I was in a lousy mood most of Monday.  Just felt like shouting at everyone, and was gripped further by a sense of anxiety and grief, and something deeper inside me.  Like a mold of despond on my bones.

Anyway, the next day I was having a phone conversation with a colleague and I said enthusiastically “Yes, exactly!” despite not understanding what the hell she was talking about.  It’ll all sort itself out, just like my mood.  Which was dissipated somewhat from the prior day, as evidenced by my ability to dissemble with co-workers.

What helped begin to ease the black mood on Monday was mopping the kitchen and downstairs bathroom floors.  What caused the mood I don’t know, but it wasn’t the Virginia Tech murders, as I avoided reading anything about that until the next day.  And then I was most struck by the sense of shame expressed by so many South Koreans, and their apprehension of a backlash.  I want to wave these concerns away as illogical but realise theirs is a cultural reaction worth noting next time they air grievances with us.

UPDATE: To be clear, by “next time they air grievances with us”, I do not mean that we should throw this incident in their faces, but recognize that what we might consider an unjustified demand for an official national response to their grievances might be, from their perspective, a correct manner of assuaging their pain.