What Heals Young People’s Wounds?=By Stacey Schaefer, translated by Moon Garam, Dusiui Namu.
The author, a child and adolescent psychotherapist with 20 years of experience, distills lessons from her work with young clients. Her core rule is simple: when a child finally opens up, adults should not lead with their own stories — the “I went through that, too” approach. She writes that today’s problems can be different and more complicated: being left on “read” by a friend can feel like a crisis, targeted exclusion can play out on social media, and threats from strangers are not uncommon. If adults do not understand kids’ culture, she urges them to replace judgment with an open question such as, “Will you help me understand?” When adults become safe enough for children to ask for help, she argues, kids can share thoughts and feelings without fear of being judged.
"Social media influencers exploit this, constantly sending subtle messages: ‘I know you. I understand you. If you buy this, you’ll be like us.’ Surprisingly, kids fall for it. No one wants to live without a sense of presence in the world. Kids especially want to belong somewhere. The more we tell them, ‘I know the real you,’ the less likely they are to define themselves through other people’s eyes." (pp. 252-253)
Jeonggyeong, a Buddhist monk, uses conversations with the artificial intelligence chatbot ChatGPT to pose a question to readers: “Is what I have believed until now really what Sakyamuni taught?” The exchange began after he was intrigued by ChatGPT’s ability to discuss Buddhism and opened an account, continuing the dialogue for several days. In a question-and-answer format, the book suggests that much of what people today call “Buddhism” reflects interpretations and devotional practices added after Sakyamuni, rather than his original teachings. When the monk asks a question, ChatGPT offers answers based on various sources; he then presses for evidence or points out errors, narrowing the issues. Readers are invited to revisit Sakyamuni’s teachings through the back-and-forth between the monk and the AI.
“This foreword could be written because Venerable Jeonggyeong presented to me — in the form of questions — a lifetime of thought, doubt, practice, criticism, verification and rigorous reflection. I merely shed light on those questions. Therefore, if I am credited in the foreword, it should state: ‘This foreword was formed from a conversation between Venerable Jeonggyeong and ChatGPT,’ and ‘The author is human, and AI assisted with language alignment.’ This text is thus a trace of thinking done together by Venerable Jeonggyeong and the AI ChatGPT, and it makes clear that the origin of all thought lies with the human who asked the questions.” (p. 14, from “ChatGPT’s Foreword”)
This is poet Yeon Jeongmo’s first collection. Yeon began publishing after winning the inaugural newcomer award in the poetry category from the biannual “Munhak Suchup.” At the time, judges said Yeon freely varied imagination and imagery within poetic space, “leaping and playing as if dancing,” and pushed poetic thinking to the end in a language uniquely their own. The new collection seeks a distinctive aesthetic distance on the taut line between the self and the world, and addresses birth and death in a style described as bright yet firmly grounded.
Wipe clean even the burst fruit flesh/ gather it all together/ a cast-iron pot that was once Grandma’s treasure/ she used to put me and my sibling inside it/ and wash us together — it remains as one close-knit page of history (from “Jampot,” p. 50)
* This article has been translated by AI.
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