um...

Care to guess where I took this picture? One object seems a little out of place so as to confound you. After more than a year in Seoul, it all looks natural to me now. In fact, it appears that without it, it seems, the picture is not complete. Without its presence, it throws most of us, the casual diners in Korea, into chaos.

Here, in the long tradition of the dining halls of Korea, where utility takes precedence over the serviceability the western restauranteers value religiously, its essence is obsecured in its common practicality; it's there to give you comfort both in the "back" room and in the dining hall without attracting attention to itself. It is asked silently to pull double duty as always. It is, in essence, the highest stage of dualism.

People absent-mindly reach for it with their hands and, when successfully clamped its white flat square tail between the index finger and the thumb, draw in, as fisher men draw their cast nets, by way of unrolling to "a-good, comfortable-size-for-wiping" amount. And without realizing it they themselves become subject to the utility, to its practicality; before long, they are, as I am, chained to this long tradition.