In Order to Live by Yeonmi Park
Book - In Order to Live by Yeonmi Park
"How can you understand love when there is no word for it?"
Background –
You don't know what you don't know.
Reading widely, often and with an open mind allows us to discover interests, passions, research and stories that can expand our potential. In many cultures around the world people do not have access to information and as a result don't have the benefit of knowing what does and does not exist.
The book –
Yeonmi Park was a North Korean citizen growing up in a lower caste family under the Kim Jong Il dictatorship of the country. She speaks of her families ability to barely stay alive due to extreme constant famine and the lack of electricity, resources but more importantly information that she and her family had access to growing up.
Escaping the country through human traffickers Yeonmi experienced extreme hardship being sold as a bride and watching her mother be assaulted almost immediately once leaving North Korea. Once Yeonmi reached China she was able to realise that alot of what North Korea Propaganda was not only not true but the opposite of what they had said.
She fell in love with reading and was able to come to realise that all of her past ideas about how the world works and her understanding of things were not as they seem.
The result –
While we don't have to brash the physical hardships of what Yeonmi and other North Koreans have suffered through. We each have the ability to capitalise on and be grateful for the access to information that we have in our lives.
On a micro level I like to think that if we all took Yeonmi's approach to education post gaining her freedom, we would be giving ourselves the best chance for a meaningful, interesting and maximised life
