|
Memories of Him When He Visited Korea First of all, he was renowned for his good sense of humor. The people around him couldn’t help bursting out all the time. There was such a memorable occasion when I took a tour with Mr. and Mrs. Sandler to Mt. Sorak in Korea. At the breakfast table Mrs. Anne Marie Sandier said, "I couldn’t sleep at all last night because Joe kept making me laugh." It was his habit to make light of things by making jokes, especially troubling things. He had injured his neck by taking down heavy bags from the airplane locker, and the pain increased if he lay his head on a pillow. For him, humor was the best defense and laughter was an effective painkiller. He enjoyed meals no matter what food was served. In particular, he liked bean paste soup and kimchi, however hot it was. When we dropped in at a small restaurant in Yong-in falk village, he supposed that there were thousands of kinds of kimchi. I said no and told him that there were dozens, not thousands, of kinds of kimchi. Yet, he responded that each kimchi had its own taste from restaurant to restaurant. After a while, I agreed with him. In fact, the combination of spices can determine the taste of kimchi and the taste also changes depending on the degree of fermentation. Prof. Sandler loved high-tech electrical appliances. He carried a compact tape recorder with him and recorded speeches and important things instead of making notes -for example, papers supposed to be sent to me, how to make Korean traditional tea, and instructions to give his secretary. He made international phone calls to give supervision on psychotherapy and recommended that I could also be supervised by him. In order to save the international call cost, he bought a special machine which made a high speed recording which could be played back slowly and surely to listen to. Ten years ago, when computers and the fax machines were not used widely, he was already using them comfortably. As he was elected chairman of the International Psychoanalytic Association, he had to handle lots of time-consuming Jobs. Thanks to his expertise in using such devices, according to him, he could manage these jobs from home. I thought to myself, ’Everyone has 24 hours a day. If these machines were used, much more work could be done in the same time. In this sense, it co be said that he lived a longer lift than others.’ This led me to buy computer myself. How grateful I am to him!
|