Picture the Children.
Once in Glasgow, a friend warned against taking pictures of child strangers, no matter how adorable they are, no matter how innocent you yourself are. Smacks of creep behaviour, she said. We were near an indoor skating rink, watching the crowd from a far distance, having stopped at a foodcourt for a hit of the kind of junk food that only a down-home Scottish shopping centre could produce. A scene as boring as they come, except to a snap happy visitor. It would seem that there was no problem since no one child is being spotlighted. But really, who but the most depraved of perverts can take interest in random strangers’ children?
Here in Korea, cuteness sighting goes on overdrive. Just the other day on the bus, a boy trooped up the entrance steps and made an inquiry with the driver adjosshi in the most correct business-like manner that made everyone laugh. There may be something in the water, perhaps a daily dose of well-meaning well-being kimchi - darling cherubic creatures everywhere. One benefit of not being a teacher here is shelter from the reality of long-term exposure to children. Thus, freedom to imagine that they are as angelic as they look.
See that shadow on the right with its head inquisitively tilted? Yours truly, standing just metres away, blatantly snapping shots. Pictures clarify a thousand words better than any well meaning friend can. But do look! Apparently, this boy’s bicycle had suffered a bit of a mishap. No worries though, nothing he hasn’t handled before himself. And in my defence, this is an Anna Brooks/Samantha Harvey angle: no facial identity revealed.
With cold weather here and the little babies all bundled up like bouncy balls of padding with faces attached, it’s a struggle to not feel like humberty Humbert every too often.
