There is no end to waiting.

A few minutes waiting for the ramen water to boil, dozens of minutes waiting for mom to come back from grocery shopping, hours waiting for class to end, days leading up to the announcement of college entrance exam results, weeks counting down the days until the 100-day military leave, months anticipating the baby's birth, years waiting for the first day of work, hours that seemed never-ending as I prayed for that person to get better quickly...
A year, a month, a day, an hour, a minute, a second, a tenth of that, a ten-thousandth of that.
Has there ever been a single moment in your life when you didn't wait?
Times when my heart pounded without rest, my throat was parched with anxiety, it was harsh, and it was boring.
There is no one whose life has not been a waiting one.
You, your father, your grandfather, and everyone else you respect and love have been waiting.
Those waits have created your today.


I'm glad I have someone to wait for.

This is a beautiful picture book published by Serge Bloch and David Cali, winners of the Bologna Ragazzi Award.
Like encountering an unexpected memory scribbled in a corner of a diary, it brings an intimate pleasure by gathering the most everyday scenes.
These are talented writers.
Even with short texts and simple, hand-drawn illustrations, the author has a knack for stealing readers' hearts.
The protagonist waits and waits again, from the innocent child who waited for Christmas and the baking of the cake, to the one who meets and falls in love with a lover, joins the military, fights a war, gets married, has a child, goes to work, and waits for the birth of a grandchild through several springs.
As the protagonist goes through the rite of passage, a red string is connected to the people he meets and develops a relationship with.
Sometimes on the verge of breaking, sometimes tangled, heading in the same direction.
The happy, painful, and heartbreaking times unfold in a linear fashion, but it is not light.
It points out the weight, big and small, that waiting carries.
The protagonist's life extends back to his child and grandson.
It's as if it's telling us that life doesn't end with one person's death, but is a string that unravels endlessly, and that waiting is a blessing we must experience throughout our lives.
Having something to wait for is what sustains time and gives us the strength to continue living.
Fortunately, there are many people who have to wait.