Elements of chaos

The book, the movie and the song. Three-legged stool. “Where do I begin…”

Love and death, hand in hand. Death in combat and Love during R&R. Cy-clo May (three-wheeled cycles) and cy-clo dap (just plain three-wheeled cycle, manual pedal).

The GI’s Loved it. Today, the backpackers. Old French Quarters, New Orleans , Hanoi or Saigon. The architectural backdrop was definitively Colonial French, overlaying and interlacing with Indo-Co-Chinois.

Somewhere you will find love. Somewhere you’ll find money. Lots of money during war time. All in cash, burned in a hurry, ready in a duffle bag if need be. Seen it with my own eyes aboard a US Navy warship. Just toss them all, blowing in the wind. Dylan-esque.

How many roads must a man to choose…America at war, with foreign powers and persuasions. American Artists in the “moveable Feast”. American Army abroad in the 60’s (Vietnam) after its Feast of the famine (45).

Somehow, there stood a South Vietnam, wobbling, but stood for 21 years nevertheless. Amidst bombardment and chaos like Today’s Ukraine.

Students still showed up. Soldiers too.

A sense of normalcy amidst the abnormal. Tear gas, guard posts and lots of bribery. Then there was the sound of Rock and Roll. Of “hair to the knees”. All Right Now….Maybe tomorrow I will love again…Love is blue. Where do I begin…

Charles Anavour’s Et Pourtant, handed off to the British Invasion (indirectly) of Vietnam. Cultures in collision. Outdoor concerts in the park – French colonial park. Cream and CCR. California Dreaming.

Without dreams, nothing happened. So today, after many decades, the relics and remnants are here, in California. All the leaves are brown.

“and I pretend to pray”…Been “got down on my knees” all these years. Praying for peace in the land. In the town and out in the country. Where the VC’s once ruled the night, the SVN and US Army the day (in strategic hamlets). Per Vu Quoc Thuc’s Ph.D. dissertation, Vietnamese power lies at the grass roots level among which the VC’s had stronghold. Then Nick Ut’s shot of the Napalm girl. Malcolm Browne of the burning monk. The Press loves sensationalism. It sells. It sizzles.

All the elements of chaos were present. Where do I begin,…to tell a story of Love. of the aristocrats of the NorthEastern shores. Of Ivy League. Of unconcerning nostalgia. What do the pajamas people have to do with Eric Segal’s beige beach sweater, besides born out of the same time frame.

A conflict and collision of cultures and concerns. Of the two world views that could never co-exist: the ones with and the other without money. The two C’s. clashing and collaborating (Xi and Putin are meeting to find common ground soon). UK with new PM and anointed King while the US is still struggling with legitimizing its elected President.

Elements of chaos are always present, since the beginning of time. And the times, they are a changin… How many roads must a man, travel…a hundred miles… Lord, I am three, hundred miles, away from home. Chaos, crisis and culture collisions. Yet there still Love amidst of it. With death and money trailing right behind.