Journal
Note #136: Twenty-four (2021.3.5)
Just a quick note today to say a few things. The last of my promised entries, a comparison of the Netflix limited series The Queen’s Gambit with the book it was based on, is mostly done now. It’s taken a lot longer to write than I thought it would, and it has turned out to be a lot longer, too. The original idea was to get it done by the end of February, but I wanted to do it justice, so it will be coming along when it’s ready.
Today is noteworthy, though, for a couple of reasons. For one, it is gyeong-chip, one of the special dates in the lunar calendar that divides the year into twenty-four parts. This particular date refers to the day on which insects and frogs emerge from the earth after winter and is one of the harbingers of the coming spring. The weather has indeed been getting warmer, although we still have a little cold left before we can finally leave winter behind for good.
On a more personal note, today also marks the 24th year since HJ and I got married. I know that 24th anniversaries are not generally a big deal, at least not in comparison with the silver or 25th anniversary. Traditionally, there isn’t even a special gift associated with the 24th anniversary (although, according to Wikipedia, the “modern” gift is “musical instruments,” for some reason). However, the 24th year is special to me in particular for a reason I only actually realized when I was thinking about this the other day. You see, when we got married, I was about a month-and-a-half shy of my 24th birthday. That means that this will be the first anniversary where I will have been married to HJ longer than I haven’t. (HJ is a year younger than me, so this happened for her last year.)
It’s weird to think about it, because it doesn’t feel like it’s been that long. Then again, when I think back over all the memories we have together, I guess it really has. We’ve been through a lot, and this past year in particular has been rough, both for the reasons it’s been rough for everyone and for other reasons as well. But we’ve made it through, and we’ve completed one more journey around the sun together. Here’s hoping there are many more still to come.