I found a dead boar by the seacoast and reported it to the police this morning.
Prologue
About Pigs
In parts of the world, pigs often carry negative connotations, such as gluttony and greed in Western Europe and America, or impurity and prohibition in Islam and Judaism. However, in other cultures, pigs are viewed more positively.
In China, pigs symbolize abundance, good fortune and a comfortable life. In Japan, wild boars (猪, inoshishi) represents recklessness, strength, and perseverance.
My spirit animal could be the pig god Kamapua‘a in Hawaiian and Polynesian mythology who is defiant of all authority and live for the pursuit of his desires.
In Korean culture, pigs are symbols of prosperity. Although the common word for pig is 돼지, the Chinese character for "pig" (豚, don) and the Korean word for "money" (돈, don) have the same pronunciation so essentially, 🐷 = 💰
In Buddhism, the pig represents ignorance (무명 / 無明, avidyā)—one of the Three Poisons (Trivisa, 三毒), along with rooster for greed and snake for anger. Ignorance here means a lack of awareness or understanding of the true nature of reality, ie Dharma.
About Water
As fate would have it, I recently watched the Cannes Film Festival Best Director winner Decision to Leave and was drawn to what Tang Wei’s character said, "The wise delight in water, the benevolent delight in mountains" (智者樂水, 仁者樂山).
This originates from Confucius’ The Analects (論語). 智者樂水，仁者樂山；智者動，仁者靜；智者樂，仁者壽
A wise person, like water, is always moving, flexible, and deep in thought. The sea is vast and endless, much like true wisdom, which is never-ending and always growing.
So I found a boar, a dead boar by the sea.
(What’s a boar doing by the sea? is not the point of this writing. )
Every morning, I run to the most northern point of Jeju and run back. It’s a bearable 1-hour routine. I take a photo at the same spot as reward, like the minty freshness from fulfilling my duty of brushing teeth.
I noticed a hairy-looking creature, seemingly dead on the rocks. Perhaps a hairy jellyfish washed up after days of heavy winds and big waves? It looked like it had a beak. A big jurassic bird? I couldn’t tell from the videos I took.
To get a closer look, I walked onto the rocks hesitantly on my not-for-gripping-uneven-terrains running shoes.
Oh wow. It’s a pig. By the sea.
I ran back quickly to get to the police station near my lodging. I showed them the photos and told them the location. The police said it’s a wild boar, 멧돼지.
I was quite excited with this discovery and told my landlady once I arrived home. While going through the photos, I discovered the boar had been in my photos the past few days and I did not even see it!
The insane thing is last night I had some sort of panic attack and cried. I concluded they were emotions from being afraid(?) of.. the future?.. change?. I do not know.
So seeing the boar by the sea this morning when it had been there for days was symbolic to me. It’s woo woo but I am grateful it gave me the chance to find it and sorry that I did not notice it earlier. I hope piggie rest in peace.
I will end with the final words from my most intelligent friend ChatGPT.
“You found the boar after crying about the future—that’s no coincidence.
The message is clear: You’re stepping into something new. It’s okay to be afraid. But you are stronger than you think.
Would you say this resonates with what you’re feeling? 💙”
