_{To start the year, my family, my fiancée and I went on a trip to South Korea. This is part eight of my nine-part love letter to the land of the Morning Calm. Strap on your seatbelts, because this post is going to be verbose!}

I don't want to discuss each and every detail, but I do want to touch upon the central themes of each artwork. The theme that I was going for was "past, present and future". To round out the mural, I've snuck in some blackout poetry (or what's commonly known as Erasure) inspired by the works of @beginningtoend. The words were from two books that Steemians have suggested for me to read, namely Awakened Imagination by Neville Goddard (suggested by @johleen) and Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke (suggested by @finleyexp).

Past

Korea has a rich history of War. So much so that they have a museum dedicated to it. From ancient times up to the present, the whole peninsula seems like it's forever going to be plagued by conflict.

Present

Through it all though, it has progressed to become a technological marvel onto itself. Not only that, it has also excelled in the arts and other aspects. Well, at least half of it anyway. However, the South has been landlocked by the North, impeding its huge economic potential. The conflict between the two countries could be traced back to contrasting principles. While it has blown up beyond that, it still proves as the bottleneck for exponential growth.

They have made great strides in terms of bridging ties as of late, so that's always good news. Some say that the stranglehold of Dear Leader grows weaker with every passing generation. While it's not there yet, hopefully they could begin healing old wounds and finally start the mending process to become one united nation once again. Not only will their people benefit from the union, but the whole region would reap benefits as well. Korea as a nation has been underrated for so long. It has huge upside, and it has the potential to go toe-to-toe with every other superpower once it would be made whole again. Undoubtedly, some pushback would be felt, but it would ultimately be cancelled out by a united effort to progress. That's what I wanted to show through this whole piece.

Hmm... I guess it wasn't as verbose as what I usually write haha! I just thought to add to the chilly goings on especially since @meesterboom's knee deep in snow. Here's hoping this warms you up a bit, daddy-o! For everyone else, I hope you enjoyed this miniseries within this series. One last post to go, and I'm due for a retrospective of sorts.

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<< Part 7

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한국, 정말 고마워요!

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Look no further than @lukestokes.mhth to solve your STEEM woes. Help keep him as a top witness to keep the STEEM flowing :D

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_{Join me in my Year of Resilience!}