Tag: Britney Spears

Stress and songs

The audience sang along, occasionally to the shared mike.

We will we will rock you.

Tonight gonna be a good good night.

Even Top of the World which was a relic from the 70’s.

A night at Acoustic, Saigon.

A night to release the stress.

A night to see Rock rules in a whole new generation.

The warm-up band was from Australia. “Don’t cry, don’t cry”…

Then the Filipino band who without fail stepped on the stool to elevate themselves (Britney, Gaga numbers).

Last but not least was the House band, mainstay.

I will always love you….

Wonderful tonight (in Vietnamese, can you believe, with ” I give her the car key“, not scooter’s).

We had joy, we had fun last night.

Wholesome and healthy. My young sidekick did not even touch a beer.

He ordered milk.

Young people are health-conscious, environmentally aware (can you put out the cigarette?).

No problem.

So we together decompressed, sang along, shouted along. Soared throat.

Soaring spirit.

That’s what it’s all about.

Partying.

Live a little.

Then come back to work harder.

To get more stress and strain.

I am ready.

Try me.

Hit me.

One more time.

One more song.

One more day in Saigon.

Full of stress, but then, if you know where to look, full of strength.

Strength in unexpected places, in a corner there at the end of the alley.

At Acoustic.

Redemptive rain

Our own Duc Huy, along with Dylan, during the 80’s, sang about “the hope of redemption” and how “the heart found joy once again”.

The 80’s was the time of culture war: right vs left, straight vs gay, East vs West, secular vs conservative.

Thirty years on, we are faced with a different set of challenges. Small potatoes now grow dominant, so do small apps.

BRICS finally emerged, while incumbents are now worried about social disparity and other larger trends i.e. gay marriage. It rained here last night in Saigon. Free wash! Free Aircon!

One cannot ignore the sound of heavy rain pounding on tin roofs. It was also redemptive: one wash sweeps all dirt.

Duc Huy resonates the longing for faith and trust.

His thoughts flow, from morning coffee to evening pavement ( that leads to the girl’s home) and display universal longing for permanence instead of temporal, eternal instead of fleeting.

Duc Huy wishes for more rain to tie down his love, for time to stand still.

That moment in time, we all experience at times, is called Kairos.

It is a mark, an event that is more significant than any others.

It reveals who we are to us.

Then, perhaps,  there is hope for redemption.

“Toi hy vong duoc on cuu roi” (I might  hope for redemptive love).

I started my opening chapters of Monte Christo.

We all know the story line. But its author first paints the perfect picture of a young sea Captain reunited with young wife, before he is betrayed, and imprisoned.

Of course, the plot will switch to revenge instead of redemption.

But that is human drama unfolded.

That is how much “dirt” we manage to produce.

Then came the rain. Redemptive rain.

One wash, all gone.

Begin anew. Hope again, trust again, love again.

Like smokers who will get a new lung after 7 years of quitting, we all are getting another shot at life. Just don’t use the same script again. It will only produce the same result. Try the opposite. From bottom and up. Outside in. Be creative. Be redeemed. Be rain makers.