As I live my life as a professor who researches and teaches at a university, that memory often comes to mind.
The same flaw in someone else who is dark-faced and introverted that allowed me to see the flaw in someone else who is red-faced and introverted.
Every time that happens, I think about it.
Although I may not be a charismatic role model or a great mentor to my students, I have some kind of quirk that allows me to be attentive to others.
I think I can notice and embrace it.
So, I will be the first to recognize and comfort the few faces that are 'too shy to say hello' and 'too timid to be polite', hiding in the cracks of the fresh, bright, and confident youth.
“I am you.
So I said, "I know."
---From the "Prologue"

This book was not written to raise the question, “What is goodwill?” or to preach the utility of goodness.
I wanted to capture and record certain moments and share them with people.
Like that moment when I saw the weaknesses of others through my own flaws and looked at them with a look of affectionate understanding.
I thought that such an experience of knowing might not be of any use in implementing justice or changing the world, but it could be the smallest way we can listen to and respond to each other's suffering in our daily lives.
Perhaps it is the very small, insignificant things that sustain us as we take our daily steps despite our instability and uncertainty.

---From the "Prologue"

Several years ago, when I was asked to write about the topic of 'reading the world,' the first thing that came to mind was, oddly enough, this memory.
Instead of adding my clumsy commentary to the political and economic issues and "ways to change the world" that countless experts have keenly analyzed, I thought, why not focus on the small steps we take in that world?
A world where institutions are the body and capital is the heart, where even after the nuclear issue is resolved, corruption is eradicated, and the bad guys are sent to prison, the world will still remain strong.
I wanted to look into the moments that seemed 'insignificant, but were helpful' to each other as we struggled through it.

---From "It seems like nothing special, but it helps"

Looking back, I realized that until I started studying and teaching to earn a living, there was never a time when my path to making a living was truly cut off.
So I had a vague sense of courage.
I thought that somehow, a path would open for me to build my own business.
It may have been a merciful hand from beyond the world that opened it up, but it was only through the great and small favors of the 'people' with whom I live on this earth that it finally came into my hands in the form of daily bread.
Even if the girl in the film's journey to the "Fatherland" was a gift prepared for her, it was as if the act of allowing her to lie down on a chair for a while, her weary body on the way there, was a trivial favor bestowed by a human who was not particularly kind or merciful.

---From "From the Magpie's Perspective of Repaying a Favor"

I felt like I should offer some comfort or advice, but I was afraid that if I said even one word carelessly, the student's heart, which was as fragile as glass, would crack.
(...) I threw away the sentences of advice that I had been choosing and polishing.
Instead, I replied, “Thank you” to the student who came to me so late at night and apologized for telling me this story.
I may not be able to give you all the advice you need, but I truly appreciate you sharing your story with me.
I won't apologize for not being a good counselor to you, so let's decide not to apologize for coming to me in the middle of the night.
I'm glad that I can be a 'listening ear' to you, as you've felt a little better by talking.

---From "Becoming a Listening Ear"

So many lives have been shattered that it's become a luxury to worry about the relational distance that comes with physical distancing.
The shadows of those who have lost their livelihoods, those who are trapped in grinding working conditions, and those who lack even the bare minimum of housing to allow for self-isolation will always linger.
I can't add even a single line to the analysis and forecasts provided by experts.
I can't even offer you any plausible humanistic consolation.
I just remember that afternoon when we shared a few tangerines and a loaf of cheese bread.
It may be just a fleeting warmth that cannot last like the match struck by the little match girl, but I hope that the warmth of these insignificant moments can be given to us 'one more' in our daily lives.

---From "A Few Tangerines and a Loaf of Cheese Bread"

I wanted to help create a world where people aren't hurt by the careless words and glances of good neighbors.
Not because it's more right, but because it just feels more urgent to me.
I hope that in the process, anger will not easily become my strength.
In this place where we too often witness a sense of injustice that has lost its sense of propriety and a sense of rage that is unsympathetic.

---From "I hope anger is not my strength"

"Compassion without anger," which forces us to merely sympathize with the weak when we should be fiercely fighting to find the root cause of the problem, is the flip side of "anger without compassion," which easily achieves a sense of justice by pointing the finger at the wicked as the cause of the problem and venting anger at them.
Still, I couldn't be cynical about this 'good story'.
Because I think that a world with one more good will would be better than a world without it.
(...) A moment of good will is precious in itself, and it is better to have it than to have it not at all.

---From "A Moment of Good Will"

It seems that only when we reach the end of the dark tunnel do we realize.
In a sense, that tunnel was truly brilliant.
The fact that the moments that twinkled above our heads as we looked back, lost in longing, were as full as the stars in the sky.
This too will remain as another longing in the future.
I know.
A point that you thought was the end is not the end.
There will be new, shining things added to it.
Even in times when it seems like there's nothing left to look forward to, we may each be going through another beautiful period of our lives.
Maybe it will be the same today.

---From "Passing Another One"