Parental shimjeong

Shimjeong is the unrestrained emotional impulse which allows to gain joy through love. The closest English word is “heart,” but it does not convey the full depth of its meaning.

The love of parents for their children does not arise only because they are bound to each other by domestic relationship. This love comes from deep within. The bond of love found in the parental shimjeong is such that the parents can neither forget it nor break it, even if they wanted to. Before such a bond arises, a certain bond already exists between a man’s life force and his child, which is why it is simply impossible not to love.

We can notice that the shimjeong of parents who have raised many children is remarkably loving, broad, large, and deep. A person who has raised many children feels that he is incapable of hitting even his worst enemy.

All parents want their children to be better than they are. The same is true of the country. Its leader must want his successors to be better than he is. All people, both in the family and in the state, should desire that their successors be better than they are, and have more merit than they do.

The parental shimjeong wants to give everything. Not even afraid of death, to put oneself in harm’s way, to give one’s life, to sacrifice oneself-that is the parental shimjeong.

A president with a parental shimjeong must be willing to sacrifice his children and even his life for the families in his country. The shimjeong leader fulfills his responsibility by trying to feed and lead his subordinates, even at the cost of his life. This is the kind of leader and president who would be called a shimjeong leader.

Parents are the masters of unchanging love. No matter how much the children change, regardless of what they do, the parental shimjeong’s desire to care for them does not change. Unchanging parental love is undeniably precious.