A King Worth Serving

 

I fell in love with King Arthur and the Matter of Britain (the whole cycle of stories that come out of that legend) in high school when we read Idylls of the King. The language of Tennyson, the mystery of a baby hidden away to be later revealed as the rightful ruler, the promise of his return in the hour of Britain’s greatest need all tugged at my imagination and made me desire more than anything that it be true.

Surprises in Korea

I have traveled a lot and lived on four continents, but a lot of things surprised me in my recent month in Korea with my daughter's family. Here are ten:

Surprise #1: Korea is amazingly first-world—more so even than our last overseas assignment in South Africa. In Korea everything is high-rises, cell phones with ubiquitous selfie-sticks, and state-of-the-art transportation--along side traditional architecture like this restored gate in Seoul. We saw no homeless, little poverty, nothing old or traditional that hadn’t been rebuilt in the past 60 years.