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2021년 9월 3일자 뉴욕타임스 오피니언 칼럼니스트 데이빗 브룩수David Brooks는 그의 칼럼 ‘넌 네가 생각하는 너가 아니다 You Are Not Who You Think You Are’를 이렇게 시작한다. 

“너는 (네가) 보는 것과 상상하는 것이 다름을 이해한다고 생각 하리라.  뭘 네가 보면 그것이 거기에 실제로 있지만; 네가 그것 을 상상할 땐 (네가) 그 걸 만들어내는 거다.  YOU MAY THINK you understand the difference between seeing something and imagining it.  When you see something it’s really there; when you imagine it, you make it up.”

그러면서 그는 최근 여러 학자의 이성理性과 감성感性(Reason/ Emotion), 관찰觀察과 기억記憶(Observation/Memory), 이해 理解와 경험經驗(Understanding/Experiencing) 그리고 자제력 自制力/자제심自制心/자가조절自家調節(Self-control)에 대한 새로운 학설들을 인용 소개한 후 이렇게 그의 칼럼 글을 맺는다.

“이는 (위에 소개한 여러 학자들의 새로운 학설과 주장들이) 흥미 진진興味津津하다.  앞으로 50년 안에 ‘감성’이니 ‘이성’이니  하는 단어는 시대에 뒤져 더 이상 쓰이지 않는 폐어廢語가 되지 않을까 나는 오래 전부터 생각해왔다.  그동안 여러 과학자들의 연구 조사 리서치가 (모든 것은 자연 시스템과 그 속성屬性을 부품部品 컬렉션이 아닌 전체로 간주해야 한다는) 전체론全體論 방향으로 발전해 온 것을 나는 반갑게 환영한다.  한 동안 신경 과학자들은 우리 두뇌의 어느 부분이 어떤 기능을 담당하는지 알아내려고 많은 시간 세월을 보냈다.  그러나 오늘날에 와서는 우리 두뇌 네트워크 관계 통신망이 우리 신체와 주위환경을 전체적으 로 통합해서 종합적인 정신상태를 만들어낸다는 것을 파악하게 된 것이다.  따라서 사람들이 어떻게 자신들의 현실을 창조적으로 구성해 그 안에서 살고 있는가를 주목하게 된 것이다.  이 얼마나 괄목상대刮目相對할 엄청난 천지개벽天地開闢의 신 천지新天地 새로운 시대가 열리고 있는 것이랴. That seems exciting.  I’ve long wondered in 50 years terms like ‘emotion’ or ‘reason’ will be obsolete.  I love how holistic the drift of research is.  For a while neuroscientists spent a lot of time trying to figure out what region of the brain did what function.  Today they also look at the ways vast networks across the brain, body and environment work together to create comprehensive mental states.  Now there is much more emphasis on how people and groups creatively construct their own realities, and live within their own constructions …Big exciting changes are afoot.”

“세상에 부자연스럽거나 초자연적인 현상이란 없다.  무엇이 자연적이냐 하는 우리 지식에 아주 큰 결함이 있을 따름이다.  우리는 이 무지無知/無智의 공백空白을 메우려고 노력해야 한다. 

There are no unnatural or supernatural phenomenon, only very large gaps in our knowledge of what is natural... we should strive to fill those gaps of ignorance.”

Edgar Mitchell

아폴로 제14호 우주비행사로 자연에 대한 인간의 지식과 인간 정신  및 인간혼을 더욱 개발하여 우리 지구와 인류의 건강과 복리福利를 증진시킨다는 취지와 목적을 갖고 1973년 미국 캘리포니아주州 페타루마Petaluma, California에 ‘예지적 叡智的 과학 연구소The Institute of Noetic Sciences(IONS)를 창설한 에드가 미첼Edgar Mitchell(1930-2016)의 말이다. 

이 연구소의 과학자들은 이구동성異口同聲으로 주장한다. “우리 는 탐험가들이다. We Are Explorers.”라고.  오늘날 우리가 새로 개척해야 할 이 시대의 가장 절박切迫 절실切實한 미지未知의 영역領域/靈域, 우리의 새 변경邊境은 인간의 의식세계意識世界 라고.

우리가 추구하는 목표는 인류를 위한 하나의 새로운 ‘새 이야기,’ 새로운 창세기創世記를 작성作成하는 것으로 과학과 인간의 영성 靈性을 통합하여 통일체로서의 우리의 온전성穩全性을 얻고 끊어 져가는 인간과 인간 사이, 인간과 지구 사이의 필수적必須的 필연 적必然的 연관성聯關性뿐만 아니라 특히 우리 각자 내적內的 자아自我 곧 자신의 심혼心魂과의 관계를 맺는, 아니 그 탯줄을 잇는 일이란다. 

지난 20세기말 인류의 지성知性과 양식良識을 대표했다고 볼 수 있는 전前 체코 연방 대통령 바츨라프 하벨Vaclav Havel(1936-2011)은 예언하듯 경고했다. (1990년 2월 22일 미국 국회 의사당에서 행한 연설 영문 전문을 관심 있는 독자들을 위해 아래와 같이 옮겨본다.)

“인간의식人間意識의 전 세계적 회전悔悛과 회전回轉에 따른 혁명적革命的 혁신革新이 있기 전에는 인간으로서의 우리 존재 영역存在領域/靈域에서 우리 삶이 개선되는 아무 것도 없고,  우리 세계가 직면하고 있는 – 생태학적生態學的, 인구 구성과 구조의 급변, 또는 인류문명의 붕괴(우리말로 멘탈 붕괴 ‘멘붕’) 상태로 인한 총체적 파국破局을 필할 길 없으리라.  우리가 더 이상 세계대전이나 어처구니 없도록 산적山積한 핵무기로 온 지구를 풍비박산風飛雹散 낼 위험이 없다 하더라도 우리가 우리의 궁극적인 목적을 달성하기에는 아직 멀고도 멀었다.   Without a global revolution in the sphere of human consciousness, nothing will change for the better in the sphere of our being as humans, and the catastrophe toward which this world is headed -- be it ecological, social, demographic or a general breakdown of civilization -- will be unavoidable. If we are no longer threatened by world war or by the danger that the absurd mountains of accumulated nuclear weapons might blow up the world, this does not mean that we have definitively won. We are, in fact, far from the final victory.

TEXT OF HAVEL'S SPEECH TO CONGRESS

Dear Mr. President, dear senators and members of the House, ladies and gentlemen:

My advisers advised me to speak on this important occasion in Czech. I don't know why. Perhaps they wanted you to enjoy the sweet sounds of my mother tongue.

The last time they arrested me, on Oct. 27 of last year, I didn't know whether it was for two days or two years. Exactly one month later, when the rock musician Michael Kocab told me that I would be probably proposed as a presidential candidate, I thought it was one of his usual jokes.

On the 10th of December, 1989, when my actor friend, Jiri Bartoska, in the name of the Civic Forum, nominated me as a candidate for the office of president of the republic, I thought it was out of the question that the parliament we have inherited from the previous regime would elect me.

Nineteen days later, when I was unanimously elected president of my country, I had no idea that, in two months, I would be speaking in front of this famous and powerful assembly and that what I say would be heard by millions of people who have never heard of me and that hundreds of politicians and political scientists would study every word that I say.

When they arrested me on Oct. 27, I was living in a country ruled by the most conservative communist government in Europe, and our society slumbered beneath the pall of a totalitarian system.

Today, less than four months later, I'm speaking to you as the representative of a country that has set out on the road to democracy, a country where there is complete freedom of speech, which is getting ready for free elections and which wants to create a prosperous market economy and its own foreign policy.

It is all very extraordinary. But I have not come here to speak of myself or my feelings, or merely to talk about my own country. I have used this small example of something I know well to illustrate something general and important.

We are living in very extraordinary times. The human face of the world is changing so rapidly that none of the familiar political speedometers are adequate.

We playwrights, who have to cram a whole human life or an entire historical era in a two-hour play, can scarcely understand this rapidity ourselves. And if it gives us trouble, think of the trouble it must give to political scientists who spend their whole life studying the realm of the probable and have less experience with the realm of the improbable than us, the playwrights.The World in Bipolar Terms

Let me try to explain why I think the velocity of the changes in my country, in Central and Eastern Europe, and of course in the Soviet Union itself, has made such a significant impression on the face of the world today and why it concerns the fate of us all, including you Americans.

I would like to look at this first from the political point of view and then from a point of view that we might call philosophical.

Twice in the century, the world has been threatened by a catastrophe. Twice this catastrophe was born in Europe, and twice you Americans, along with others, were called upon to save Europe, the whole world and yourselves. The first rescue mission, among other things, provided significant help to us, Czechs and Slovaks.

Thanks to the great support of your President {Woodrow} Wilson, our first president, Tomas Garrigue Masaryk, founded our modern independent state. He founded it, as you know, on the same principles on which the United States of America had been founded, as Masaryk's manuscripts held by the Library of Congress testify.

In the meantime, the United States made enormous strides. It became the most powerful nation on earth, and it understood the responsibility that flowed from this. Proof of this are the hundreds of thousands of your young citizens who gave their lives for the liberation of Europe and the graves of American airmen and soldiers on Czechoslovak soil.

But something else was happening as well. The Soviet Union appeared, grew and transformed the enormous sacrifices of its people suffering under totalitarian rule into a strength that, after World War II, made it the second most powerful nation in the world.

It was a country that rightly gave people nightmares, because no one knew what would occur to its rulers next and what country they would decide to conquer and drag into its sphere of influence, as it is called in political language.

All of this taught us to see the world in bipolar terms as two enormous forces -- one a defender of freedom, the other a source of nightmares. Europe became the point of friction between these two powers, and thus it turned into a single enormous arsenal divided into two parts.

In this process, one half of the arsenal became part of that nightmarish power, while the other, the free part, bordering on the ocean and having no wish to be driven into it, was compelled, together with you, to build a complicated security system to which we probably owe the fact that we still exist.

So you may have contributed to the salvation of us Europeans, of the world and thus of yourselves for a third time. You have helped us to survive until today, without a hot war this time but merely a cold one.

The totalitarian system in the Soviet Union and in most of its satellites is breaking down, and our nations are looking for a way to democracy and independence.

The first act in this remarkable drama began when Mr. {Mikhail} Gorbachev and those around him faced the sad reality of their country, initiated a policy of perestroika. Obviously, they had no idea either of what they were setting in motion or how rapidly events would unfold. We knew a lot about the enormous number of growing problems that slumbered beneath the honeyed, unchanging mask of socialism.

But I don't think any of us knew how little it would take for these problems to manifest themselves in all their enormity and for the longings of these nations to emerge in all their strength. The mask fell away so rapidly that, in the flood of work, we have literally no time even to be astonished. Europe to 'Seek Its Own Identity'

What does all this mean for the world in the long run? Obviously, a number of things. This, I am firmly convinced, is a historically irreversible process and, as a result, Europe will begin again to seek its own identity without being compelled to be a divided armory any longer. Perhaps this will create the hope that, sooner or later, your boys will no longer have to stand on guard for freedom in Europe or come to our rescue because Europe will at last be able to stand guard over itself.

But that is still not the most important thing. The main thing is, it seems to me, that these revolutionary changes will enable us to escape from the rather antiquated straitjacket of this bipolar view of the world and to enter at last into an era of multipolarity, that is, into an era in which all of us, large and small, former slaves and former masters, will be able to create what your great President {Abraham} Lincoln called "the family of man."

Can you imagine what a relief this would be to that part of the world which for some reason is called the Third World, even though it is the largest?

One, as you certainly know, most of the big wars and other conflagrations over the centuries have traditionally begun and ended on the territory of modern Czechoslovakia, or else they were somehow related to that area. Let the Second World War stand as the most recent example.

This is understandable: Whether we like it or not, we are located in the very heart of Europe and, thanks to this, we have no view of the sea and no real navy. I mention this because political stability in our country has traditionally been important for the whole of Europe. This is still true today. Our government of national understanding, our present Federal Assembly, the other bodies of the state and I, myself, will personally guarantee this stability until we hold free elections, planned for June.

We understand the terribly complex reasons, domestic political reasons, above all, why the Soviet Union cannot withdraw its troops from our territory as quickly as they arrived in 1968. We understand that the arsenals built there over the past 20 years cannot be dismantled and removed overnight.

Nevertheless, in our bilateral negotiations with the Soviet Union, we would like to have as many Soviet units as possible moved out of our country before the elections, in the interests of political stability. The more successful our negotiations, the more those who are elected in our places will be able to guarantee political stability in our country, even after the elections. Helping Soviets on Road to Democracy

Two, I often hear the question: How can the United States of America help us today? My reply is as paradoxical as the whole of my life has been. You can help us most of all if you help the Soviet Union on its irreversible but immensely complicated road to democracy.

It is far more complicated than the road open to its former European satellites. You, yourself, know best how to support as rapidly as possible the nonviolent evolution of this enormous multinational body politic toward democracy and autonomy for all of its people. Therefore, it is not fitting for me to offer you any advice.

I can only say that the sooner, the more quickly, and the more peacefully the Soviet Union begins to move along the road toward genuine political pluralism, respect for the rights of the nations to their own integrity and to a working -- that is, a market -- economy, the better it will be not just for Czechs and Slovaks but for the whole world.

And the sooner you yourselves will be able to reduce the burden of the military budget borne by the American people.

To put it metaphorically, the millions you give to the East today will soon return to you in the form of billions in savings.

Three, it is not true that the Czech writer Vaclav Havel wishes to dissolve the Warsaw Pact tomorrow and NATO the day after that, as some eager journalists have written. Vaclav Havel merely thinks what he has already said here, that for another hundred years American soldiers shouldn't have to be separated from their mothers just because Europe is incapable of being a guarantor of world peace, which it ought to be in order to make some amends, at least, for having given the world two world wars.

Sooner or later, Europe must recover and come into its own and decide for itself how many of whose soldiers it needs so that its own security, and all the wider implications of that security, may radiate peace into the whole world.

Vaclav Havel cannot make decisions about things that are not proper for him to decide. He is merely putting in a good word for genuine peace and for achieving it quickly. Proposed Goals for Helsinki Two

Four, Czechoslovakia thinks that the planned summit conference of countries participating in the Helsinki process should take place soon and that, in addition to what it wants to accomplish, it should aim to hold the so-called Helsinki Two conference earlier than 1992, as originally planned.

Above all, we feel it could be something far more specific than has so far seemed possible. We think that Helsinki Two should become something equivalent to the European peace conference, which has not yet been held, one that would finally put a formal end to the Second World War and all its unhappy consequences.

Such a conference would officially bring a future democratic Germany in the process of unifying itself into a new pan-European structure which could decide about its own security system. This system would naturally require some connection with that part of the globe we might label the Helsinki part, stretching westward from Vladivostok all the way to Alaska.

The borders of the European states, which, by the way, should gradually become less important, should finally be legally guaranteed by a common, regular treaty. It should be more than obvious that the basis for such a treaty would have to be general respect for human rights, genuine political pluralism and genuinely free elections.

Five, naturally we welcome the initiative of President Bush, which was essentially accepted by Mr. Gorbachev, according to which the number of American and Soviet troops in Europe should be radically reduced. It is a magnificent shot in the arm for the Vienna disarmament talks and creates favorable conditions not only for our own efforts to achieve the quickest possible departure of Soviet troops from Czechoslovakia but indirectly as well for our own intention to make considerable cuts in the Czechoslovak army, which is disproportionately large in relation to our population.

If Czechoslovakia were forced to defend itself against anyone, which we hope will not happen, then it will be capable of doing so with a considerably smaller army, because this time its defense would be, not only after decades but after centuries, supported by the common and indivisible will of both its nations and its leadership.

Our freedom, independence and our newborn democracy have been purchased at great cost, and we shall not surrender them.

For the sake of order, I should add that whatever steps we take are not intended to complicate the Vienna disarmament talks but, on the contrary, to facilitate them.

Sixth, Czechoslovakia is returning to Europe. In the general interest and in its own interests as well, it wants to coordinate its return, both politically and economically, with the other returnees, which means, above all, with its neighbors, the Poles and the Hungarians.

We are doing what we can to coordinate these returns. And at the same time, we are doing what we can so that Europe will be capable of re-accepting us, its wayward children. Which means that it may open itself to us and may begin to transform its structures, which are formally European but de facto Western European, in that direction but in such a way that it will not be to its detriment but rather to its advantage.

Seven, I have already said this in our parliament, and I would like to repeat it here in this Congress, which is architecturally far more attractive.

For many years, Czechoslovakia, as someone's meaningless satellite, has refused to face up honestly to its co-responsibility for the world. It has a lot to make up for. If I dwell on this and so many important things, it is only because I feel, along with my fellow citizens, a sense of culpability for our former reprehensible passivity and a rather ordinary sense of indebtedness.

Eight, we are, of course, delighted that your country is so readily lending its support to our fresh efforts to renew democracy. Both our peoples were deeply moved by the generous offers made a few days ago in Prague at Charles University, one of the oldest in Europe, by your secretary of state, Mr. James Baker. We are ready to sit down and talk about them. A Long Way From 'Family of Man'

Ladies and gentlemen, I've only been president for two months, and I haven't attended any schools for presidents. My only school was life itself.

Therefore, I don't want to burden you any longer with my political thoughts, but instead I will move on to an area that is more familiar to me, to what I would call the philosophical aspect of these changes that still concern everyone, although they are taking place in our corner of the world.

As long as people are people, democracy, in the full sense of the word, will always be no more than an ideal. One may approach it as one would the horizon in ways that may be better or worse, but it can never be fully attained. In this sense, you, too, are merely approaching democracy. You have thousands of problems of all kinds, as other countries do. But you have one great advantage: You have been approaching democracy uninterruptedly for more than 200 years, and your journey toward the horizon has never been disrupted by a totalitarian system.

Czechs and Slovaks, despite their humanistic traditions that go back to the first millennium, have approached democracy for a mere 20 years, between the two world wars, and now for the three and a half months since the 17th of November last year.

The advantage that you have over us is obvious at once.

The communist type of totalitarian system has left both our nations, Czechs and Slovaks, as it has all the nations of the Soviet Union and the other countries the Soviet Union subjugated in its time, a legacy of countless dead, an infinite spectrum of human suffering, profound economic decline and, above all, enormous human humiliation. It has brought us horrors that fortunately you have not known.

It has given us something positive, a special capacity to look from time to time somewhat further than someone who has not undergone this bitter experience. A person who cannot move and lead a somewhat normal life because he is pinned under a boulder has more time to think about his hopes than someone who is not trapped that way.

What I'm trying to say is this: We must all learn many things from you, from how to educate our offspring, how to elect our representatives, all the way to how to organize our economic life so that it will lead to prosperity and not to poverty. But it doesn't have to be merely assistance from the well-educated, powerful and wealthy to someone who has nothing and therefore has nothing to offer in return.

We, too, can offer something to you: our experience and the knowledge that has come from it.

This is a subject for books, many of which have already been written and many of which are yet to be written. I shall therefore limit myself to a single idea.

The specific experience I'm talking about has given me one great certainty: Consciousness precedes being, and not the other way around, as the Marxists claim.

For this reason, the salvation of this human world lies nowhere else than in the human heart, in the human power to reflect, in human meekness and in human responsibility.

Without a global revolution in the sphere of human consciousness, nothing will change for the better in the sphere of our being as humans, and the catastrophe toward which this world is headed -- be it ecological, social, demographic or a general breakdown of civilization -- will be unavoidable. If we are no longer threatened by world war or by the danger that the absurd mountains of accumulated nuclear weapons might blow up the world, this does not mean that we have definitively won. We are, in fact, far from the final victory.

We are still a long way from that "family of man." In fact, we seem to be receding from the ideal rather than growing closer to it. Interests of all kinds -- personal, selfish, state, nation, group, and, if you like, company interests -- still considerably outweigh genuinely common and global interests. We are still under the sway of the destructive and vain belief that man is the pinnacle of creation and not just a part of it and that therefore everything is permitted.

There are still many who say they are concerned not for themselves but for the cause, while they are demonstrably out for themselves and not for the cause at all. We are still destroying the planet that was entrusted to us and its environment. We still close our eyes to the growing social, ethnic and cultural conflicts in the world. From time to time, we say that the anonymous megamachinery we have created for ourselves no longer serves us but rather has enslaved us, yet we still fail to do anything about it.

In other words, we still don't know how to put morality ahead of politics, science and economics. We are still incapable of understanding that the only genuine backbone of all our actions, if they are to be moral, is responsibility.

Responsibility to something higher than my family, my country, my company, my success -- responsibility to the order of being where all our actions are indelibly recorded and where and only where they will be properly judged.

The interpreter or mediator between us and this higher authority is what is traditionally referred to as human conscience.

If I subordinate my political behavior to this imperative, mediated to me by my conscience, I can't go far wrong. If, on the contrary, I were not guided by this voice, not even 10 presidential schools with 2,000 of the best political scientists in the world could help me.

This is why I ultimately decided, after resisting for a long time, to accept the burden of political responsibility.

I am not the first, nor will I be the last, intellectual to do this. On the contrary, my feeling is that there will be more and more of them all the time. If the hope of the world lies in human consciousness, then it is obvious that intellectuals cannot go on forever avoiding their share of responsibility for the world and hiding their distaste for politics under an alleged need to be independent.

It is easy to have independence in your program and then leave others to carry that program out. If everyone thought that way, pretty soon no one would be independent.

I think that you Americans should understand this way of thinking. Wasn't it the best minds of your country, people you could call intellectuals, who wrote your famous Declaration of Independence, your bill of human rights and your Constitution and who, above all, took upon themselves practical responsibility for putting them into practice? The worker from Branik in Prague that your president referred to in his State of the Union message this year is far from being the only person in Czechoslovakia, let alone in the world, to be inspired by those great documents. They inspire us all; they inspire us despite the fact that they are over 200 years old. They inspire us to be citizens.

{Speaking English}: When Thomas Jefferson wrote that "governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed," it was a simple and important act of the human spirit. What gave meaning to that act, however, was the fact that the author backed it up with his life. It was not just his words; it was his deeds as well.

I will end where I began: History has accelerated. I believe that once again it will be the human mind that will notice this acceleration, give it a name and transform those words into deeds. Thank you.

알베르트 아인슈타인Albert Einstein(1879-1955)도 일찍이 고백했다. 

“진지하게 과학적인 탐구를 하는 사람이라면 우주법칙을 통해 인간보다 월등한 하나의 신적神的 ‘영靈’이 명백히 나타난다고 확신하게 된다. Everyone who is seriously involved in the pursuit of science becomes convinced that some spirit is manifest in the laws of the universe, one that is vastly superior to that of man.”

아인슈타인이 말하는 ‘우주법칙’이란 우리 동양의 ‘도道’를 뜻하는 것이리라. 그러고 보면 정신적精神的으로 아니 영적靈的으로 저능아低能兒/ 지진아 遲進兒라 할 수 있을지 모를 서양 사람들이 서력 기원후 2천 년이 다 되어서야 아주 늦게나마 철이 눈꼽만큼 들려고 하는 것 같지 않은가. 

진리眞理를 탐구한다고 하나의 통일된, 아니 모든 것을 내포內包 한, 아니 그보다도 불가분不可分의 관계를 맺고 있는 도道 닦는 학문을 종교다, 철학이다, 윤리다, 예술이다 또는 수학이다, 물리 학이다, 화학이다, 생물학이다, 천문학이다, 하여 정치, 경제, 사회, 교육, 심리, 공학 등등 수십 수백 가지 파편으로 산산조각 떠뜨려 마치 불꽃놀이 하듯 잿더미로 다 만들어 놓고서야…

자연을 ‘정복’하고 ‘길들인다’고 제 무덤 제가 파듯 정신없이 자연의 질서와 자연 환경을 파괴하고 더럽히면서 아름다운 우리 지구촌 강산을 거의 다 쑥대밭 시궁창으로 만들어 놓고서야…

인간을 연구하고 조사한다고 영靈과 육肉을, 심心과 신身을 분리 시켜 놓고, 너와 나를, 흑黑과 백白, 선善과 악惡으로 갈라 놓고, 멀쩡하게 산 사람을 시체屍體 해부解剖하듯 동강동강 팔 다리 다 잘라내고 오장육부五臟六腑 다 뽑아내서 원숭이 내장하고 바꿈질 까지 해가며 사람을 산 송장 아니기계인 로봇으로 거의 다 만들어 놓고서야 말이다. 

이것이 다 우리 동양에 뿌리를 둔 백두산 천지에서 흐르는 샘물 같은 진리 ‘물아일체物我一體’와 ‘물심일여物心一如’와 ‘홍익인간 弘益人間’과 ‘홍익만물弘益萬物’ 그리고 ‘피아일체彼我一體’와 ‘인내천人乃天’의 도道로부터 멀리 이탈離脫해 온 탓이리라. 또 그러고 보면 모든 것이 더할 수 없이 아주 아시아 아주亞洲 자명해지지 않는가?!

자, 이 제 코스미안뉴스에 올린 우생의 2020년 4월18일자 항간세설 ‘처음의 처음오로 돌아가야’와 2020년 5월 22일자 항간세설 ‘우주의 본질은 사랑이어라’ 옮겨 보리라.   

이태상의 항간세설] 처음의 처음으로 돌아가야

“세계는 ‘가보지 않은 영역’으로 접어들었고 세상은 코로나 바이스러 같은 질병에 대비하지 못했었기 때문이다. (The world was entering into ‘uncharted territory’ because it was not prepared for a pandemic like COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.)”

2020년 4월 12일 일요일 영국 BBC와 가진 화상 인터뷰에서 마이크로소프트 창업자로 자선사업가인 빌 게이츠 (Bill Gates, 1955 - )가 한 말이다. 그는 지난 2015년 3월 16일부터 닷새간 캐나다 밴쿠버에서 열린 TED(기술 Technology, 오락 Entertainment, 구상 Design의 약자) 회의에서 이렇게 경고했었다.  

“앞으로 다음 수십 년 동안 수천만 명 이상의 사람 목숨을 앗아갈 것은 전쟁이나 미사일이 아니고 전염성이 강한 바이러스 미생물일 것이다. (If anything kills over 10 million people in the next few decades, it’s likely to be a highly infectious virus rather than a war, not missiles, but microbes.)”

“신(神)이여, 바꿀 수 없는 것은 편안히 받아들일 수 있는 은총을,  바꿔야 할 것은 바꿀 수 있는 용기를, 그리고 이 둘을 분간할 수 있는 지혜를 주시옵소서. (God, give us grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed, courage to change the things that should be changed, and the wisdom to distinguish the one from the other.)”

오바마 전(前) 미국 대통령도 좋아한다는 미국 신학자(神學者) 라인홀드 니버(Reinhold Niebuhr 1892-1971)의 유명한 기도문 이다. 이런 지엽적(枝葉的)인 구두선(口頭禪)보다 근본적 (根本的)인 깨우침의 자각(自覺)이 있어야 하는 이 절박(切迫)한 지구촌 만백성에게 전(傳)하는 절실(切實)한 메시지가 있다.

2015년 7월 27일자 한국일보 ‘사람들’ 페이지에 백승종 한국기술교육대 대우교수는 동학 2대 교주 최시형(崔時亨 1827-1898)의 사상을 소개한다. 정치가 바뀐다고 삶이 근본적으로 달라지지는 않는다. 더욱 중요한 것은 지배와 종속으로 얼룩진 인간과 사물의 관계를 근본적으로 뒤집는 것이 최시형의 생각이었 다고 한다. 그의 스승 최제우(崔濟愚 1824-1864)는 ‘시천주(侍天 主)’라 하여, 자아 바깥에 존재하는 초월적 인격신으로서의 하늘을 모셨지만 최시형은 ‘양천주(養天主)’라고 자아의 내부로 들어온 하늘, 즉 내재(內在)하는 천주를 기르자고 했다는 설명이다.  천주 의 내재성에 대한 그의 신념은 확고해  마침내 ‘이천식천(以天 食天)’ 의 새로운 경지를 열어 인간은 자신만큼이나 존귀한 만물 (萬物)의 도움으로 삶을 영위한다는 자각을 일깨운다는 말이다.

최시형이 강조한 우주 자연과 인간의 관계회복이 현재 인류가 직면한 이상기후와 전대미문의 질병을 극복하는 길일 수밖에 없다는 진단이다. 그렇다면 무엇보다 먼저 하늘과 땅과 사람, 천(天) 지(地) 인(人)이 하나임을 깨닫고 처음의 처음으로 돌아가 야 하리라.

2020년 4월 13일자 한국일보 오피니언 페이지 ‘삶과 문화’ 칼럼 ‘코로나 시대를 견디게 해주는 다섯 벗들’ 필자 박종익 강원대병원 정신건강의학과 교수는 이렇게 다섯 친구들과 친해지길 권하고 있다.

“일생을 거의 유배지에서 보냈던 윤선도는 조선시대 때 이미 사회 적 거리 두기를 실천하신 분이다. 그의 대표적인 오우가(五友歌) 에서 수(水)의 부단(不斷)함, 석(石)의 불변(不變)함, 송(松)의 불굴(不屈)함, 죽(竹)의 불욕(不欲) 그리고 월(月)의 불언(不言)을 다섯 친구에 비유하며 그 덕목을 칭송하였다. 본의 아니게 유배 생활을 하게 된 요즘이 그동안 내 건강을 지켜주었고 앞으로도 평생을 함께할 친구를 모든 분께 소개할 좋은 기회인 것 같다.  밥의 부단(不斷)함, 땀의 불변(不變)함, 책의 불굴(不屈)함, 말의 불욕(不欲) 그리고 잠의 불언(不言)이 내 친구들의 덕목이다.”

2015년 7월 25일자 한국일보 오피니언 페이지 ‘단문단상’으로 인용된 정다혜의 ‘얼음새꽃 피다’ 중 한 구절 “작은 꽃 한 송이 피는 데도 지구 하나를 데우는 열기가 있다”를 황수현 기자는 이렇게 탄식한다.

“네 발열의 순간, 못 볼 걸 본 양 몸서리치지 말 걸 그랬어. 발기를 보며 화내는 소녀처럼 냉정하게 굴지 말 걸 그랬어. 억겁에 점 하나도 못 찍을 하찮은 발열인 줄 알지만, 없던 모성애를 닥닥 긁어 미소라도 띠어 볼 걸 그랬어.”

이어서 우리 고영민 시인의 ‘손등’을 음미해보리라.

울고 싶을 때 울고

떠나고 싶을 때 떠나라

어떤 미동(微動)으로 피었느니

곡진하게

피었다 졌느니

꽃은 당신이 쥐고 있다 놓아버린 모든 것

울고 싶을 때 울고

떠나고 싶을 때 떠나라

마음이 불러

둥근 알뿌리를 인 채

듣는

저녁 빗소리

이 시에 장석주 시인은 이렇게 주석을 단다.

“배롱나무와 자귀나무의 꽃은 손꼽을 만한 여름꽃이다. 둘 다 붉고 아름다운 꽃들이다. 배롱나무꽃을 보다가 문득 ‘꽃은 당신이 쥐고 있다 놓아버린 모든 것’이라는 시구를 떠올렸다. 생물 종(種)들이 궁극의 목적으로 삼는 것은 자기 복제다. 꽃과 열매는 식물 종들이 다음 세대에게 제 생명을 복제해 넘겨주는 프로젝트의 일환이다. 꽃은 식물적 생명의 파동이자 존재의 융기(隆起)다. 꽃이란 동물 의 생식과 섹스의 범주에 드는 일이다. ‘사랑’이라고 부르는 것의 실체다. 꽃이 그렇듯이 사랑은 존재의 본성(本性)이자 열락(悅樂) 이다. ‘둥근 알뿌리를 인 채’ 저녁 빗소리를 듣는 이는 사랑에 빠진 자다.”

일찍이 공자(구멍 공 아들 자 孔子 기원전 551-기원전 479)는 인간  사회에서 뭣보다 중요한 것이 어질 인(仁)이라고 했다. 공자의 사상을 다섯 글자로 표현한다면 충(忠), 효(孝), 인(仁), 의(義), 신 (信)이라 할 수 있을 것이다.   그중 가운데 글자가 인(仁)인데 이 글자를 눈여겨보자.  사람 인(人)에다 둘 이(二)를 합한 것으로 두 사람 사이 대인관계에 있어야 할 충의(忠義), 효의(孝義), 인의(仁 義), 신의(信義)를 뜻한다. 그런데 이 의(義)는 양(羊)이 나 아(我) 위에 있는 형상이다. 태곳적 옛날부터 양이란 동물은 동서양을 막론하고 순결과 친절과 어질고 아름다움의 상징으로, 이웃에게 언제나 사심 없이 순수하고 친절하고 착하고 아름답게 대하라는 지침인 것 같다. 여기서 효(孝) 자(字)를 보면 자식이 연로한 노인 을 업는다는 경로사상을 의미하는가 보다. 그렇다면 이 인(仁) 이야말로 참 ‘사랑’의 큰 개념으로 진정코 삶에 의의(意義)를 부여 하는 것이리라.

공자가 기독교의 신(神)을 실직자로 만들었다. 17-18세기 유럽 사상사에서 공자철학의 족적을 탐사해 온 황태연 동국대 정치 외교학과 교수의 진단이다. 종교에 속박돼 있던 유럽인들에게 인본주의를 일깨우고, 신(神)의 계율 없이도 윤리 도덕을 준수할 수 있어야 한다는 관념을 불러일으킨 인본주의가 곧 아시아에서 건너간 공자철학의 영향이라는 것이다.

이 같은 공자철학의 사상사적 의미를 지닌 책이 2015년 5월 출간된 ‘공자, 잠든 유럽을 깨우다’이다. 정치철학자이자 동서양 철학을 하나로 꿰는 황 교수가 김종록(문화국가연구소장) 작가와 함께 집필한 저서다. 김종록이 묻고 황태연이 답하는 방식으로 공자철학의 의미를 짚어본다. 장세정 기자의 인터뷰 기사를 소개 하면 다음과 같다.

“합리주의는 결과적으로 나쁜 게 아니라 처음부터 나쁘다. 인간은 감성과 이성이 반반이 아니라 대부분의 인간은 감성이다. 감각과 감정의 능력을 감성이라고 부른다. 감성의 보조제나 보강재로 보 면 이성은 좋은 거다. 그런데 인간은 80-90%가 감성적 존재인데 이성이 감성을 대체할 때 합리주의는 감성을 억압하게 된다.  감성 을 합리주의로 대체해 그것으로 사회체제와 정치체제를 만들면 사람은 어떻게 되겠나. 공산주의나 히틀러의 나치즘도 합리주의의 산물인데 이것들이 인간을 억압하고 인권을 침해했다.”

흥미롭게도 같은 날짜 (7월 24일) 미주판 중앙일보 오피니언 페이지 ‘삶의 향기’ 칼럼에서 전수경 화가는 다음과 같은 말로 감성적인 그림을 그린다.

“무덥다. 몸에 걸친 모든 것이 원망스럽다. 누구나 벌거벗은 채 태어나고 죽어 염할 때 벗겨진다. 가리면서 삶이 시작되고 벗으 면서 삶이 끝난다. 목욕이나 사랑을 나눌 때 벌어지는 일은 누구에 게도 쉽게 말할 수 없다. 말할 수 있는 것은 가렸을 때뿐이다.  가리는 것과 벗는 것, 그 중간 수위가 노출이다.

예술과 외설의 한계는 여전히 종잡기 힘들다. 예술의 노출은 진실 을 드러내고 자유로워지려는 열망에서 출발한다. 문제는 그것이 특정한 개념과 형식 없이 까발려지고 방종하게 되면 외설로 변질 된다는 점이다. 그 분수령은 어디쯤일까. 샤넬 (코르셋과 긴 치마 에 갇혀 있던 유럽 여성들의 몸을 해방시킨 혁명가, 프랑스의 코코 샤넬)은 ‘럭셔리는 빈곤함의 반대말이 아니라 천박함의 반대말’ 이라며 자신을 드러내는 건 사치가 아니라고 노출을 옹호했다.

속옷의 노출은 곧 단정치 못하거나 야한 것으로 취급됐다. 이 금기 를 깬 인물이 레슬리 웩스너다. 그는 파산 직전의 빅토리아 시크릿 을 인수해 세계 최고의 속옷 체인으로 일구었다. 그의 성공은 발상 과 관점의 전환에서 비롯됐다. 그는 숨기고 가려져야 할 속옷을 드러내게 했다. 짙은 색 브라의 끈을 어깨에 노출시켰고, 여성 팬티의 아름다운 레이스를 겉옷 밖으로 드러내게 했다. 그뿐 아니 라 란제리 패션쇼를 열어 여성에게 속옷은 숨기고 싶은 게 아니라 은근히 뽐내고 싶은 품목임을 증명했다. 웩스너에게 붙은 ‘여성의 마음을 훔친 남자’라는 별명이 전혀 터무니없는 게 아니다.

모이레는 화가다. 자화상과 누드 크로키는 숙명이자 일상다반사 다. 2014년 6월 바젤아트페어에 초대받지 않은 스위스의 행위 미술가 밀로 모이레가 하이힐을 신고 검정 핸드백만 멘 채 실 오라기 하나 걸치지 않고 온 전시장을 누볐다. 그녀의 몸에는 부위 마다 브라, 셔츠, 바지와 같은 단어들만 쓰였다. 옷으로 몸을 가리 는 허위를 비꼬았다. 그녀의 천연덕스러운 돌출행동은 하나의 사건으로 비쳤고, 여러 매체를 통해 널리 알려 졌다. 그녀의 맨몸 행위예술을 일견 지지하고, 샤넬과 웩스너의 과감한 노출 발언도 옹호하는 쪽이다.”

어쩜 이것은 앞에 언급한 대로 서양 기독교의 신본주의(神本主義) 가 동양 공자철학의 영향으로 인본주의(人本主義)로 진화(進化)한 것이었다면 이 인본주의가 자연의 지구생태계를 파괴해온 물질 문명의 합리주의 멍에를 벗어버리고 본연의 자연으로 돌아가는 감성적인 자본주의(自本主義)를 예술적으로 시사하는 것이리라.

자, 이제 맨몸의 신비로운 여체(女體)를 연상시키는 강기원 시인 의 시 ‘복숭아’를 음미해보리라.

사랑은 …그러니까 과일 같은 것

사과 멜론 수박 배 감…다 아니고

예민한 복숭아 손을 잡고 있으면 손목이,

가슴을 대고 있으면 달아오른 심장이,

하나가 되었을 땐 뇌수마저 상해가는 것

사랑한다 속삭이며 서로의 살점을 남김없이 빨아먹는 것

앙상한 늑골만 남을 때까지…그래, 마지막까지 함께

썩어 가는 것…

썩어 갈수록 향기가 진해지는 것…

그러나 복숭아를 먹을 때 사랑은 생각하지 않는 것이

좋다.

이 너무도 감성적인 시를 장석주 시인은 또 이렇게 변주(變奏) 한다.

“사랑은 영혼을 교란시킨다. 전대미문의 혼란을 겪는다. 사랑은 방향감각을 잃고 갈팡질팡하며, 비현실적 환상 속을 헤매 일상이 뒤죽박죽 엉키게 만든다. 사랑이란 뇌수마저 송두리째 서서히 물크러지며 상해가는 것이거나 상대 살점을 남김없이 빨아 먹는 것이다. 사랑이 깊으면 광기도 깊다. 썩어 가는 과일이 그렇듯 무르익은 사랑의 향기도 진동한다. 하지만 어떤 사랑이든지 사랑 은 불완전한 완전이고, 두 번 반복되지 않는 기적이다. 사랑하면 신(神)의 영역까지 넘본다. 제 사랑을 감히 ‘영원(永遠)’과  ‘불사 (不死)’에 매달고 끌어달라고 간청한다.”

2020년 4월 12일 프란치스코 교황이 부활대축일 미사에서 신종 코로나바이러스 감염증(코로나19)으로 인한 세계적 피해에 대해 “지금은 무관심과 이기심, 분열과 망각의 때가 아니다. 서로 단결 해야 한다”며 “그리스도의 부활은 모든 문제를 사라지게 하는 마술의 주문이 아니라 악의 뿌리에 거두는 사랑의 승리이며, 악을 선으로 바꾸는 승리”라고 했다는 보도다.

2015년 7월 9일 볼리비아를 방문한 프란치스코 교황은 돈을 ‘악마의 똥’에 비유하며 “돈에 대한 무분별한 추종이 세상을 지배 하고 공익을 위한 헌신은 내버려 졌다. 자본이 우상이 돼 사람들의 판단을 좌우하고, 탐욕이 전체 사회 경제 체제를 주도하게 되면 사회는 망가진다. 돈은 남자와 여자를 노예로 만들고 서로가 서로 를 미워하게 만들어 우리의 공동체를 무너뜨린다.”라고 신랄히 비판, 경고했었다.

옛 조선의 임금님들이 머리에 쓰던 관을 익선관(翼善/蟬冠)이라고 하는데 그 형상이 매미를 연상케 한다. 이 익선관의 ‘선’ 자(字)를 착할 선(善)이나 매미 선(蟬) 자로 함께 쓰는 이유는 매미가 다섯 가지 덕(德)을 갖춘 곤충이기 때문이라고 한다. 매미의 오덕(五德) 으로 문(文), 청(淸), 염(廉), 검(儉), 신(信)을 말하는데 임금은 항상 배우고 익혀, 탐욕과 사념을 버려야 하며, 염치를 차리고 검소해야 하며 신의를 중히 여겨 선정을 베풀라는 뜻이 담겨 있다 고 한다.

맴 맴 맴 매미 소리가 몹시도 그립고 아쉬워진다. 우리 인류 모두 가 어서 매미를 스승으로 모시고 처음의 처음으로 돌아가 자본 주의자(自本主義者) 코스미안이 되어야 하리라.

[이태상의 항간세설] 우주의 본질은 사랑이어라

2015년 말 일본군 위안부 문제에 대한 한일 양국 간 합의에  ‘최종 적이며 비가역적인 해결’이란 단서에 사용된 이 ’비가역’이란 단어 의 사전적 의미는 ‘변화를 일으킨 물질이 본디의 상태로 돌아갈 수 없는 일’로 되돌릴 수 없다는 뜻이다.

2016년 1월 8일 아돌프 히틀러(Adolf Hitler1889-1945)의 저서 ‘나의 투쟁(Mein Kampf, 1925)’이 절판 70년 만에 재출간됐다. 이 책은 1925년 36세의 히틀러가 뮌헨 폭동으로 투옥됐던 당시 나치즘의 사상적 토대를 정리한 자서전이다. 그간의 출간 금지는 반성할 줄 모르는 일본과는 달리 뉘우칠 줄 아는 독일 양심의 상징 처럼 묘사돼 왔는데, 이 악명 높은 책이 다시 나오게 되자 세계 언론에선 나치즘을 제대로 비판하기 위한 조치라고 합리화하며 미화했다.

일본군이 우리 윤동주를 비롯해 수많은 한국인과 중국인을 생체 실험했다지만 독일도 1904년 식민지인 아프리카 나미비아에서 땅을 뺏기 위해 헤레로족(Herero people)과 나마족(Nama people) 수만 명을 무참히 살해하고, 생존자 2,000여 명을 강제 수용소에 쳐넣고는 생체실험을 한 후 시체는 연구용으로 썼다지 않나.

그런데도 독일은 거듭되는 나미비아(Namibia) 정부의 사과 요구 에도 100년이 지난 2004년에야 학살 사실을 인정했지만 그것도 총리가 아닌 경제개발 장관이 연설을 통해 한마디 한 게 전부고, 경제적 배상은 계속 거부하고 있다. 그런데 독일은 왜 유대인에게 만 고개를 숙이나. 말할 것도 없이 미국 내 유대인의 영향력은 크 고 강하지만 나미비아인은 미약하고 무시할 만하기 때문일 것 이다.

이와 같은 불편한 진실은 국제사회 인간세계에서뿐만 아니라 자연계에서도 항상 통용되고 있는 약육강식과 적자생존의 자연 법칙이 아닌가. 우리가 가축을 사육해서 잡아먹고, 의료약품이나 미용에 필요한 화장품 개발을 위해 동물 생체실험을 하고있는 것 이 다 그런 것이 아닌가.

어디 그뿐인가. 물질문명의 개발로 자연생태계를 파괴하면서 기후변화를 초래해 지상 모든 생물의 멸종 현상을 재촉해오지 않았는가. 어쩜 현재 창궐하고 있는 코로나19 범유행 역병이 급기야 자연의 자가치유의 자정 능력이 발휘되고 있는 것인지 모를 일이다. 그렇다면 뭣보다 인간이 먼저 멸종되어야만 한단 말인가?

그 해답의 열쇠는 우리 자신에게 주어진 게 아닐까. 그야말로 반신반수(半神半獸)라 할 수 있는 인간이 ‘불가역적’ 짐승으로 전락해버릴 것인가 아니면 ‘가역적’으로 신격으로 우리 인격을 높여볼 것인가 하는 선택지가 있지 않는가. 영어로 개를 ‘dog’이라 하지만 이 단어를 거꾸로 보면 신(神) ‘god’이 되듯이 말이다.

실존과 당위를 뜻하는 말로 독일어로는 ‘자인(sein)’과 ‘졸렌 (sollen)’이 있고, 영어로는 ‘투 비(to be)’와 ‘옷트 투 비(ought to be)’란 기본 동사가 있는데, 주어진 본능대로만 살아야 하는 짐승 의 삶이 전자라면 본능을 사랑으로 승화시켜야 하는 인간의 삶은 후자이리라.

우리 냉철히 한 번 깊이 생각 좀 해보자. 우선 가역, 불가역 할 때

‘역(逆)’이란 한자 거스를 ‘逆’을 바꿀 ‘易’으로 대치해서 생각해 보도록 하자. 동물처럼 바꿀 수 없는 불가역(不可易)의 삶을 살지 않고, 창조적 가역(可易)의 자유라는 엄청난 특전을 받은 우리 인간이라면, 이보다 더한 축복이 있을 수 있을까.

이야말로 인간에게 부여된 권리이자 의무가 아니겠는가. 이렇게 선택받은 인간으로서의 우리 실존 ‘What We Are’가 조물주가 우리 인간에게 준 선물이라면, 우리의 당위 ‘What We Become’은 우리 가 우리의 조물주에게 바치는 우리의 선물이 돼야 하리라.

몇 년 전 미국 CBS 방송은 당시 49세의 구글의 컴퓨터 엔지니어 토드 화이트허스트(Todd Whitehurst) 씨가 매사추세츠주(州)  케이프 코드(Cape Cod)에서 자신의 정자 기증으로 태어난 생면 부지 8명의 자녀들과 처음으로 한자리에 모여 만난 이야기 를 전했다. 그는 자녀들을 번갈아 껴안은 후 매우 경이로운 순간 이라며 “비록 내가 현재 이 아이들의 (법적이고 사회적인) 아버지 는 아니지만 나 역시 앞으로 이 아이들의 삶에 대해 책임감을 느낀 다”고 말했다.

그는 1998년 스탠포드 대학 대학원 재학 시절 ‘젊은 남성의 정자 를 구한다’는 교내 광고를 접한 뒤 정자 기증을 결심했다. 젊은 백인이자 명문대 재학 중인 학생의 정자는 특히 인기가 높았기에 그는 4년간 같은 클리닉을 통해 약 400회 정도 정자를 기증했다.  정자 기증은 철저히 익명으로 실시됐으며 그에게는 기증자 아이디 (ID)가 주어졌다.

정자를 제공받는 여성 역시 기증자의 나이나 인종, 출생지 등 기본적인 정보만 제공 받았다. 화이트허스트와 8명 자녀들의 만남은 그의 자녀 중 한 명인 사라(Sarah, 당시 20세)가 ‘정자기증 출생 형제자매 찾기(The Donor Sibling Registry)’를 통해 생물적인 아버지와 형제들을 찾으면서 추진되었다.

이 뉴스를 접하면서 나도 그럴 수 있었더라면 얼마나 좋았을까! 소년시절부터 자위행위로 허무하고 헛되게 내쳐버린 수많은 내 정자들! 심히 후회스럽고 안타깝게 아쉽지만, 다시 좀 생각해 보니, 꼭 그렇지만도 아닐 것 같다.

내 생리적인 씨 못지않게, 아니 어쩌면 더 중요한 게 내 정신적 또는 내 영적(靈的)인 씨라면, 지난 80여 년간 살아오는 동안 사랑으로 내 쉰 숨 하나하나, 내뱉은 말 한마디 한마디, 내디딘 발 한걸음 한걸음, 써 재낀 글 한줄 한줄, 내 언행 하나하나가 모두 다 내가 뿌린 씨들이 아닌가.

좋은 씨도 나쁜 씨도, 잘 뿌린 씨도 잘못 뿌린 씨도, 비옥한 땅에 아니면 가시덤불 또는 모래밭이나 자갈밭에 떨어진 씨도 있었겠 지만, 얼마만큼이라도 열매를 맺게 된다면 그 열매를 내가 직접 거두게 되든 아니든 더할 수 없이 다행스럽고 감사할 일이다.

어떻든 사랑의 씨를 뿌리면 사랑의 열매가 맺힐 테고, 많이 뿌릴 수록 수확도 커지리라. 따라서 생리적이든 아니든, 성적(性的)이든 아니든, 우리 모두 ‘사랑의 대자녀(godson/daughter of love)’ 그리 고 ‘사랑의 대부모(godfather/mother of love)’가 되어보리.

2013년 개봉된 미국 영화 ‘월터 미티의 상상은 현실이 된다(The Secret Life of Walter Mitty)’에 나오는 노래 ‘스페이스 오디티 (Space Oddity)’와 1986년 개봉된 영화 ‘미숀(The Mission)’에 수록된 ‘스타맨(Starman)’을 ‘글램 록(Glam rock)의 전설 데이비드 보위(David Bowie 1947-2016)가 불렀다.

“수천 마일 떨어져 있는 사물들, 벽 넘어, 그리고 방안에 숨겨져 있는 사물들, 접근하기 위험한 사물들을 보고 놀라워하기… 이것이 바로 우리가 살아가는 삶의 목적이다.”

“To see things thousands of miles away, things hidden behind walls and within rooms, things dangerous to come to…to draw closer…to see and be amazed…”

이 문구는 ‘월터 미티의 상상은 현실이 된다’ 속 배경이 된 미국의 유명 잡지 라이프(LIFE)의 모토다. 월터 미티는 라이프 잡지에서 필름을 관리하는, 마흔이 넘도록 결혼은커녕 여자 친구도 없지만 다른 부서에서 일하는 셰릴을 짝사랑하는 남자이다. 도무지 용기 를 내지 못하는 그는 상상으로만 그녀에게 다가간다.

평생을 살면서 뭔가를 제대로 해본 적도 없고 어딘가를 가본 적도 없이 상상만 해오던 그에게 늘 그와 같이 작업하던 사진작가로 부터 필름이 배달된다. 라이프는 오프라인 잡지를 폐간하고 온 라인 회사로 거듭나기 위해 구조조정에 들어가고, 경영진은 전설 의 사진작가 숀 오코넬의 사진으로 마지막 호의 표지 사진을 장식하기로 결정한다. 그러나 숀이 필름 가운데 삶의 정수를 담고 있다는 필름은 어디에도 없다. 월터는 그 필름을 얻기 위해 숀을 찾아 나선다.

개봉 당시 이 영화의 홍보 문구 ‘꿈꾸기를 멈추고 살기 시작하라 (Stop Dreaming, Start Living)’가 이 영화가 주는 가장 중요한 메시지가 아닐까. 상상이 현실이 되게 하려면 행동의 삶 곧 모험을 감행하라는 뜻이리라.

아일랜드의 시인이자 철학자인 존 오도노휴(John O’Donohue 1956-2008)의 2004년에 나온 책 ‘아름다움: 모든 걸 품는다 (Beauty: The Invisible Embrace’에 ‘아름다움을 축복함(A Blessing for Beauty)’이란 기도문이 있다.

아름다움을 축복함

네 자연의 신성(神性)을 네가 볼 수 있도록,

네 삶의 아름다움이 네게 잘 보이기를.

지상의 모든 경이로움이

네 모든 작은 비밀의 감옥으로부터

너를 불러내 가능성의 초원으로 인도하기를

하루가 얼마나 큰 기적인지 볼 수 있도록

동트는 새벽빛이 네 눈을 뜨게 해주기를

황혼의 저녁 기도가

네 모든 두려움과 어둠을

편안함으로 감싸주기를

어려움을 겪을 때면

기억의 천사가 지난날의 수확을

뜻밖의 선물로 갖고 널 찾아주길

네 가슴 속 희망의 촛불을

어떤 검은 구름이 꺼버리지 않기를

너 자신에게 너그럽고

네 삶을 하나의 큰 모험으로 여기기를

외부의 공포와 절망의 소리가

네 안에 메아리치지 않기를

절실한 네 정신의 지혜를

네가 언제나 따를 수 있기를

네가 한 모든 선행과 사랑 그리고

네가 겪은 모든 고통이 깨우침으로

네 삶을 천만 배로 축복해주기를

그리고 사랑이 네 문을 두드리거든

온 세상이 새벽을 반기듯

네가 그 찬란한 빛을 받아들이기를

네 영혼에 닿는 신(神)의 입김을 느끼면서

너를 영원토록 빚고 지켜주며 부르는 네 영원성의 기쁨을

네가 고요와 정적 속에서 찾을 수 있기를

혼란과 걱정과 공허함이 있다 해도

네 이름이 하늘에 적혀있음을 알기를

네 삶이 네가 조용히 바치는 성찬으로

네 주위로 베풀어져 의심이 경외심으로

거북함과 긴장됨이 우아함과 고상함으로

좌절된 희망이 날개를 달고 고뇌가 마침내

평안의 경지에 도달할 수 있기를

신성한 아름다움이 너를 축복해주리

A Blessing for Beauty

May the beauty of your life become more visible to you,

that you may glimpse your wild divinity.

May the wonders of the earth call you forth from all your small,

secret prisons and set your feet free in the pastures of possibilities.

May the light of dawn anoint your eyes

that you may behold what a miracle a day is.

May the liturgy of twilight shelter all your fears

and darkness within the circle of ease.

May the angel of memory surprise you in bleak

times with new gifts from the harvest of your vanished days.

May you allow no dark hand quench

the candle of hope in your heart.

May you discover a new generosity towards yourself,

and encourage yourself to engage your life as a great adventure.

May the outside voices of fear

and despair find no echo in you.

May you always trust the urgency

and wisdom of your own spirit.

May the shelter and nourishment of all

the good you have done, the love you have shown,

the suffering you have carried, awaken around

you to bless your life a thousand times.

And when love finds the path to

your door may you open like the earth to the dawn,

and trust your every hidden color

towards its nourishment of light.

May you find enough stillness

and silence to savor the kiss of

God on your soul and delight in the eternity

that shaped you, that holds you and calls you.

And may you know that despite confusion,

anxiety and emptiness, your name is written in Heaven.

And may you come to see your life

as a quiet sacrament of service, which

awakens around you a rhythm where doubt

gives way to the grace of wonder,

where what is awkward and strained can find

elegance, and where crippled hope can find wings,

and torment enter at last unto the grace of serenity.

May Divine Beauty bless you.

아름다움이란 어떤 것인지 우리 생각 좀 해보리라.

아름다움이란 어린아이의 천진난만함이요.

아름다움이란 꾸밈 없이 자연스러움이요.

아름다움이란 억지 없는 순조로움이요.

아름다움이란 오해 없는 이해심이요.

아름다움이란 조건 없는 베풂이요.

아름다움이란 악의 없는 선심이요.

아름다움이란 거짓 없는 진심이요.

이상의 일곱 마디를 한 마디로 줄인다면 진(眞) 선(善) 미(美)는 셋이 아니라 같은 하나이며 셋 중에 그 으뜸은 미(美)인데, 미(美) 는 모든 것의 아름다움이리라.

    여성미, 남성미, 인간미, 자연미, 나체미, 의상미, 조형미, 통속미, 풍속미, 미숙미, 성숙미, 열정미, 노련미, 내성미, 외향미, 정물미, 동작미, 반전미(反轉美), 역전승패미(逆轉勝敗)의 미(美) 등 부지 기수이다.

영원 속에 찰나 같은 순간,

우주 속에 티끌 같은 세상,

우리 모두의 덧없는 인생,

모든 게 더할 수 없이

한없이 가슴 아프고

저리게 슬프도록

아름다움이어라.

김소월의 시 ‘못 잊어’의 셋째 구절

“그러나 또 한긋 이렇지요,

그리워 살뜰히 못 잊는데,

어쩌면 생각이 떠나지요?”

이 시의 첫구 ‘그러나 또 한긋 이렇지요’를 빌려서 아름다움이란 보는 사람 눈 속에 있다(Beauty is in the eye of beholder)는 서양 속담처럼 ‘사랑이란 색안경’을 쓰고 보면 다 이뻐 보이지 않던가.   그렇다면 사랑은 어디에서 생기는 것일까.

2016년 미국에서 출간된 과학서적 ‘치유: 육체를 지배하는 정신 과학 탐구(A Journey Into the Science of Mind Over Body)’의 저명 한 영국의 언론인으로서 과학서적 저술가인 저자 조 마천트 (Jo Marchant, 1973 - )는 서론에서 기존 서구의학계의 상반되는 대표적인 두 가지 이론을 대치시켜 독자의 주의를 환기시킨다.

한쪽에는 육체가 기계와 같아 질병 치유에 사상이나 신앙이나 감정이 개입할 여지가 별로 없다는 것이고, 다른 쪽에는 모든 비과학적이고 미신적이며 통속적인 재래식 대체 민간요법 등을 열거한다. 그러고 나서 유전학과 의료미생물학 박사학위 소지자인 저자는 최근에 와서 서양 의학계에서도 인정하게 된 ‘플라시보 효과(placebo effect)’를 예로 든다.

마취도 하지 않은 ‘모의 외과수술(fake surgery)’이 시술되는가 하면, 아무런 약 성분이 들어있지 않은 가짜 약도 그 알약의 크기 가 작은 거보다 큰 게 더 효력이 있고, 먹는 약이 진짜가 아닌 플라시보임을 환자가 알고 있을 때에도 그 효력이 발생하며, 심지어는 플라시보가 단순히 환자의 주관적인 심리상태를 반영해 주지 않고 인체 내 면역체계(immune system)에 영향을 주고 있음 이 여러 실험을 통해 과학적으로 입증되고 있다.

이것이 돌팔이 사기극이나 희망 사항 또는 모든 게 생각 나름이 아니라는 것이다. 어느 약품의 효과와 같이 구체적인 물리적 효과 라고 플라시보 효과의 생물학적 근거를 저자는 설명한다. 우리가 복용하는 어떤 알약이든 약이라기보다는 이 알약을 삼키면 내 병 이 나을 거라는 하나의 믿음만으로도 우리가 실제로 약을 먹었을 때처럼 우리 몸속에서 자연적으로 엔도르핀 (endorphins)이나 도파민(dopamine) 같은 화학성분 물질이 분출된다는 얘기다.

이렇게 플라시보 효과를 검토한 후, 저자는 사람들이 느끼는 만성 피로감이나 소화 기능장애나, 신체적인 고통 등을 어떻게 정신적 으로 극복할 수 있는지를 최면 혹은 인지행위요법, 의식 요법, 심리 요법, 아니면 가상현실 등 여러 분야의 연구 조사 리서치를 통해 다루고 있다.

결론적으로 내가 이 책 내용을 한마디로 요약하자면, 몸 상태가 좋다 안 좋다의 차이는 내가 어디에다 신경을 쓰고 정신을 어디에 다 쏟느냐, 몸이 아니라 맘이라는 것이고, 아픈 사람에 겐 사랑 이상의 약이 없다는 거다.

그렇다면 앞에 제기한 물음: ‘사랑은 어디에서 생기는 것일까’로 돌아가 보리라. 사랑은 몸에서 생기는 것일까. 아니면 맘에서 생기는 것일까. 맘과 정신은 같은 것일까 다른 것일까. 영혼이 맘과 정신과 같은 것일까 다른 것일까. 영혼이 있다면 몸 안에 아니면 몸 밖에 어디에 존재하는 것일까. 영혼이 몸 안에 존재 한다면 몸 어디에 깃들어 있을까.

고대 이집트인들은 영혼이 가슴 심장 속에 있는 것으로 믿었고,  중세 유럽에서는 머릿속에 있다고 생각해 영혼을 찾겠다고 두뇌를 절개하기도 했다. 심장이식 수술까지 하게 된 오늘날에 와선 ‘세포 기억설(Cellular Memory)’이란 것도 있는데, 장기세포에도 기억 능력이 있어 이식 수술 시 기증자의 개성적인 특성이 따라간다는 이론이다. 세포 기억설의 창시자 게리 슈워츠(Gary Schwartz, 1944 - )박사는 지난 20여 년간 70여 건의 사례를 기록해 놓았다.

이탈리아의 신경외과 전문의 세르조 카나베로(Sergio Canavero, 1964 – )는 미국의 신경 과학회 콘퍼런스에 참석해 사람의 머리를 다른 사람의 몸에 이식하는 계획을 소개하기도 했다.

이렇게 머리 이식수술이 머지않아 현실화된다면 그야말로 몸과 머리가 뒤바뀌는 전설이나 신화 같은 일이 벌어지는 것이다. 2014년 12월에 출간된 나의 역서로 독일 작가 토마스 만 (Thomas Mann 1875-1955)의 중편 소설 ‘뒤바뀐 몸과 머리(The Transposed Heads, 1940)’에서처럼 말이다.