Saturday, July 16, 2005
My Vietnamese Boyfriend
What can I say about Minh? I don't think there is anything I can teach him. He already instinctively knows: HE IS SOMEBODY. As soon as I arrive at Peace Village, he is there to greet me and shake my hand. Usually he takes me over to the tv lounge, a small hallway between buildings with a television. The kids watch a live action children's program, something like "Power Rangers" with an Asian twist. When we get to class, he urges me into the seat next to him. Minh takes great joy in showing me a deck of cards and having me repeat "Jack" or "King." After many repetitions, I told him "You are the king." He laughed as he always does. Minh points at a picture on the wall and then himself, taking great happiness in the fact the picture is of him! He wants to communicate, however rudimentary that may be.
It may seem foolish, joy at very small things, redundant things, the trivial. But is it? Or is it more foolish to block out the joy, to put up an intellectual iron curtain, that dwells on problems, quagmires, entanglements of all kinds?
It may seem foolish, joy at very small things, redundant things, the trivial. But is it? Or is it more foolish to block out the joy, to put up an intellectual iron curtain, that dwells on problems, quagmires, entanglements of all kinds?
