Adele, the Music Maker

In 2011, Adele, a British singer based in London, was reported to cancel the rest of her tour because of the laryngitis that she had and many fans were disappointed.  She was discovered by a record company after her music was heard on MySpace.  Adele became a pop sensation after her album “21” was released in 2011. Songs such as “Rolling in the Deep,” “Set Fire to the Rain,”  “Someone like You,” and recently the new track “Hello” topped the chart and played on most contemporary music radio stations in America.  On November 20 of this year, Adele released a new album called “25,” the most anticipated album of the year as the artist has not released any new music for the past four years. She was nominated and won many Grammy awards and even the pop sensation British singer Ed Sheeran is afraid to go against her in a Grammy nomination.  Her success is not because of her image, it is her voice, talent, and love of music. 

Music is art. It lets the listeners see and understand another’s person perspective and experience in love or in whatever circumstances that the artist is depicting in the lyrics.  Music is healthy for the viewers and for the listeners.  It changes the way we see certain situations and helps us heal from any problems we run into.  Art is a work by someone or something and it allows the viewers to think and to see something from another person’s perspective.  We see love and heartbreak experience through Adele’s music and lyrics. We can even feel the pain she has to go through in her music as it is played on our favorite radio station.  Her voice is art itself and her songs are relatable, well-written and thought-out.  The sensation we feel is difficult to describe but it can help us to be a more well-informed and a better thinker as we have another’s person perspective under our belt. 

 

America: Being Noisy?

United States wants to sell weapons to Vietnam for the reason that China’s naval ship parked in the territory of Vietnam in the South Asia Sea and Vietnam was unapproved of the action.  Vietnam needs surveillance technology to watch China’s action in the sea. As a Vietnamese American, I find the news quite surprising as Vietnam is rarely on the news; since it needs help from another country to protect its territory, who better to call out for help than America, a country with one of the strongest military power in the world. 

I once told my mom that America can be a bit noisy as we seem to be involved in almost every big conflict in the world. Why can we be peaceful and uninvolved like Switzerland, Norway, and Denmark?  For instance, America is very involved in fighting against terrorism in the Middle East and Europe, we are involved in changing the climate, etc. My mom corrected my comment and said that if it is not for America’s kindness, we would not be living in this land of opportunity.  America is not noisy, she said, they are trying to help as many people as much as possible.  Many women in Vietnam do not have the opportunities that many American women have; they might not be able to open their own business, they might not have the education that many American women have.  Being noisy can be a good thing sometimes for some people, and in the Vietnam war, it is a good thing for millions of Vietnamese fugitives.  I guess my mom is right: being noisy is not a bad thing after all. Sometimes it benefits millions of people in need of help.

The New Year

Every year, I come up with New Near resolutions and of course, they are generally forgotten by the end of January.  I try to be specific every single year on my resolutions but they never pan out to anything and I eventually forget them.  However I made a goal for myself since November of this year and I have been working toward it till now in December. Four days from today will mark my two month accomplishment of sticking to the goal.  What helps me to keep doing it is I have a purpose and I know the why to it.  When we know the purpose of our action, we remember it and it becomes a part of our life much easier. The purpose is a sticky note that reminds us what we need to do and helps us to see the future ahead.   

There Could Be Love

In the book "The Giver," the Giver gave his intern Jonas a happy memory of a family sitting around a Christmas tree, enjoying each other presence while it is snowing outside.  The Giver called the memory as an example of love; Jonas enjoys the memory as it was transferred to him and he longs to experience it himself.  However, with how the community and life is in Jonas' society, no one will ever experience the feeling of love. Everything has to be predictable and same as to prevent any pain and bad experiences for the people living in the community.

What happen if Jonas' world is a reality? What would it be like without love? Without us being able to have a relationship with other human beings? Us humans depend on other humans to live and to continue to live every single day.  We are wired to love, to be in relationships, to have a communal experience and cherish each other's beings.  However when we do not have the choice to love and to be loved, it is against our own nature and I wonder how long will our kind exist.  If we live in Jonas' world where procreation is assigned and given then it is possible for humans to continue to live without love. But living without being able to experience the love from other people is an unthinkable experience for many of us as love is the standard of life. We live, we breathe, we want, we desire love in all parts of our life.  It is not the matter of we want love but it is more of the matter of we need love, because sometimes it is the only reason why we live for.

The Sameness

Christmas was yesterday and like many Americans, my family came together and enjoyed some  good food and fun. Our food consisted of a mix of Asian cuisine and American dishes. We had some ham on the side, all cooked up by a friend of my aunt and some Vietnamese spring rolls and many other dishes that I was unable to put a name on. Christmas has always been a special time in my heart. It was a time of giving and receiving and spending some quality time with the family members whom I have not seen for the past year. We had lunch together then opened presents under the Christmas tree that my sister put up every year at her house.

This year feels different. I don't know if time changed me or if the holiday got old. I do not feel the same enthusiasm and excitement that I once had when I was a teen and in my early 20s. Christmas felt like just another day in the year. I do not feel depressed or empty, more like apathetic to what is going on on this special day that the world looks at very jovially.

I am at the stage of my life where the question of what is my purpose in life pops up consciously and subconsciously.  I have been traveling a lot for the past two years and it gave me a better understanding of the world around me and definitely who I am as a person.  In the book "The Giver," the world of the main character Jonas is always the same and orderly. Family are put together by a committee and children are given to the family to take care of base on their personality.  Each family has a parent and the children are a boy and a girl--no family unit can deviate from that formula. The world is always perfect and if there is any wrong doing--a rude remark, a blatant response, an unwise comment-- by a member, an apology and chastisement are required.  The people's life are all assigned by a group of wiser people, also known as the Elders, in the book; they are given the job for the rest of their life base on their personality.   Everywhere the characters look, there is no color; is is black and white only.  I feel like my world has became that: a black and white Sameness story where nothing much happened and where I know there is so much more in life than the one that I hold.

As humans, we want to know the purpose of our life and it always use different channels to show us what our purpose is and is not.  Whatever happens in life, it is always our responsibilities to discover our own purpose and to take an active position in looking for it rather than sitting around in the living room hoping for a miracle to happen. The key is to actively seek for our purpose and to always hold onto the hope that it will come to us one day.  The key is to always hope.

A White Christmas

When I first moved to America, my family settled in Atlanta, Georgia in October 1995 and we experienced our first white Christmas in December of that year. I was eight and found everything in this foreign land amazing and beautiful wherever I turned. I remember grabbing a handful of snow on my right hand and threw it at my sisters in the backyard of our apartment.  I also remember trying to build a snowman but it collapsed at every attempt and me getting all fussy because the snowman did not stand as I wanted.  That first white Christmas was the most unforgettable memory and it represents one of my first few experiences living in this land of opportunity called the United States.

Then my family and I moved to Southern California and the white Christmas disappeared. We can have white Christmas but we have to drive up to the mountain for one to two hours to get the full snow experience and besides, it is always a hit or miss type of thing as the snow in the California mountain can be unpredictable and my family did not want to put our lives in danger by driving in the narrow spiral roads to where the snow is in the mountain; we did not know the existence for the tire chain for driving in the snow twenty years back.

White or non-white Christmas, I am fine with it. I used to get jealous of the East Coast and Midwest Americans who get all the snow in the winter during Christmas time but my visit to Chicago proved that the last thing I want is the white Christmas as the temperature can drop below zero. Sometimes not getting what we want in life can be a blessing. Maybe that one thing we want is not right and good for us. The snow and the freezing temperature are definitely not good for anyone and I am thankful that I do not live in that type of environment where everything is cold in the winter and where my body cannot handle the low temperature.  I am grateful for the beautiful weather that I have every day in Southern California and I would never trade it for anything else--even if it is white Christmas.  I love my non-white Christmas. I have my family and the people who care for me in my life and that is all a person needs in life.  

Quote of the Day

Quote of the day:
“When someone leaves, it’s because someone else is about to arrive.”
-Paulo Coehlo