Our JennEric Life

Sep

2009

Think of it as a short commercial break

I know I’m in the middle of giving you the tour of the Buddhist temple we visited Sunday, and I’ll get back to it next – I promise, but I have to share this with you first!…and in the exact order I stumbled on it.

It started with a news article posted on Yahoo this morning.

It was enough of an attention grabber that I had to read the article.

You can read the full article by the Guardian News (a UK paper) here. But the long & short of it is that this little 13 year-old girl from Chicago has become quite the buzz at NY Fashion Week.

She started a blog in April of last year where she mused on the latest fashion in magazines, analyzed their trends & shared photos of her own uniquely-put-together outfits.

And somewhere along the way, her blog made it to the eyes of the fashion elite – where they immediately dismissed her as a fake. There was just no way this could be a 13 year-old girl - the writing was too professional, the analyses too dead-on…there was just no way. It had to be someone in the fashion industry posing as an awkward tween.

And then her blog captured the attention of an award-winning fashion label. They emailed Tavi & her fame in the fashion world exploded from there.

She took a week off of school to attend NY Fashion week – where she was courted by some big names; has been photographed for the cover of a popular fashion magazine and has become “the muse” for the fashion label that reached out to her in the first place.

And after reading the article, I had to browse her blog where I stumbled on one of her self-made videos (linked to the image below).

I was never this cool as a 13 year-old…can you imagine being this avant-guarde, this carefree, this unconcerned with how others perceive you…at the age of 13?!

Watching this video made my day…I kept smiling through-out it all & tried imaging what her parents must be thinking about all this attention….and then died laughing at the last few seconds.

But I’ll now return you to your regularly scheduled programming – thanks for humoring me.

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Sep

2009

Silleuksa Temple, pt. 1

And things I wished I knew ahead of time

jennifer

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Part of the trip Eric & I took yesterday included a tour of the local Buddhist temple.

(Well, a do-it-yourself-there’s-no-tour-guide-&-no-English-anywhere tour that would’ve been so much better had I known more about it while we were there.)

So what follows is the research I’ve been able to dig up on Silleuksa Temple now that we’re back home & back at work.

The temple Silleuksa lies in the southern Gyeonggi Province of South Korea.

It’s the only river-side temple in all of South Korea & it’s also one of the smallest.

The buildings are nestled high-up in the rock face of the Namhan River…so it’s a bit of a climb in certain spots.

The temple had already been in existance for some time when it was first documented in 1376 & some estimate it was first built in the 800’s.

Like all things ancient, it’s been built, burned, re-built bigger, burned again, re-built even bigger yet again & rededicated several times over.

It’s an active temple…monks & nuns live here, worship here, hold services here.

And the first building you come to as you walk into the temple compound is the Beomjong-gak…the pavillion used to house the temple bell (beomjong) & temple drum (beopgo).

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It’s intricately craved & painted roof was built without the use of a single nail.

Everything is put together like Lincoln Logs…stacked tightly together to withstand the test of time.

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Every morning & every night, the monks strike the bell.

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In Buddhism, the ringing bell is to help all living things attain Buddhahood and to help free them of their earthly desire.

They also beat the drum, beat a cloud-shaped gong (unpan) & wooden fishes (mokeo) which is to emit the sound of truth to all things – including aquatic life.

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These four things together act to deliver the Buddha’s truth through their holy sound.

(Had I known this ahead of time, I would’ve photographed the gong & the fishes, too. But I didn’t see them – I was too busy looking at the roof.)

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And I just couldn’t stop looking up at the roof…at the perfect geometrical designs…the aging wood…and all the still vibrant colors of the fading paint.

There’s lots to go over…so I’ll be breaking it up in chunks to make it easier to read.

If you have any questions along the way, be sure to ask! I’ll do my best to answer them.

[you can read part 2 here]