Thang Nguyen 555

Another one bites the dust. My neighbor. A successful and goodlooking medical doctor. Second generation Franco-Vietnamese. His other two surviving younger brothers also inherited good genes, also are successful by all measures. Good genes precipitate good outcome. Most times.

At least, they help us out against the test of time before our uninvited guest, the Angel of Death (nothing angelic about him) knocks, three times in succession like Woody in the Messenger ” the Secretary of War wants me to pass on…”.

Woody Harrelson slips comfortably into the role of a trainer ” under no circumstances you touch NOK – next of kin ” before finishing up his watermelon slice (might as well chew his tobacco after dessert).

There is no glory about the end. Our end our beginning. Authors through the ages have speculated about what comes next. From personal experience, I have found the dead never come back: a couple of neighbors during the war (this medical doctor was the highest achiever), my grandma and parent, sister and cousins. People got their degrees, passed small and big tests, but no one passes the test of time.

Finale. C’est fini, Capri. Only their loved ones with prolong stages of grief.

Eternity? The sun? yes. Moon, yes. Earth rotating still? yes. Eclipse, yes e.g. our good genes passed down from ancestors, folklores and wisdom (earned from mistakes and experience), course-correction and regrets e.g. pay it forward and invest in karma, daily act of kindness vs day trade.

Humanity and continuity with self-correcting and condemning, ups and downs, war and peace. In “Not fade away”, we watched a young narrator dancing in the street, delivering that-remains-to-be-seen line:” the US invented the atomic bomb and Rock and Roll. Yet we are not sure which one wins out in the end”. For me, war ends, but woodstock lives on (see Vietnamizing Woodstock).

Man-singing and sleeping, while machine-learning. The latter non-stop, with logic, long form and a deep dig into contextualizing now that it can afford data-richness.

Machine, data rich. Man, data poor.

Its tasks are simple: cull and curate man’s thoughts, writing and leave-behind. Then to arrive and paint a more comprehensive conclusion unlike us: “discard that which are outside of our purview” since each man is given only an average lifespan of 24-hour units that lasts until it runs out (77 years for US male). BTW, as far as longevity, the US is ranked 61, while Hong Kong No 3, both see female outlast male.

Yet it’s what is unseen that affects us. Slowly then suddenly from sunrise to sunset sees the erosion of the commons (buses to school, parks for kids and dog park for pets, ramp for old folk and rehab for veteran).

Perhaps we, I, have given up too soon. Fire him. File for a divorce. Obtain food stamps and fruit loops before they are no more. Fade not away.

Our expiration date has yet to come. No one knows. Those with advice like “keep saying this is the most wonderful day”, “It’s a wonderful world” etc…are all dead e.g. 7 Habits of effective people’s author himself died while biking. “Supersizing me” died of a heart attack. My doctor neighbor, pinnacle of success, gone for good.

Those who wrote self-help books i.e. dieting, running and positive thinking – got rich, living off their royalty on our dimes.

Life has its final say. We might be just “extras” on its movie set. Some, a giver – others taker. Most: undecided. Man might be undecided; machine is certainly an extractor.

In the Orient, Orientals might look alike. As it is in Africa, Europe and South America. Proximity breeds linkage, time heritage. Mass movement, mass destruction (WW’s, covid). The Industrial Revolution did us a disfavor by scaling. Machine keeps on churning out warheads, warlords and war death.

Decades later, we recover, with new “normal”, dutifully pay our taxes and pay it forward to the common, without protesting those unjust and ill-thought-out policies, as if yesterday, today and tomorrow will always be the same old. Got news for you. “The same” is only for the living.

For people like my Franco-Vietnamese successful neighbor (or my uncle who got shot at age 20), all is long gone.

No one passes the test to time. As long as the Sun still rises tomorrow, we are going to be OK. Or so we thought. Brush our teeth and turn off the light.

Good genes precipitate good outcome. Other factors e.g. environment, social influence and sophistication play into success and happiness. But don’t, for a minute, be self-deceiving. We’re, chemically speaking, full of water, blood, bone, oxygen, nutrient and waste. Oh, I forget illusion 100 %. Where does that leave perspiration and inspiration? Sorry, got to go. I heard someone knocking at the door. 3 in succession. Woody? Is that you? Let me finish my watermelon slice.