I was told to write from the heart (or just use Google speech, then have it translated into Vietnamese). If I were to follow this advice, then how could I send those cultural nuances across the softwares, at least, not yet. For now, we can’t just yet paint a picture of “blush”, “shame” and other…

San Francisco. “Be sure to wear some flowers in your hair”…You sure will find some gentle people there. That was more than 50 years ago. Today, this past week, be sure to hold on to your purse. Warren Buffett once said, I paraphrase, “I’d rather keep the money than buying a wallet with that money”.…

Somehow, we’re built to hold two opposing ideas/concepts simultaneously. People died ; not me. Climate change happens somewhere else. Not here (what if someday you want to travel or live there). Bad guys take from me (how about me you, at times, live a mix bag non binary life – conveniently acting like a jerk…

It’s Thanksgiving. Can’t think at all, but if I have to, I would put 2 and 2 together. To know that nothing is permanent, especially our problems (per Charlie Chaplin, who also said, “a day without laughters is a wasted day”). So let’s begin with some “impernanent things”, like Covid, Napalm, Agent Orange, Opioid, Injustice…

Just Yes or No. Black or White. Heaven or Hell. You get the gist. No nuances, context, or even human lies (selective memories). As we grow older, we store more memory. It’s harder to recall a particular incident or name. Filter it. Narrow it down, the Search. Forced choices, alternate only. When I first arrived…

Of late, we’ve been pre-friending online. Then came our face to face get-together: dress and cross-dress to impress. Pressing the flesh. Pushing the schedule, re-arranging the furniture, setting up the sound system and of course, bringing in the food. Voila! We’ve got a venue, a mini-event. A party. Every fifteen minutes or so, as if…

Looks as if we were stuck with one another for a while on spaceship Earth. Did not ask for it. Can’t get off it. Might as well live with it. “It” here involving the virus, with Climate Change and as in the case of my daughter, breast cancer. I have travelled a lot, stepped on…

What kind of Creator who allows the worst to happen to my most loved? What in the world does He think He is, playing God, throwing the dice around. My daughter, barely out of the gate, with full life ahead of her. Now, unrecognizable (no hair, thick glasses and covid mask). That face which I…

In Sierra Leone, a fuel tanker and a truck collided. Both drivers got out unharmed. But the crowd converged to “conserve” fuel (that leaks out). Result? lots of burned deaths. In Houston, a crowd surge at Astroworld, resulted in 8 dead and many injured. Two societies, two mentalities. Same results. One saves resources, the other…

We came from outside of Saigon, yet we are labeled: “Miss Saigon”. Agent Orange, B-52 carpet bombing, and of course, Strategic Hamlet campaign drove us there, a city of a little over 1 Million before the war. Why not. A Shakespearean saga, Vietnamese version: “selling your body” for the greater good. A transaction; nothing more…