What happened before will happen again (comes back in a full circle). Maybe not. Something that has never happened before might occur someday e.g. singularity. The speed of change, our ability to cope with it (speaking in shorter sentences, if not binary: Yes or No).
I grew up waiting for frequent trips to visit our grandpa. Mom and me. We went, up the Y bridge, then made a right, toward Chanh Hung. You can always smell it from afar: the pig pen.
I watched and learned. How relatives related. Relationships.
In the end, my mom, on her meager salary, always handed over some cash ( a little something).
Love = rhetoric + reality
Words and action. Real meaningful and tangible means to lift someone’s life up. In this case, it was my Mom’s stepmom and step-siblings.
That’s how society transmits its “genes”. Loyalty, commitment, and compassion.
I have barely drawn up our family genealogy. It took a few phones calls back and forth, to my much older brother (oldest sis already in dementia stage). Every child dreamed of a glorious past. One which dwarfs all fairy tales. Legends that got blown out of proportion and passed on (we bought into it because we were hoping for “what happened before will certainly happen again, maybe skipping a generation).
Aristocracy was and still is. The elites. The “chosen”. Sun gods, Moon gods, and High-noon gods. N Korean leader was seen with his heir apparent on his side. 4th generation. In Britain, King Charles.
In the US, segregationists and secessionists, found their mouthpieces and reincarnation. Divided States. Circular in thinking. In motion. And in place.
Meanwhile, the atomic clock is clicking. People are born and dying.
Even worse, people are getting much older (I am looking at a LIFE magazine from 45 years back: the High Court was packed with White, Male, and Caucasian w/ the exception of Thurgood Marshall – the same time as ROOTS popularity, not to mention Star Wars).
What happened will likely happen again? Winning the lottery twice?
Good luck. With Fox news and fake news. With acronyms like AOC and MTG.
Since when are we afraid of pronouncing someone’s name? Or do they all have to be brands and acronyms for the sake of Twitter’s 140 characters.
The algorithm rules. Our life and society are heading more towards singularity, at which time, machines and man are indistinguishable in speech, thought, and perhaps action. Yes or No? Not maybe. Not wishy-washy. Not hesitating, of two minds. Or changed minds.
It was the Y bridge all right. Where we made a right turn, then headed towards the pig pen and factory. The neighborhood thrived on raising them, selling them and subsisting on them.
The smell stayed with me years later. So was the kindness of relatives, relationships, and bloodlines. I know I can draw up on a board who is who. Perhaps one or two ended up millionaires. The majority were successful and accomplished. Early deaths and longevity. Forgetful and resourceful.
But those were human beings who carry with them a certain amount of dignity, besides dollars.
There is always a trade-off as I see it from the chart. And how politics and migration affected multi-generations (my brother left his home twice, the first on a French ship, the second on USS Navy 7th fleet).
What happened before seems to happen again. At least from my own experience: I too left home on a foreign ship, to arrive on foreign soil and now, write in a foreign language. Did I choose to make that right turn on the Y bridge? Or fate intervenes?
When on that Y bridge, even Robert Frost has to ponder before making his turn, towards whichever road with less traffic, and less traveled. To him, it made all the differences. To me too. Can’t be of two minds too long. Or get run over.
Thang Nguyen 555 