Leaving

In the spring of 2013, tensions were at their height on the Korean Peninsula. Having flown to the United States for a conference, Anna and I made the difficult decision that I would return alone to Seoul while she and Eddie would fly to Kiruna to stay with her family until the situation calmed down. I remember my unease when seeing them off but also the ominous atmosphere as I was boarding my United 747 to Korea. By then, all tourists had cancelled their tickets, so it was just me, a lot of American military personnel and a few Koreans returning home. 

Once our flight was over Honshu, the plane did not follow the usual route across the Sea of Japan but rather continued all the way down to Kyushu before turning 90 degrees and approaching Incheon Airport from the south. During that 500-mile detour, my thoughts were truly spinning as to why we were suddenly avoiding flying close to the North Korean border. Without inflight internet, there was no way of knowing what was going on. Once on the ground, everything seemed strangely normal but, as tensions continue to build up over the following week with North Korea announcing that they would no longer “guarantee the safety of foreigners”, I chickened out and went down to Singapore for a few days until things eventually settled down a bit.

A month later, I would then pick up Eddie and Anna in Sweden and return together to our home on campus. Today, I am reading that the US and some other countries are asking their citizens to leave Ukraine as soon as possible. So far, Sweden has not followed suit but rather suggested that Swedish citizens should be ready to leave if a conflict does break out, which is obviously non-sensical as it will be much more difficult to leave in such a situation. Having been a parent in a somewhat similar setting, these dark thoughts and vexed choices feel all too familiar, and I am again reminded of what an enormous privilege it is to be able to “leave” in the first place. Looking at the picture above which was taken when Anna and I returned to Korea in May, I can only pray that de-escalation will be possible also in Ukraine.