2008 Woodie Awards
LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Getting Along
Issue date: 5/25/05 Section: Opinion
- Page 1 of 1
As a gardener at Valley College, I have the time and occasion to see you teaching, studying, working, or walking within my working area. Although I cannot know your names or who you are, I readily believe most, if not all, of you are good, friendly and honest.
Surely, I work here to get money for my family, but I think it's better to work with the conscience of serving others. That's because, for me, HEAVEN IS OTHER PEOPLE. And that's because you, students and teachers, are also the images very familiar with my earlier life that suggests and remind me about what I lost during and after the civil war in Vietnam-ten years in the army, seven years in the concentration camp, and twelve years under the strict control of the new regime.
So, I appreciate and thank you very much for any of your greetings-hi, hello, how're you doing, or only a smile. This enhances my self-confidence and makes me feel such a warm welcome.
Despite the fact that I work with people of different cultures and different origins of race, I always feel friendship and convenience. It seems that we, culturally rational and sentimentally conscientious beings, have something very common and very precious: LOVE FOR OTHERS-in particular, when we live in this country where a large people believe in and faithfully practice some religion.
In addition, our society has already accepted and tolerated various cultures, thanks to such love for others. And it shows by happily prospering and successfully advancing in democracy and freedom, so that the American people today behave towards each other with good equality. Indeed, a beautiful garden is not planted with only one kind of trees or flowers but with many kinds of them, and if each of the trees or flowers needs a comfortable position to grow healthy and beautiful in harmony with others, we similarly have to live individually but together in harmony with each other in our multicultural society.
Therefore, even though selfishness is our primal nature-the presumption that humans would have evolved from the common ancestor of animals-we feel also such a cultural shame of it, and we want (or need) to live differently from it. In the experience of our lives, I think all of us have a lot of time to practice some sacrifice, such as giving up our seats to women, children, elderly people, or helping children, or any persons, who don't know how to do something they need to do.
However, the more multicultural our society, the more we should endeavor to get along with each other. And, as we know, the habit of our daily and popular greetings is one of the most effective ways to psychologically practice getting along. The reason is that getting along easily entails communication, and communication easily causes understanding, and understanding easily helps us to forgive and forget.
Hong Phan
Gardening Department
Surely, I work here to get money for my family, but I think it's better to work with the conscience of serving others. That's because, for me, HEAVEN IS OTHER PEOPLE. And that's because you, students and teachers, are also the images very familiar with my earlier life that suggests and remind me about what I lost during and after the civil war in Vietnam-ten years in the army, seven years in the concentration camp, and twelve years under the strict control of the new regime.
So, I appreciate and thank you very much for any of your greetings-hi, hello, how're you doing, or only a smile. This enhances my self-confidence and makes me feel such a warm welcome.
Despite the fact that I work with people of different cultures and different origins of race, I always feel friendship and convenience. It seems that we, culturally rational and sentimentally conscientious beings, have something very common and very precious: LOVE FOR OTHERS-in particular, when we live in this country where a large people believe in and faithfully practice some religion.
In addition, our society has already accepted and tolerated various cultures, thanks to such love for others. And it shows by happily prospering and successfully advancing in democracy and freedom, so that the American people today behave towards each other with good equality. Indeed, a beautiful garden is not planted with only one kind of trees or flowers but with many kinds of them, and if each of the trees or flowers needs a comfortable position to grow healthy and beautiful in harmony with others, we similarly have to live individually but together in harmony with each other in our multicultural society.
Therefore, even though selfishness is our primal nature-the presumption that humans would have evolved from the common ancestor of animals-we feel also such a cultural shame of it, and we want (or need) to live differently from it. In the experience of our lives, I think all of us have a lot of time to practice some sacrifice, such as giving up our seats to women, children, elderly people, or helping children, or any persons, who don't know how to do something they need to do.
However, the more multicultural our society, the more we should endeavor to get along with each other. And, as we know, the habit of our daily and popular greetings is one of the most effective ways to psychologically practice getting along. The reason is that getting along easily entails communication, and communication easily causes understanding, and understanding easily helps us to forgive and forget.
Hong Phan
Gardening Department
