The Book of Love

🦋 Aug 29, 2017 at Incheon Airport, 12pm

"The Book of Love" - fascinating plot. 

It talks about how two people started to write to each other because of a book named 28 Charing Cross Road, which is the real address of a cafe/library in London. The owner of the place had been helping strangers to transfer their letters to others, and some have found their true love through this long-distance letter exchange. Fascinating. Writing letters takes time and much work: from transferring thoughts into words, writing them out by one hand, putting the letter into an envelope, and writing down the address before sending it out through the post office or post box. It hasn't ended yet because it takes some days to get to the other place and eventually into the hands of the person you are writing to. The whole process can only be seen as complete when you receive a letter in return. The exchange of letters needs something modern people don't have: patience and time. Think about when you didn't get his letter after a few weeks of waiting, what you can do is nothing but read and re-read those letters that he wrote to you before so that you can still think that he's connected to you (in the case that you don't know his phone number, email, and address). Then, think about how your heart will beat whenever you pass by the post box in front of your place. You are waiting for his/her letter. Then think about when you finally recognize the handwriting on the envelope and are so happy that you can't even describe your feelings when reading his letter. Every word written in the letter is so meaningful that you remember everything he/she wrote naturally. This is a letter exchange. The waiting process and distance make it more precious than everything else. This is what we have lost in this modern period. All beautiful poems are dead, and there's no such job as a poet anymore. One might think that electronic devices kill the invisible beauty of mankind by visualizing so many things and shortening the actual distances between them. But no, it's not about the electronic devices but the one who controls them. Beautiful hand-written poems will still exist if you use your own mind and hand to create them. A magical letter exchange will still work if both parties are willing and passionate enough to write to each other. There are multiple ways to express love, and I would like to try out every way I can because every way has its own irreplaceable effect. 

"We have Facebook so we don't need to write," 

"As a matter of fact it's like what you say. But think if one day Facebook disappears and everything online disappears, what is left then?"

"Something that we can touch and feel and remember."

"Letters, photos, memories."

"Most Importantly, we must have this inside here, between us."

"This, here."

"Yes. This, in here."

In the movie, there's an episode of an old Chinese couple getting married in the States even though they married before in China but without proper paperwork, only by exchanging donkeys. In the church, during the wedding ceremony, the old man says, "You know, I hope you will die before me because it's better in that way: that you always cry so much and you can't take care of yourself. So remember, when you arrive in the other world, I will allow you to search for another person to take good care of you. You have my word." At the end of the story, the old man dies before the old lady. While spreading his bone ash into the river, the old lady cries, touches her heart, and says, "I love you."