recall the word "moonlight." To me, that word sounds like "peace." Something that will end the never-ending struggle that has been going through: Silence. Calmness, stillness. All I want in this world is peace of mind. But why is it so hard to get that little thing?
Image source: inacents.com
Scotty’s Castle is considered the finest example of a Spanish Castle ever built in America. The legendary Death Valley Scotty gave the Castle fame, and the Desert remoteness makes it unique.
Kolor View Press ©1975
Let me introduce Bessie Johnson briefly. Bessie and her husband Albert Mussey Johnson built a house in the middle of the desert long before Las Vegas was built. Her husband, Albert Mussey Johnson was a millionaire who made his fortune in the insurance business.
when he discovered the desert, he decided to live there, in death valley, so named because it was so uninhabitable because there wasn't a drop of water.
What would it be like to build your own castle in the middle of the desert and live in your own kingdom? Do humans ultimately find peace of mind when they are alone? What is the difference between moonlight in the city and moonlight in the desert?
I cautiously guess that people find relief only when they find the master of their soul. My master is me, and I am also the king of the castle. However, people live their lives trying to find something from other people.
I wonder if Bessie Johnson realized that too. Didn't she realize in her middle age that the life she had lived since birth, constantly intertwined with people, was ultimately meaningless?
You might ask, what does Bessie Johnson's life have to do with art, since she's not like the art-collecting millionaire in the previous example?
To explain that, we would have to discuss what is art, and that would be a very long story.
But let me just say one thing: since Art exists to soothe the human soul, I think living a beautiful life is also art. A beautiful life is living by realizing the instinct to return to the fundamental peace within you.
Some people might call it 'isolation', some might call it 'futility.'.
People might ask what you have gained by building such a castle in the end.
I cautiously guess that it is, ironically, understanding and tolerance of people.
It doesn't make sense that you built your own castle to escape people, but in the end it was to understand people.
Image source: sierrawave.net
Here is the story of Walter Scott, a conman who lived close to the Johnsons.
The man who had no family built a house next door to the Johnson's in the death valley desert.
The Johnson's knew the man was running a scam, but they turned a blind eye to it, saying, “He's a nice guy,” and laughed it off. Instead, Mr Johnson found riches in the desert far greater than those that glitter Scotty promised for mine investment.
Image source : www.wondersandmarvels.com
When someone causes us financial loss, we tend to think of them as bad people and treat them like the devil. However, I find it amazing that the Johnson couple understands this and looks at it as cute.
I think the understanding was from their tolerance that they felt it was his bubbly personality and his humor that made him a person worth being around, rather than the bad side of him that made him a conman.
Love and embrace are something that the recipient can eventually nourish others. It seems that the conman realized this when he was about to die thanks to the Johnson couple who treated him humanely.
Image soruce: inacents.com
Scotty and his dog Windy
After he died, Scotty was buried next to his beloved dog Windy, and it is said that he left this message on his grave.
I got four things to live by
Don't say nothing that will hurt anybody
Don't give advice. Nobody will take anyway
Don't complain
Don't explain
Just because he was a con man, it didn't mean he didn't have a life lessons. Sometimes the love you learn from someone else changes your life, just like the way we are different before we know art than we are after.
In that sense, I think we're all artists by the time we return to the ground.
Whether it's the futility of life or the beauty of life, we all have some kind of realization and enlightenment about the years we've lived.
As I have lived for quite some time, these days, there are times when things from my childhood until now pass through my head like a panorama. And It also brings back memories and music that had been forgotten.
This song is also one of the memories that suddenly came to mind. It's a song I enjoyed listening to in middle school thanks to a friend who liked Rock music. I'll end this article by appreciating The Temple Of The King.
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