送舊迎新(송구영신): 묵은해를 보내고 새해를 맞는다는 뜻으로, 가족과 함께 세모를 보내는 좋은 관습이 있었는데, 언제부턴가 망년회라는 악습이 생겨서 남자끼리 모여서 술집에서 실컷 마시고 고주망태가 되어 처자가 기다리는 집으로 향한다.

망년회(忘年會)라고 하여 연말에 한 해를 보내며 그해의 온갖 괴로움을 잊자는 뜻으로 베푸는 모임이라고 하지만, 어찌 모든 일을 잊을 수 있겠는가?

잊을 건 잊고 챙길 건 챙겨야겠지. 하여간 가족과 친지가 연말에 모임은 뜻 깊은 우리나라 미풍양속이었다. 지금은 어떤지?

대 가족이 모여 묵은 해를 보내고 새해 아침에 차례지내고, 세배 손님 맞던 예전의 풍속은 많이 사라진듯 합니다.

할아버지 할머니 살아 계시던 저의 학생 시절에는 시골에서 올라오는 친척 세배 손님들-- 정월 대보름 때까지 세배 손님들이  오곤 했었지요---지금 생각하니 제 어머님 고생이  만만치 않으셨을 듯---

옛날  한국의 대가족  풍속 을 보여주는  그림 한두장----

한국 최초의 유럽  유학파 화가 배운성

 한국에서도 -- 이제 이런 풍경은 보기 힘들겠지요

Dr. 조, 한국 최초의 유럽 유학파 화가 배운성씨라면 혹시 몇년도에 그곳에 가셨는지 아십니까?

선친께서 미국에 오신 해를 간접적으로 1903년이고, 학교에 입학하셔서 공부를 시작한 해가 1904년으로 추정됩니다. 

그래서 그 당시 미국유학에 관한 자료를 얻으려고 해도 여의치 않군요. 

하여간 그런 재료를 찾을 수 있는 방법을 아시면 알려 주세요.

좋은 사진 감사합니다.

정관호 

Just right time to bring such a poem for the new year eve, KwanHo.

Indeed for the first time through last 20 years since we began to use my daughter's weekend retreat house, such balmy weather here at Southern Maryland allowed us to sit around at the bluff to enjoy the view of the River(Patuxent)/Bay(Chesapeake) on New Year Eve, over the bonfire burning collected dead wood twigs all afternoon!!  Climate change?

Happy Healthy and Prosperous New Year!

BB Lee 

Dear BB, I am glad to hear that you are having a great time at your daughter's retreat home. 

You are having balmy weather this time of the year at the Southern Maryland? 

The entire country seemed to be hit by inclement weather all over the place such as snowstorm or rainstonrms.

We felt quite chilly at a casita in our son's home at the Newport Beach, CA, and finally on the day before departure, I had chills, fever, and some aches and pains, which was handled primarily with Tylenols, and luckily

it subsided just on departing day.

Happy New Year to you and Mrs. Lee as well as the rest of your offspinngs. 

Regards,

Kwan Ho

Thanks again,  KwanHo.

It certainly is exceptional weather to stay out in late December even here in the MidAtlantic on the windy bluff overlooking the river all afternoon. Enjoyed but felt very leery wondering about climate change!

Hope you feel OK now.

Regards, 

BB

You mentioned about the intriguing question about global warming, and if there is, the question is whether it is man-made or not. 

As Putin mentioned, it is not a simple problem. Consequently the solution is not easy at all. 

I want to believe that it is nature's law rather than human creation.

However there are a lot of things we should do: First environmental polutions should be prohibited and cleaned. 

What can we do about the excess use of energy? 

We simply can't go back to the stone age and live like primitive people. 

I simply don't know. Please illuminate me.

Regards,

Kwan Ho

화가  배운성은  전라도 부호 백인기 집안(조흥은행 설립?)의  집사 로 들어가  그 아들이 유럽 유학시 비서 비슷한 역활을 하러 같이 유럽가서, 그 기회를 자신의  유럽 에서의 현대 서양 미술 수련에  매진---1920--1940년 경 까지 유럽에 머물다 귀국--

당시 기준으로  오랜동안 유럽에서 활동한것으로 알려져 있읍니다.

해방후   홍익대 미술대학 설립-학장--하다 6--25 전쟁통 서울서 활동??으로--- 월북--평양 미술대학 교수 --따라서 해금 될때 까지  남한 에서는 금기의 이름이었음---평양에서는  판화의 선구자 역활을 했다고--

몇년 전 한국에서  프랑스에 유학간  유학생이 우연히 배운성의 작품 40 여점을 불란서에서 발견 큰 화제가 됨.

가족도의 인물들도  화가 자신외에 대부분 백씨네  가족들이라고 하며, 유럽에서 상상으로 그린 작품이고,

이 그림은 그림으로써의 가치는  물론, 한국의 복식사, 풍속사, 창문을 통하여 보이는 주변  풍경 모두  중요한 사료로 생각되어

한국  지정 문화재 중 하나이고--

어느 부자가 갖고 있는 듯, 전시회에 나올떼는 "개인 소유"로 되어있읍니다.

몇 년 전 덕수궁 현대 미술관에서 한번 보았는데,  저 개인적으로는 중고교시절 4 대가 한집에 모여 살던

제 어린 시절을 연상케  하는 작품입니다.

홍익대학교 미술대학에 1953년 환도이후 보성고등학교 교감이셨던 이마동 선생님이 학장으로 가신 건 잘 압니다.

선친, 변영로씨등과도 친하셨지요. 

서양화가였었고, 우습게도 피란교사에서 선생님이 부족하여 이마동 선생님을 국어선생님으로 되었는데, 우리를 가르친게 국어교과서에 나온 한문글지만 가르치셨지요. 그래서 나 혼자서 국어시험 100점을 받은 일도 있었습니다. 

미국유학사에 관한 서적을 찾고 있어도 그런 건 없군요. 아마 그 시절에  유학한 분이거의  없었던 모양입니다. 

옛 이야기입니다. 

Dear KwanHo

I am somewhat surprised and concerned about your skepticism, saying ‘I want to believe that it is nature's law rather than human creation’ like Texans - You are NOT a fucking Texan, aren’t you!?-.

Of course, buddy, IT IS!!!! I don’t care whether bastard Putin or Trump agree or not because they are NOT the specialist on this climate change- what the fuck (excuse my French!) do they know about the climate change!?- but the specialists repeatedly proved it is a MAN-MADE DISASTER  as you also correctly pointed out saying ‘first environmental pollutions should be prohibited and cleaned’!!!!

YES, Absolutely CORRECT!!!! That is the one the governments should support and take stronger measurements. It is not a fake or hoax as mother fxxxer Donald claims! It is a FACT! We will have to accept/respect the environmental specialists’ conclusion as the way I expect to others to respect my opinion/appraisal on the vascular malformations I solely dedicated for almost 20 years since I retired from active role on the (liver) transplant on Year 2,000.

Indeed, they deserved for full recognition and respect on their scientific works done through decades as the way I expect full recognition/acceptance of my opinion/recommendation on the issue of vascular malformation and lymphedema (primary lymphedema is one form of lymphatic malformations), which I deserved with no but, no if - sounds too dogmatic?- as a world authority with the full credit based on five books, etc I wrote/edited through last 10 years.

So, I do respect the environmental specialists’ conclusion with NO doubt, period!

We have to take the action with no further delay as Sarah Kaplan, known columnist to WAPO wrote an article this morning about this climate change under the title of “A lost decade for climate action: We can’t afford a repeat, scientists warn” on Page A4, January 2, Thursday.

All the best,

BB Lee

P.S. No one says we have to go back to the stone age and live like primitive people, no, it is NOT! Absolutely wrong PR by MF Donald’s group to scare the people. After all, the human being, the worst creature God ever made, is responsible for the destruction of the innocent earth so that the human being will have to take care of it.  

I have to confess that I have no knowledge about the cause of global warming, its progress and  prognosis,

and  most importantly what we should do about it as the individuals. 

Has the phenomenal advance of science at various aspects caused this serious problem? 

I simply don't know what we should do. 

Should we vote for the environmentalist politians?

Dear BB, please enlighten me.

Regards,

Kwan Ho

I am NOT an expert on this climate issue, KwanHo, but there are tons of data for this man-made ecological disaster you can read from everywhere so that I don’t want to waste your time. But I would like to point out one thing, that is, the CO2 concentration in the atmosphere was found to be the highest, as of 2018, it has been in 3 million years. Indeed, the global temp averages in 2016 were 1.78 F (0.99 degrees C) warmer than the mid-20th century average according to the NASA and NOAA data and 17 of the 18 warmest years have occurred since 2000.

I also would like to share one long story I read on New Yorker and also Smithsonian Magazine that 11 percent of all global greenhouse gas emissions is caused by the deforestation by human beings which is comparable to the emissions from all of the cars and trucks on the planet, believe or not.

Therefore, according to the scientists, ‘conserving the ecosystems’ is ​much more cost-effective than such human-made interventions like building a sea wall for coastal protection, etc, fortunately!

Indeed, ‘saving the nature’ is a lot cheaper like keeping the Amazon as a carbon-storing powerhouse since the nature can negate the effects of human-caused climate change.

So, I personally allocate USD 1,000,00 every year to donate various groups to help them to promote “Save nature. It’s cheaper !”, and of course, I do participate actively to the community to solicit NOT to vote any politicians who have the records against environmental protection policy to improve environmental quality, control and reduce pollution from all sources, and prohibit or restrict the setting and/or operation of any industrial facility on environmental grounds like coal mining.

That is my penny worthy opinion, buddy!

Warm regards,

BB Lee

Dear BB. That's a very good advice. I agree with you 100%. We have to save our environment very strongly, 

and try hard even to reforest any available places. 

Thank you very much. 

Again, have Happy New Year.

Kwan Ho

Dear KwanHo

I happened to have the letter as below this morning from Mark Malouf, one of my Aussy friends 'down there' in regard to the natural disaster with wild fire, which will give you some idea on how much we are worrying about the global warming!!!!  So I copied his letter as below to let you read it through to get the first hand information of global warming impact throughout Aussy. By the way, Mark Malouf  of Sydney is a British trained vascular surgeon, one of the disciples of legendary John Hobbs of  UK and a former president of Australia and New Zealand Society of Phlebology, actively engaged to the venous surgery for decades.

Dear BB, It is wonderful to hear from you.  Thanks for thinking of us down here in our difficult times.

Yes the whole bush fire situation is very worrying .

Thankfully the city of Sydney and its suburbs are not threatened but they are blanketed in smoke and haze regularly, depending on the wind direction. The fires are active in the Blue Mountains region and in bush land and small villages around 50 to 100 km from the city centre.  Also all down the NSW coast there are so many separate fires.  Now Victoria and South Australia many square miles of coastal native forests are affected. All of this is during the holiday season when people flock to the coast to swim and camp.

The Snowy Mountains between Sydney and Melbourne are also affected.

The mood in Australia was not helped by the volcano disaster in New Zealand only a few weeks ago.  Most of the victims were Australians on a 7 day cruise from Sydney to NZ and looping around NZ to return to Sydney.  The volcano day trip was an added “highlight” for those interested and those poor people who decided to go on the trip were caught in a death trip!

The climate debate is really raging here in Australia because of this bushfire disaster. Undoubtedly extreme weather conditions and trending warmer average temperatures cannot be overlooked but our centre right Government has not been radical with carbon emissions reduction so they are getting a lot of criticism. The other argument is we have all this coal and gas and uranium that we are not prepared to use so power prices are almost the highest in the world. Renewables have not yet caught up so we are in a difficult transition situation. As you know we have lots of scope for solar energy production !  Also we have a one-in-100-year drought so nature is not being kind to us. And the Greenies will not allow back-burning and hazard reduction burn-offs so the fuel load is very high.   And we hear Indonesia is currently having floods!  Go figure that one.

I hope you and Marietta are healthy and happy. I assume your 80^th birthday came and went.  Happy belated 80^th from Therese and me.  We wished Andrew Nicolaides happy 80^th and also  Joe Caprini so you guys are legends of the highest order and we can only aspire to get into your league.  Unfortunately my dear mentor John Hobbs died in September at the age of 88. He was in poor health for almost 2 years following cerebro-vascular issues and he just stopped in his sleep!  It was time. Therese and I went to one of the two memorials for him.

I turn 68 this month and I am happy still in fulltime venous practice . I am taking more holidays however. I am off to Mumbai later this week to the Venous Assoc of India meeting. I vividly remember you swatting and killing many mosquitoes during one of your trips to India. You showed us the evidence!   This will be their biggest venous meeting so I am looking forward to it.  And we plan to see Andrew and Bo in Budapest in June for the EVF, followed by Buenos Aires in September. So the year is already mapped out.  I have one son, Nicholas, almost 30, and he is to be married in October here in Sydney so we are very excited about that.  Our two daughters show no such inclination !

Oh I forgot to say Therese had a very successful hip replacement in July and is back to normal activities.

So Therese and I wish you and Marietta a wonderful 2020 and I hope the year is kind to you.  And thank you again for thinking of us in difficult global warming times.

Sincere best wishes.  Mark

KwanHo,

Hope you would take the global warming more seriously with this first hand information.

Warm regards,

BB

P.S. I feel so sad to learn Blue Mountain as well as Snowy Mountain are engulfed by this horrendous bushfires he mentioned. Indeed, I still remember the unforgettable two day hiking to Blue Mountain near to Sydney, I took with Mark ans other Aussy friends years ago and also a day tour to Snowy Mountain on way to Melbourne a few years ago with my wife as well. What a disaster!!! So sad!!!!

Thank you BB. I am very impressed with his letter about global warming and uncontrolled wilf fires. 

It's a terrible situation and I only hope the fires to be controlled soon. 

I was reminded of our trip to India for visit to the Buddha's sacred places about 13 years ago, and it was during the winter time

so we didn't have mosquito bites. But the trip itself was an adventure!

Dr. Malouf must be a great vascular surgeon in his late sixty's, and seemed to be very active and energetic. 

I feel so sad for Australians and New Zealanders to be hit by these disasters lately. 

Thank you again for this good informational material.

Best regards,

Kwan Ho