Young folks always assert themselves: in the Graduate, plastics, in Santa Fe, TX, the gun, and in Hanoi, the guitar ( Mai Khoi awarded recent International Prize in Oslo).
It’s an unfair comparison to when I was growing up: a refugee kid repeating his parents’ script. But I know one thing – to use George Harrison’s catchy album title: “All things must pass” including : run the fingers, strike a chord, and mouth the lyrics ( in the hope to connect, to stir up and to move the room.)
We, adults, have failed our kids badly: from being the Graduate to becoming the Mega-rich 1 percent-er, from getting rich with “plastics” to leaving behind an iceberg wrapped in plastics (National Geography’s cover picture), from missing their school play performances to missing tax deadlines.
We are a generation of Someday. Someday we will make good and make right. Occasionally we reflect upon the Vinyl years, wishing it could have been or should have been. While Bill Gates was on the quest for the perfect Third-World toilet, Asian moguls sit on toilets made of pure gold. It’s not enough for evangelists to do their jobs over the airwaves, they now need to do it on the airplanes.
Now comes the fun part: nobody gets hired anymore, but work flow still flows. We care about “what technology wants” more than “what the people want”. Machine is learning, while man isn’t. (The best major now is Data Sciences). From Adam to Analytics, we have certainly made progress, giant leaps as a matter of fact: self-driving cars, self-healing network and self-cleaning buildings.
Structures and institutions will remain, with new owners and new passwords. But influential people must heed the advice: pride comes before the fall. All things must pass, no option there. Fail not yourselves, your kids and your ideals. No should haves, could haves or Someday. Just now, next and the rest. Press reset. Breathe in/out and Think. The girl and the guitar got me thinking: where has myself gone?
Thang Nguyen 555 