Thang Nguyen 555

Most of us are mere payload: fill up a gym, an empty seat on the next flight or in my case, the back seat of a speech class at a “cow college” (where football players napped during lectures).

USA Today had a piece on Asian Women in leadership position. Tough road ahead.

Not only they have to face tough odds against them in the boardroom, they were also punched on the street during Covid.

Willing and submissive victims? Easy targets? “Me, no English?”.

Long ago, CBS paired up Dan Rather and Connie Chung. Both have now left the field. Empty seats…not even Wallace, the son, could fill.

It’s Apple, Amazon and Netflix times. The echo chambers. The Q and Z.

(people couldn’t even go beyond just one letter of the alphabet).

The odds are, after Twitter, we will go back to cartoons and drawings.

Some fields are scaled up, others down (the auto-pay system vs mass media).

We will go for days without a genuine human interaction. Kick and punch me please. ( See me…feel me).

At least, it will be human-human instead of just man-machine interaction.

The odds are already stacked against ALL human in general (which will exacerbate the odds against Asian Women). Speak up sis!

From the Tennis booth or from the phone booth.

Out of the many (unchosen) One.

My sister turns 85. Fell, hit a nightstand. Now with eye patch and forever half-blind.

But she has lived a full life: migrant in her youth, law-school degree, Agri-Development Bank, CPA and refugee, whose four accomplished children are commanding top medical pay grade.

Asian American women. First generation. Juggling work, life and new language.

America has benefited from this type of energy (start-up energy) for centuries.

Why stop now? the odds will always be there for new comers and “the Other”.

But the moral arc of history tends to tilt toward goodness and decency.

The human spirit will prevail even at times we feel as if we’re mere payload while in fact, it’s part and parcel of re-work e.g. Seth Godin wrote many books before his first hit – now his net worth is around 50 million.

To fill an empty seat on the plane, to occupy a machine at the gym or dozing off in a near-empty classroom. All necessary, all part of the plan – with “payload” as subset: for us to evolve, to pay our dues to finally rise, reap our rewards and respect we worked so hard for.

The odds are there to hone us, make us better, smarter, stronger, quicker and fitter for the race, which intrinsically, itself is the reward. Imagine yourself blown up at the Boston Marathon some years back, now healed and re-entered the race with one good leg (the other, artificial). Just the act of being alive and thrive should give you thrill.

For my sister, in her last years, it’s to see or not to see. She might once be into numbers at work, but not once did she pay attention to the odds stacked against her. She proved it when we were all urged at her insistence to pack up and leave Saigon in moments notice. For me, it was much easier: I did not have four young kids to feed and fend for. Talking about the odds.

Yet the outcome speaks for itself. I wouldn’t bet against her, even when she faces tough road ahead e.g. dementia and diminished eyes sight. Aren’t we all closing one eye when aiming and focusing on some target? The tougher the terrain, the sweeter the peak.