From: hylam@soda.berkeley.edu (Hy TrUoNg LaM)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.vietnamese
Subject: [trueStory]: The Cups of Life. Part 3
Date: 11 Apr 1992 21:26:29 GMT
Organization: U.C. Berkeley, CS Undergraduate Association
Distribution: world
NNTP-Posting-Host: soda.berkeley.edu

Dear Readers,

I am not a story writer but shamelessly I wrote one anyway.
I hope you enjoy it.
--------------------------------------------------------------
[Part 3, a continuation of part 2]

Second solution:

Cover the holes first.  Then, pour in the water.  Sounds easy but...

Oops!  Gotta take my niece and nephew to the fair!  It's at Laney College,
in Oakland.  Sorry.
---------------------

Just got back from the fair! :-)

Since I already told you I went to the fair so I might as well tell you
what I did too.  You have no choice :-)

I put on my jacket and went to my secret place where I hid my money... cash,
not much.  I put the money under... Oops!  Better not tell.  Anyway, I took
out $40 and took my niece (16 years old) and my nephew (10) and we headed
for the fair at Laney College parking lot.

While driving on the freeway, I suddenly thought it wasn't fair not to take
my other niece and nephew who are living in Berkeley.  I felt guilty for not
having thought about them in the first place.  So, I came by their house to 
pick them up.  They weren't home.  I drove back to the fair.

While driving on the freeway, I somehow felt really sad.  Only if, only if
I could take all of my nieces and nephews (who are still living in Vietnam)
with me to the fair.  They would be very happy.  I love to see their
innocent eyes brighten in the land of freedom.  I was too busy thinking I
kept on driving.  "Unc Hy, you passed it!", my niece said.  Oops!

At the fair, I made them ride one of the scariest rides of all; the giant
wheel that turns vertically round and round and drops through free fall.
I was afraid of riding it so I made my niece and nephew rode it and I stayed
on the ground! :-) Bad unc.

They both loved it so much that they kept on playing and riding without
getting bore.

Eventually my wallet was empty but my niece and nephew were not tired.
My tongue stuck in my mouth.  I quietly said, "I have no more money."
Suddenly my niece felt sorry and said, "Oh, I am sorry.  You should save the
money so you can go back to Vietnam."  Darn, $40, that's almost half a 
million ddo^`ng (Vietnamese money).  With that amount of money I could have
bought more than 250 bowls of pho*~ (noodle-meat-balls which costs about
1500 ddo^`ng, about 15 cents US money) or save many starving lives in Vietnam, darn.

Anyway, back to my second solution:

Cover the holes first.  Then, pour in the water.  Sounds easy but...

I thought the only way to mend our Vietnamese people's cups back home is
first to break the BIG cup which is almost broken.

Some people believe that if the United States hangs onto the embargo against
Vietnam long enough, the Big cup will soon shatters.  Until the BIG cup
shatters, all the cups will never be mended.  Once the BIG cup shatters,
the holes will disappear magically.  Then, we Vietnamese people overseas will
begin to pour our water.

However, how long will it take (5 or 10 years? if it ever happens) to break
the BIG cup and mend all the cups?  Even if the embargo will break the BIG
cup, which I doubt since there are more and more other non-communist
countries are pouring water (for profit purpose) into the BIG cup.
The water goes so fast, I think, that the American private business sectors
wonder when it's time for them to pour their water (for profit purpose)
will there be enough space?  I sort of afraid that when the BIG cup breaks,
many more already damaged cups will no longer exist or impossible to mend.

I just can't imagine what will happen if the BIG cup breaks right now.  Its
fragments of the broken pieces will surely hurt the people real bad and it
will create more holes to all the cups.

Will the losers forced themselves back into the jungles and country sides to
rebel again?  When I look at Cambodia, now has free election but some of the
losers, the Khemer Rouge, pull back into the country sides, the jungles,
and keep on disturbing the process of making peace for Cambodia, I worry.

Will the second Vietnam War ever repeat itself once again but more deadlier?
I hope not.  If it ever happens again, I will not forgive myself?  Will you?

Anyway, I am having a headache that big when it's time to think of capitalism
vs. communism.  They're like magnets; one's embedded in my left ear 
(capitalism) and one's stuck in my right ear (communism).  I've got to take
either one off my ear.  Since my right hand is stronger than my left hand,
I used the right hand to pull the magnet in my right ear, with the help of
my left hand.  Unfortunately, I alone can not do it.  My brain is squeezed
in the middle, distorted.  You've got to lend me a hand.  I'll lend you mine.
Until we pull the magnet in our right ear, we can not and will not be able to
do anything to help mend the cups back home.

Did you know that each of us has a brain with 2 parts, the left brain and
the right brain?  They are enemies of each other.

Did you know that each of us also has a heart with 2 sides, the dark side
and the bright side?  They are not supposed to be enemies of each other though.

Everyone of us was born with a loving heart and an almost empty brain.  Yeah,
I believe so because I can't recall or remember or know anything at the time
I was born.  Can you?

Anyway, because of the battle between the left brain and the right brain,
the heart has been overshadowed and so part of the bright side has darkened.
Yeah, like the bottom of a pan which they use to cook "pho*~" (noodle) or
"bu'n nu*'o*c le`o" (what you call this in English?).

I have looked into my brain and, boy oh boy, how terrible!  Did someone
say, "This is your brain (egg).  This is your brain on drug (burning pan).
Psssssssssss."  Yacc!

Now is the time for me to look into my heart to see what's in there.  What's
in yours?

Anyway, there goes my second solution, into emptiness.  Here comes my third
solution.


Third Solution:

Cover the holes while I pour the water at the same time.  My oh my, this
costs a bundle!  I need water, energy, and time.

(to be continued...)

-Hy

Newsgroups: soc.culture.vietnamese