When he turned forty, he realized that music, art, and physical education were true friends and companions. In his 40s, he experienced several physical and mental problems, and realized he was not taking care of himself, and changed his attitude towards life. He worked less and spent more time caring for himself.
Looking back, he realized he had lived 'savoring' life from childhood. On Sunday mornings, he woke up to his father's songs or movie scores, which helped him develop a close relationship with music. He learned to play the guitar in middle school and now plays guitar and sings with his son. He loved drawing and was in the art club in middle school, thanks to living in a neighborhood with comic bookstores. He joined his elementary school's baseball team and played soccer, table tennis, and tennis. The trumpet he picked up by accident was a great help in passing the years with delight. He lived 'savoring' without knowing the meaning.
Savoring is the capacity to attend to, appreciate, and enhance the positive experiences in one's life. It is the appreciation of the positive things in our lives and the decision to conscientiously enjoy them for as long as possible. Savoring is a great way to develop a long-lasting stream of positive thoughts and emotions. It has been linked to increased life satisfaction, including among individuals living with health issues.
He hopes that savoring life becomes a daily routine in schools, workplaces, churches, villages, cities, regions, and the entire country. Let’s create a 'cultural powerhouse, South Korea, not to compete and win but to learn and enrich together through the experience of savoring. Life is an experience! The nation is an experience! The path to happiness is savoring!
He recommends 'savoring' to his students and juniors who are working. He advises them to immerse themselves in the 'savoring' to 'delight, relish in what they do' for about an hour before work and then start their day.
You can’t live just working. You must rest and appreciate the good things in life that are given to delight us. The many aspects of our culture, arts, and 'physical activities’ in the 'savoring' make our lives happy.
Although the new government has much to do, he hopes it will also consider ‘the daily life of savoring' and the daily life of culture and the arts as critical national tasks. Savoring will make the Republic of Korea an advanced country with happier and healthier citizens.
One of the things he dreamed of as the Dean of Academic Affairs was to change the liberal arts education for freshmen to humanities and 'Savoring'. Suppose freshmen who have gone through the hell of entrance exams for a long time and come to college put down all other studies for just one year and spend their days learning humanities, music, art, and sports. In that case, they will be reborn as young people who are refreshed and invigorated as if they have taken a shower in culture and arts. If they learn an instrument and participate in a concert and choir, draw a picture and make something with their own hands, move their bodies and dance, run, and fly, there is no better liberal arts education than that.
There is a country that loves singing and dancing as much as our country does. It is the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. With a strong will to become independent from the former Soviet Union, 2 million people from the three countries formed a 620-kilometer human chain in August 1989. They sang: “Rise, Balts” in unison, and achieved independence two years later. The ‘Song and Dance Festival’ is also held every 4 to 5 years, with participation from the entire nation. The military dance and chorus, featuring tens of thousands of people, were designated as a World Heritage site in 2008, making them shine even more.