An accident by birth (born not in the USA). Then proceeded stoically to make it first in a series of self-degradation and self-victimizing: environmental pollution and problem. Culprit? China and the US of A. The latter played the China Card. The former Russia’s five decades later. Zhou Enlai with his “loss leader” banquet to greet…

While her organs were still warm, experts already are on the lookout for their use. Viable organ donor. Medical good-will. Such a well-lived and well-died life, benefiting human society to the last breath. Maxwell House society. Organ donors’ society. Let’s give and good to the last drop. From blood to kidney, books to clothes. Can’t…

Before I, they. The four adults. Now two left, both in their early 80’s. Back in 1954, when the OSS and Colonial French bosses were in charge, my brother and sister, both late teens, were eager to emigrate to South of the new DMZ. Their trip was orchestrated for re-districting and motivated partly by land…

They came, lived and died. The long and short of it. In between, a lot of melodrama. From de-colonizing to the Unthinkable (Republic of S Vietnam flag atop the US Capitol). The ghosts of yesterday war. Forever haunting the airbnb “hotel” clusters (who else and how else can one live in Orange County on a…

Pretty soon, we can show-and-tell in Meta verse, turning Self into Brand. From selling of a consumer category – industrial revolution with excess supplies- that bleeds into the selling of a Congressional candidate (red vs blue tie) to self-branding both professional and personal (Hollywood casting call automated as “What’s on your mind” on fb). The…

sitting on that chair. It’s mine. I am entitled to my own opinion. It’s the American Way. The Only Way. Or the Highway. You can grow hair. Or you can no longer. But Time goes one way, from Alpha to Infinity. All in my family: the cast of characters, all were really old by the…

Move out – vacancy – move in. Keep moving on. Keep zooming in, pulling a James Webb, to find a newly discovered (by us) yet old planet. Same way with the truth. Men/women often stumbled upon it by surprise. The truth, most relevant, is about themselves: how low they are capable of stooping to e.g.…

To a lesser degree it’s a version of self-sabotage i.e. a cheat here and cut-the-corner there, fewer crunches, one more chip or an additional squeeze of ketchup. Over time, unchecked atomic habits stack up, as we surrender to the current of time. We’re our worst enemies. Then we shift the blame. It’s the parents, politicians,…

August 2000 Little did I know, my first trip back to Vietnam was a journey in self-discovery. It began with a phone call from one of my middle-school classmates. He urged me to look for Hieu, who used to sit next to me. a B/W photo of Hieu wearing a Kitchen God’s hat and sunglasses…

They always beat me to it. The Stairmaster’s regular. One step at a time. Always covered in a thin film of sweat. Pay the price. No pain no gain. Unlike those 76-year-old power-clingers who speak in cryptic… urging 36 year-olds to do their bidding, while, with fast-food and clubfoot. His niece said that for the…