You Don't Tug on Superman's Cape

For the last several days, the chorus of a song has been playing in my head. As I would ride my bike the under the rail lines and through the streets, I couldn’t get this song out of my head. All at once, I would feel disappointment of the things that we didn’t get to do and at the same time joy for the things that I have done with the person I love to spend my time with sharing all of my experiences.

Our first night on Jeju Island, Chrissy and I walked to the center of the sleepy and dirty town of Jeju Shi looking for a place to sample vegetarian Korean cooking. At an information office just down the street from our hotel, a lady directed us to 'Café Street' on the other side of our hotel.


This walk took us over a suspension bridge over a chasm. On one side of the bridge a man, woman and a little girl with a puppy were selling ice cream. The little girl saw us and was excited at the sight of foreigners. I said, “Hello!”

With encouragement from her mother, the three-year old girl returned my hello with a big smile. As we crossed the bridge, the little girl chased us to the middle, where she stopped and returned to their sales wagon under near a single-story pagoda.

Café Street was a series of fish markets on one side of the street and eating decks overlooking the ocean on the other. We walked only a little way before we were convinced that there would be no vegetarian dishes offered in any of the restaurants. We walked back to the bridge, but didn’t return directly to our hotel. We walked through the park.

In the park we found a Korean health resort. They had workout machines, some of which I had never seen before and some were very common. We stopped at a walk pebbled with stones.
A sign advertised the health benefits of walking on the stones and the various sections of the foot that the stones would benefit the organs throughout the body. This was one of the challenges on the “Amazing Race”, so naturally we both had to give it a try.

Walking on the stones reminded me of my dad’s hallway in Cascade Key. My dad had a pebbled concrete walk in his house and as a kid when I walked on it barefoot I would hop and dance.In Korea, the stones were larger, the walk longer, and the feet now carry a lot more weight. I made it down, but I walked back on the grass. So did Chrissy.

As we neared our hotel we could hear music playing. Our hotel had a small beer garden. We took a table, one of only three that had people. Our waitress stood close to us, patiently waiting for us to need something. We have both grown accustomed to the service at the nicer places in Hong Kong, Macau, Vietnam and now Korea, where the wait staff is there for you personally. As we sat, she mentioned to us that the performer was taking song requests. She also gave us a piece of paper and a pencil.

I jokingly told Chrissy what song I was going to request, but I wasn’t joking. On the piece of paper I wrote: Jim Croce, “Time in a Bottle.”

Even though I had this song going through my head for days, I enjoyed the sweet victory of the melancholy song sung with a Korean accent.

If I could save Time in a bottle
The first thing that I'd like to do
Is to save every day
'til Eternity passes away
Just to spend them with you

If I could make days last forever
If words could make wishes come true
I'd save every day like a treasure and then,
Again, I would spend them with you

But there never seems to be enough time
To do the things you want to do
Once you find them
I've looked around enough to know
That you're the one I want to go
Through time with

God I am lucky! I have the person I want to go through time with and I even have the bottle that I have saved this time in. I am also glad that we have had this opportunity to share this time with you.