Ethereal Beauty, Real Pain

   They stir the heart, uplift the spirit, calm the soul. They are simply unmatched in their serene beauty and delicacy. Part of their charm is how a gentle breeze carries them fluttering away just as politely as they have appeared, depositing a snow-like ground cover that soon swirls off with the next wind gust. Please stay a bit longer, sakura 桜 (even the kanji is exquisite), then hurry up and return next spring.
   There are many cherry blossom viewers, however, who greet these breathtaking blooms with deep pain and a mixed, begrudging welcome. For most Koreans, the beotkkot 벚꽃 (NOT "sakura") are inexorably intertwined with Japanese atrocities and conflicting historical accounts about them. Even the trees themselves are understood by some to have been stolen from Korea long ago by the Japanese, then obnoxiously reinvented into Japan’s charming national symbol. The large variety of species can serve either to simplify or to complicate the historical and scientific arguments involved.

   Few non-Koreans, including Japanese, would openly dispute the fact that many cherry trees in Korea today were unquestionably planted for self-serving and oppressive reasons by the Japanese during the 1910-1945 colonial occupation. Many young Koreans, in their enchantment with the fresh beotkkot blooms every spring, can bracket away that history to bring Busker Busker’s 2012 mega-hit “Cherry Blossoms Ending” (벚꽃 엔딩)** back to No.1 annually on the pop charts. Indeed, most of the general Korean populace would acknowledge that the beotkkot are clearly beautiful. They might quickly add, however, that the devil can appear as an angel of light, too.
   For many, trying to appreciate the blooming beotkkot can be akin to listening to a musical virtuoso while suffering a migraine.
   Some wounds run unfathomably deep. Related memories and accounts can spread resulting infections even deeper. For Koreans and for Japanese – and for those of us who are neither but whose hearts beat strongly within one or both of those worlds – enjoying together the sakura 桜 / beotkkot 벚꽃 can be frustratingly elusive. Thankfully, by God’s grace in the gospel of Jesus Christ there are some exceptions. Even so, for the most part the ethereal beauty beckons the heart to sing, while acutely real pain hushes any crescendos of elation.
   Kyrie eleison.
**Live links to 5-minute music videos, the first with subtitles. Watch 'til the end.