Luca and Olin are deepening their own rhythms and charting spaces for exploration. I find it all endlessly inspiring.
Bubble tea
Happy Hanukkah and Happy Holidays! Enjoy some bubble tea with your latkes and hope to see you again in person in 2021!
Father and sons
Father and sons
Hardwood
Two years ago it was just a hardwood floor under our sofa.
Art in Embassies
Last week, the State Department shipped back one of my photographs which had been installed at the US Embassy in Guatemala for the last two years.
The piece is from my 2014 series “El Sistema”, a photographic document of the work of Sistema de Orquestas de Guatemala (SOG), a non-profit whose mandate is to create a network of new symphonic orchestras which offer free classical music education for the country’s youth.
New Acquisition
This week I sold prints of these two images I shot a few years ago at the Highline. They’ll hang in the corporate headquarters of an architectural firm in NYC.
Hunger
When Olin sees something he’d like to eat he gets a little crease in his brow and says in Korean: “I didn’t eat that”.
To make them smile
In Guatemala, my father Mario Permuth makes these digital illustrations so his grandchildren in New York will smile.
His mother’s expression
A visit with Olmedini (after 9 months)
I spent yesterday visiting with my dear friend Olmedini El Mago.
It had been nine long months since the last time we had a chance to see each other. And equally long since the last time he performed magic on the subway - or ventured out for a haircut.
Cherries
A few notes about our twins:
Like characters in a children’s book, they say “tok tok tok” instead of actually knocking on doors.
They translate everything from Korean to English for Papi’s benefit. Luca is a puzzle master and also loves to build to spec. Olin gets a kick out of assembling as well, as long as the result looks nothing like the illustration in the product box.
Olin breaks out in song. Luca gets up to dance.
Luca’s color is blue. Olin’s is red.
They call each other “Cuca” and “Ewin”.
When one of them gets hurt, the other rushes in to give comfort.
They stomp their feet like pistons in an engine when they’re upset.
They laugh at each other’s jokes for minutes on end - but nobody else gets it.
They can fight over toys all day long, but they don’t think twice about letting other kids borrow them at the playground.
Luca does a happy dance when he eats his favorite foods; Olin eats them with both hands at once.
Olin is fiercely independent; mischief is Luca’s middle name.
When they see themselves in the mirror, they call out their brother’s name.
When they go to sleep at night, they hold onto Mami, like pilgrims to their prayer.
***
Luca and Olin are two years old today.
Olin is a fox, Luca is a lion.
Jeju
This corner felt like the kind of spot neighborhood residents come out to at the end of the day to have a friendly chat.
No doubt you’d find me here if I lived on the island.
Lessons learnt
This morning I was reading an animal book to the twins. We came to an illustration of an octopus. “Who is this?”
Luca: “Octopus”
Olin: “Yummy”
Jeju Island: lessons learnt.
A glimmer of light
After the storm I caught a glimmer of light in the sky. I looked at the clouds and thought about my mother’s soul. The light intensified slowly and then it’s full radiance came forth on the horizon.
I felt it was shining for me. The light was her voice and it spoke to my heart, bringing a moment of peace and reassurance to a grieving son.
A man doesn’t have time
“A man doesn't have time. When he loses he seeks, when he finds he forgets, when he forgets he loves, when he loves he begins to forget”.
Mirror image
When they see themselves in the mirror, they call out their brother’s name.
Semester Abroad
Today I completed my Final exams for Summer semester Korean language class at Kyung Hee University. I did best in the exam I was most anxious about: Conversation. And I probably did well enough on Grammar and Listening Comprehension but would have liked more time for Reading Comprehension.
I hope I passed and moved on to the next level - although that’s a mute point since I never planned on continuing in the Fall. Being a college student in Seoul was wonderful, meaningful and daunting all at once. I’ll surely miss it!
Una pluma en el tiempo
Esta pluma levitando en Seoul me recordó tanto a mi querido amigo Olmedini El Mago - y los largos meses que han pasado desde que tuvimos oportunidad de vernos en persona.
It took almost two years.
It took them almost two years to say it back to me, but yesterday they both did: “I love you”.
All to myself
This afternoon, I had the twins all to myself. We strolled the neighborhood, we played, we danced for a bit and had dinner together.
Usually, at bedtime they prefer if Mami reads to them and tucks them in. It had been a few weeks since I had the opportunity to do so. Olin fell asleep first. Luca had taken a nap earlier and wasn’t quite ready for bed. At some point he started recounting his memories of the day: animals, cars, songs, things. He practiced saying certain words a few times over and also translating them from Korean to English. When he was done with his “diary” he did something that brought tears to my eyes: he slowly went through the names of each of his Korean relatives one by one.
HRM had mentioned that he did that occasionally before sleep. But it was something else to actually hear his voice saying their names in the darkness, so sweet and so full of love.