Vietnam is still celebrating Tet, their new year, so the streets were relatively trafficless and the stores and restaurants did not open until after noon. Tomorrow is supposed to bring a more typical day in Vietnam.
We got split up today. Chris' marketing class had a field lab to the Mekog Delta. The boys and I were scheduled to visit the War Museum.
The twist to our day was meeting Mr. Cuong who is a former UPI (United Press International) photojournalist. His claim to fame are his many photographs which captured the life and times of the Vietnam war.
Today, he is a convenience store owner, art collector and private museum curator. His 3 professions are all housed in his cramped 3 story house. Not the SAS field trip experience I expected but maybe this is the best HCMC can offer its tourists. I shouldn't complain. This country is communist but according to Mr. Cuong, he and his contemporaries all think it is "bullshit". Hmmm...
The War Museum houses remnants of the war which was almost entirely anti US propaganda. All 4 stories, including the outside courtyard which has on display tanks, aircraft and literally tons of US weaponry are dedicated to the atrocities committed by the US during the war. The photographs illustrating the effects of Agent Orange were most disturbing. I cautioned the boys and assured them they were not obliged to look but they did. It was a day of information overload for them as well as for me. It left us wondering what our friends at home might be doing.
We returned to an empty ship. Everyone was either still out on their field trips or exploring the city. I thought we might just rest a while then take the shuttle bus back downtown for dinner. Being Fat Tuesday and all, the boys opted to have dinner on the ship. More than anything else, I think it was them needing a little bit of "home". We sat up on the pool deck and ordered hamburgers and fries as we overlooked the moonlit Saigon River.
In search of mass tomorrow!
The Vietnam War extracted a huge toll of human lives... I remember the news coverage of the war growing up. Can't imagine seeing remnants and talking with one who lived to talk about it (http://to.pbs.org/XzlUp6). Certainly a humbling and sobering way to enter the Lenten season.
ReplyDeleteContinue to enjoy the journeys and experiences that await you!
"May the road rise to meet you,
May the wind be always at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face..."
Monday, February 11, 2013
ReplyDeleteQuote of the Day
“I come to you as Bishop of Rome, but also as an old man visiting his peers. It would be superfluous to say that I am well acquainted with the difficulties, problems and limitations of this age and I know that for many these difficulties are more acute due to the economic crisis. At times, at a certain age, one may look back nostalgically at the time of our youth when we were fresh and planning for the future. Thus at times our gaze is veiled by sadness, seeing this phase of life as the time of sunset. This morning, addressing all the elderly in spirit, although I am aware of the difficulties that our age entails I would like to tell you with deep conviction: it is beautiful to be old! At every phase of life it is necessary to be able to discover the presence and blessing of the Lord and the riches they bring. We must never let ourselves be imprisoned by sorrow! We have received the gift of longevity. Living is beautiful even at our age, despite some “aches and pains” and a few limitations. In our faces may there always be the joy of feeling loved by God and not sadness.
In the Bible longevity is considered a blessing of God; today this blessing is widespread and must be seen as a gift to appreciate and to make the most of. And yet frequently society dominated by the logic of efficiency and gain does not accept it as such: on the contrary it frequently rejects it, viewing the elderly as non-productive or useless. All too often we hear about the suffering of those who are marginalized, who live far from home or in loneliness. I think there should be greater commitment, starting with families and public institutions, to ensure that the elderly be able to stay in their own homes. The wisdom of life, of which we are bearers, is a great wealth. The quality of a society, I mean of a civilization, is also judged by how it treats elderly people and by the place it gives them in community life. Those who make room for the elderly make room for life! Those who welcome the elderly welcome life! ... When life becomes frail, in the years of old age, it never loses its value and its dignity: each one of us, at any stage of life, is wanted and loved by God, each one is important and necessary.
Dear friends, at our age we often experience the need of the help of others; and this also happens to the Pope. In the Gospel we read that Jesus told the Apostle Peter: “when you were young, you girded yourself and walked where you would; but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will gird you and carry you where you do not wish to go” (Jn 21:18). The Lord was referring to the way in which the Apostle was to witness to his faith to the point of martyrdom, but this sentence makes us think about that fact that the need for help is a condition of the elderly. I would like to ask you to seek in this too a gift of the Lord, because being sustained and accompanied, feeling the affection of others is a grace! This is important in every stage of life: no one can live alone and without help; the human being is relational. And in this case I see, with pleasure, that all those who help and all those who are helped form one family, whose lifeblood is love.
Dear elderly brothers and sisters, the days sometimes seem long and empty, with difficulties, few engagements and few meetings; never feel down at heart: you are a wealth for society, even in suffering and sicknes.( Part of the Pope's comment for the elderly) Enjoy the rest and hopefully you will find a church.
The rest of Pope's comment to the elderly:
ReplyDeleteAnd this phase of life is also a gift for deepening the relationship with God.... Do not forget that one of the valuable resources you possess is the essential one of prayer: become interceders with God, praying with faith and with constancy. Pray for the Church, and pray for me, for the needs of the world, for the poor, so that there may be no more violence in the world. The prayers of the elderly can protect the world, helping it, perhaps more effectively than collective anxiety. Today I would like to entrust to your prayers the good of the Church and peace in the world. The Pope loves you and relies on all of you! May you feel beloved by God and know how to bring a ray of God’s love to this society of ours, often so individualistic and so efficiency-oriented. And God will always be with you and with all those who support you with their affection and their help.”
I'm pretty sure the museum would have been humbling as an American. My advisor in college did her thesis on Vietnam, it would be enlightening to be there.
ReplyDeleteI love Ben's hat!! Perhaps he should start a "morning" show on the ship!!
Peace,
Shannon