Lucky because of a brain to work and a heart to feel the love

(ICTPress) - Although the suddens showers come and go quickly, they manage to bring somecool feeling. However, they are as hurried, arrogant and mysterious as a seventeen years old girl. The streams of passers - by are still in a rush. I don’t know where they are going  but the constant  noises of the engines and whistles in the streets make me think that it’s difficult to live a slow - paced life in Sai Gon.

Suddenly, today, I recognize the smell of the hoa sữa somewhere around me, sometimes faintly, sometimes strongly, blending in the early morning fog. Some roadside reeds are in white blossoms, which I didn’t notice that before. Thank you the Article “Love 2014” which gives me a day to live slowly to observe and listen many things around me, and to  realize that Sai Gon also has the moments of peace like this moment…

One of my favourite sentence from a song of the the talented composer Trinh Cong Son is that “Today I live a drunk life, so tomorrow I will regret about my wasted youth”. This means we should live a deserved life with full of enthusiasm and devotion, don’t be indifferent  and dreamy  and later look back in regret. Right! Time is a severe cycle, once it has passed, no power cannot stop it. Perhaps, that’s what makes the value of life. If the life is like the pages of a book, we can turn forward or back to erase or correct our mistakes, life is so easy. We will never be in regret, torment or pain… and we will never reach the end of our emotion.

Back to our story, when hearing the story about  the fish and the fishing rod, I think of training skills for disadvantaged people to help them get out of their poverty. The story is familiar to me, but this is the first time I read it fully and thoroughly to realize that it is more intersting and deeper than I though superficially before.

“You are good. I cannot follow you. I was born in beggary. My parents are beggars. My fate was determined to suffer. I cannot do anything proper!” The old beggar’s statements to the fishman make me think of the fate and characters of a person in the human life? So what is the fate? In my opinion, fate is what has been arranged when we was born, for example, our family background, our genes inherited from our parents, the relationship with  neighbours, the place where we were born called with two holy words “Home Land”. Don’t think of the word “fate” with the meaning of sufferings and blame for it. Actually, fate is something close and peaceful attached to our childhood when we are innocent children. When we are old enough to tell the difference between the rignt and the wrong, fate cannot control us any more because the Cause and Effect Law is fair. We reap as we sow. Everybody wants to be born rich and happy, however, if the Creator doesn’t give you what you want, instead of complaining, why we aren’t proud of our unconditioned love of our mother, the father’s great sacrifice in silenceand learn what to do to deserve their devotion.

Difficult circumstances bring us alow starting point and a rough road, but instead we try one, we double or triple our effort. I do believe we still firmly walk on our chosen road. During our journey, the experiences we  get on the rough way  definitely will be more plentiful than when we are in a smooth way. However tortuous a river is, it finallay comes to the sea. And I believe so do we. Someone says that: “if you cannot fly, you can run. if you cannot run, you can walk. If you cannot walk, you can crawl. You can do whatever you can as long as you always remember to go ahead”.

Everybody choose easy work.

Who will do difficult work?

Everyone has their own youth

Do we happen to be lucky or unlucky?

Do we accept our fate?

Is it right?

The singing words of Tran Long An’ song are soft but profound. They make me think of my responsibility in work. When I was at the university, I often compared this job with another job, and also wanted to find an easy job for me. Yet, when I go to work, I found out that there is no easy job. A strenuous worker work hard in the day time, but they have a sound sleep at night without thinking anything. A manager doesn’t work directly, but he has to be responsible for product quality, productivity, reports. People often think the employers’ main work is counting money. In fact, they shoulder the responsibility of hundreds of workers’ lives. They have to look for orders, make difficult decisions and if they don’t run their company well enough, they can  end up in bankrupt anytime. Only the cooperation and responsibility bring sustainable benefit to all people.

I say to myself if I can do something in future, I will look up to see that I am too small to other peole and unfortunately, if I fail, I will look down to see that I am happier than many other people so that I can regain the confidence  to restart. Working in a professional environment is everyone’s dream because it is the place where ability is highly appreciated and all people have chances to develop to higher levels. Being suspiciousand struggling with one another for power not only limit our self - development but also lose the human sentiment. Conspiracies and calculation will make us forget what we were born in this life for. We were born to live and to love.

Athough the old beggar is going to die of starvation, he doesn’t go fishing. I wonder if it is a true story because when someone is in the border of life and death, he will try to save his life with all his might. However, the fact that it is true or not isn’t important. The important thing is the message of humanity it conveys to us. It helps us to believe in a good life where helping hands are always available to help us. We are proud of the Viettnamese tradition of protecting and helping one another mutually. Nevertheless, it doesn’t mean that we rely on and wait for  others’ help. We have to make great effort by ourselves. If we live without thoughts, we are inconsiderate. If we think too much, it’s difficult to be happy. Nothing is more precious when a day goes by, despite dawn, sunset, cold winter night or hot summer day, we still sense the taste of life. Those are interests and responsibilities, success and failure, sufferings and happiness. These things go together like the two sides of a coin.

Above all, I think human beings are lucky because they are donated  by the Creator a brain to work and a heart to feel the love.

Author: Tran Thi Huyen Mo - Member of Vietnamese Goodwill Scholarship Program (VGSP)

Graduated Saigon University