I look out on this street in Seoul in one of my favorite neighborhoods shielded from the mundane obligations of work and feeling slightly guilty watching the middle-aged trio of people sorting through damp cardboard in the rain as I sip an expensive latte. What led me to this moment intertwined with comfort and grief and affection? It started almost 20 years ago and has zig-zagged ceaselessly from a bus stop on a street in Brooklyn to this neighborhood called Mangwon. Life is relentless in its surprises.