One person to himself.
One or more chatting, arguing, agreeing.
Then, a multi-lingual gathering, with or without a headset, with a bilingual person in the middle, trying to transport the weight behind loaded words. In Chinese Zodiac, Jackie Chan tried to smooth out intercultural tension by giving an opposite translation from the intended message.
We also remember the scene from The Great Escape, where after each failed attempt, Steve McQueen, the King of cool, would be put back in isolation (at least fellow inmates still keep his glove and baseball for him).
When you send out a signal, a text or any form of communication without getting any feedback, you are in isolation. It could drive one into despair.
Marconi kept building taller towers near the seas, and sending out ship-to-shore signals in the hope that he could compensate for the curvy horizon.
In Cast Away, Tom Hanks couldn’t deliver his message in the box (fed ex), or the bottle.
Somewhere out there, there is someone waiting to receive your signals.
Blogging has started to fill this empty space.
A guy posted a picture of the Northeast, the gathering storm, or a nice trail.
I share his cold, and his wintry isolation.
Tet in Vietnam is warmer and with a lot more activities.
Tet in Orange County Little Saigon is wet and isolating.
And far away in Vietnamese communities such as Louisiana, Washington DC or Washington State, I suspect it’s even wetter and more isolating.
Yet people send out messages, through Mai branches (equivalence of Christmas pine trees) and red-lucky envelopes (equivalence of red stockings). It says “we are here, the new American with our tradition very much like the early Americans with theirs”.
So there are some interaction between the two cultures, East and West, the Lunar calendar vs the Solar.
Those who live and breathe between two worlds are lucky.
It is as though we barely cleaned up after one celebration before we start another. Once the cat is out of the bag, there is no end to it.
Now it’s no longer the turkey and carvings, it’s the Green bean cake and pickled onion.
The only shared sweet element between the old American native and the Vietnamese is sweet potatoes and boiled corn.
I start getting mouth-watered. So counting down to Tet 2013, 45 years since Tet 68.
The American public was more familiar with that shocking turn of event, and perhaps, decisive turning point of the war. You won’t find army flak jackets on the streets of Saigon as back then. You will find something very similar to the Rose Parade, except it’s stationary on blocked streets. And music is in the air, with ao dai floating and flirting . Take a picture, take a look. Be not isolated. Come out and interact, even if you need help from an interpreter.
Isolation, interaction and interpretation.
Thang Nguyen 555 