a return to the walk this year

I mentioned in a previous post that I might not be at my current job for very long, and that I wanted to discuss my immediate future. Well, I don't have time to write much right now, but here's a general vision of my timetable:

1. Later in 2011 (a few months from now, really): restart the trans-American walk, now repurposed into something less vague and more streamlined: a walk on behalf of victims of glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), to raise funds and awareness about the disease. Fundraising and prep for the walk would start now; training would start now; the walk would be completed either in very late 2011 or sometime in early to mid-2012.

People have been asking and asking about whether I planned to continue the walk I'd begun in 2008. I've generally answered with an "I don't know," because I honestly haven't been sure. Lately, though, having made the email-and-blog acquaintance of the Parks family (I wrote about them here; Marissa was diagnosed with GBM a couple months ago; she blogs about her own experience here), I've felt inspired to do something meaningful for good folks who labor under a burden they didn't choose to bear. And somewhere in the back of my mind is my remembrance of Mom, a day or so before the debulking operation that took away most of her powers of speech and coherent thought: she was sitting morosely in her hospital bed, her family all around her, and she asked me whether I was going back to my walk. "How could I do that now?" I'd asked her in reply. Her expression turned dark and she said nothing. I knew what was going through her mind: Don't stay here because of me. Go on and do your walk. But I couldn't do it. I couldn't leave. How could I possibly abandon her when she most needed her family?

Of course, the object of the game, this time, is to do the walk right: there were plenty of mistakes last time around, mostly related to planning and focus. Some mistakes, though, had to do with the paths I chose to walk: I set myself up for all manner of delays and hardships by choosing a northern path. This time around, on the assumption that it's easier to walk through heat and humidity than through a snowstorm or a tornado, I'm thinking of crossing the south. I realize that this is going to present problems when I'm in the American Southwest, but careful planning may resolve that issue.

More on all this later.

2. Late 2012: return to Korea. It's where I belong. After eight years in Seoul, I'm still not a fan of big cities, but if I were to choose a big city to live in, Seoul would be the one-- not NYC, not Chicago, not Paris or San Fran or L.A. A lot has to be arranged if I seriously plan to do this. The whole question of carting my library back to Korea with me has become something of a joke. I'm most likely going to leave that library here, and will have to budget public storage into my plan. As I wrote a friend recently, the only other viable alternatives are to (a) sell off my library and replace everything with e-books (which might not be possible, since I'm pretty sure most of my religion-related books are unavailable in e-format), or (b) miraculously become super-rich and buy two properties-- one in Korea and one in the US, so as to have space for my books no matter which country I happen to be living in. I think when it comes to choosing a place to live, I'm more of a "both/and" than an "either/or" kind of person. I simply lack the funds to justify such a lifestyle. Two home bases would be nice, though, wouldn't they? Oh, and maybe a third perch in Europe while we're busy fantasizing.

So that's the general timetable. It needs fleshing out, and I'll need to start talking about the specifics, but to that end, I'll be revitalizing the Kevin's Walk blog (which has been dormant since last year).


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