Frustrated … frivolous

In the past, I had little habit of eating breakfast. Basically, I usually stay up late, so I wake up very late. Every day at the earliest, it must be 10am to leave the house. At that time, just a cup of coffee is enough. At noon, I have to eat only at that time, I have to eat breakfast, afraid that at the peak of work (about 2-3pm), I will be very hungry, I have to look for something to eat, afraid of losing productivity.
But since having children is different. Get up early and take your children to school, whatever you want to have breakfast. Suddenly, I found my day more meaningful than when I woke up early. One morning, I took advantage of breakfast time, coffee finished, got to work.

This morning, after releasing her daughter in elementary school, I planned to go home and write a few lines. So incessantly thinking along the flow of the car going forward, suddenly I suddenly crave a pair of flipped duck eggs. Cravings, we have to eat. But in the morning like this, where to find a place to sell “flipped duck seeds” between Saigon. So we walked across the market, bought dozens of eggs, some lettuce, ginger root, some chili powder. Going home and preparing to prepare, it also took 30 minutes. In return, the breakfast is satisfied. Foreigners coming to Vietnam for the first time must be shocked to see duck eggs flipped. Listen, it’s rumored to be one of the top 10 horror dishes in the world. But there are foreign friends that I know, who have lived in Vietnam for a long time, it turns out that “Western water spinach” already likes to eat real upside down duck eggs. Get used to it, no longer afraid. At that time, only the pulp, fragrant (but not fishy), is very attractive. Even though it is strange, in the same country, from the same people, the way of eating eggs / seeds of a flipped duck is already different. The local people often eat eggs at night, especially when going out for a drink. The saying “Flipped quail eggs, rotted duck seeds, flipped duck seeds … fried tamarind … êiiiiii” is too familiar to many people, including those who do not like this dish. Familiar because it sounds every night, on every street side, with the image of a person pushing or kicking a van in front of it, with eggs, boiled corn of all colors. The extremely difficult thing to explain is why the flipped duck seed is considered a Korean, eating easily cold, but people in the region often eat it at night, sometimes while drinking beer. And outsiders are different. Duck eggs flipped it like breakfast, more snacks. And because it considers its taste to be solder, it should always be eaten with sliced ​​ginger, a little chili powder with salt and pepper and laksa leaves to lead the taste and smell. That way of eating, at the same mealtime, seems to really balance yin and yang. The other thing is that the locals in the region eat eggs, they put them on the small communal table, knock on the spoon to knock, open the egg shell, season with seasoning and then slice each small spoon. Salt and pepper squeezed lemon or kumquat (kumquat), add a little pureed chili and also come with laksa leaves. But definitely not eaten with ginger. Meanwhile, the North people break the eggs into a small, pretty bowl, the bad, bad, old ceramic bowl is a bit dull. Two different ways of eating, two different times of eating, and a lot of different seasoning. The most common point, which later found, was to eat with hot pot. This is delicious and delicious, but it looks really scary when the eggs are not put in the pot. So scared that I can’t describe it anymore … Having finished sipping a pair of flipped duck eggs, I suddenly smiled to myself when I thought about this day. Yeah, there’s still the second day of the lunar month. Outside the North, there is a strange custom that is rare in the South. It is to abstain from a few things, including eating and drinking, in the first few “days” of the month. Which is abstaining from dog meat, abstaining from duck meat, abstaining from squid, and abstaining from eggs. There are also people who do not abstain, but many people keep it very cautious. Cravings are cravings, those dishes have to wait through the day of the day. There are men who are more careful, still waiting for the full moon. They are afraid of stirring for a whole month. That abstinence has been brought up to the “realm” of people who are abstaining from haircuts and shaving. Not to mention watching the hours out of the house. Typically an old classmate of mine. He abstains from the color of clothes, shoes. In the past, we used to tease “So do you abstain from bathing, abstaining from washing your hair? If you abstain from that, then you will take a bath to make up four times a day?”. It is true superstition is afraid. From contemplating the thousand types of abstinence, I suddenly remembered the story that just happened. In the midst of the time COVID-19 was still a dangling threat, in the ten thousand people, it was a real fear. Unfortunately, there is a man with Corona virus there, he sneezes a few times, I don’t know how the disaster will be? And also the story about 50,000 people flocked to this temple that controversy about superstition arose. Every year as well as every year, that old story is unearthed. Yet in the end, nothing changed. I feel really sad thinking about it. Vietnam is a free country of belief. God everyone worshiped. Even there are many families, Catholic wives, and Buddhist husbands are still okay. Such freedom does prevent us from getting caught up in troublesome attachments that can greatly hinder the development of society. But ironically, what is popular is not faithfully believing in a certain belief. Instead it was a superstitious society with a vain amalgamation of different types of faiths. Gods, Buddha, mandarin, holy … people worship everything. No longer seeing true faith but just a mess of fear. It is no longer “worshiped, holy, abstained, and wholesome” as the elders said. The only remaining “is not worship because of the sacred, but just because of fear”. There are quite a few friends who understand the Buddhist teachings and I see clearly how they appear to be a true Buddhist. They have no fear of pagan evil spirits. They tend to understanding more philosophy and do not confuse gods, ghosts, elves, evil … of other faiths. But the number of such people in society is very rare. Popularly, we still meet individuals who always want to talk spiritually but really do not understand what is the most basic of a belief. They mixed Buddhism into religion, adding the spices of motherhood and a few other beliefs. What do they believe in? Nobody can answer. But I think the only thing they believe is fear. They are afraid of some supernatural intangible force that they themselves do not have a proper belief in to deal with that fear. I wonder, in the old days, in the time of the grandparents’ generation, was it like that? I’m afraid not. At that time, people who worship Buddha probably only believed completely in Buddha’s door. The way of making offerings of that time was probably also very different. And just looking at the architecture of the ancient temples is enough to understand. It is unified, it has the unique identity of the Vietnamese people. What about today? Temples were built many, very majestic, very superficial. But architecture is doped. A little China, a little Burmese, Thailand, Cambodia, a little Tibet, and even a few places like the Shinto gate of Japan. Such a mess was created out of a strange “monster”. After all, if people really believe in something, a certain belief, they will not lose their way between the message, coinciding with other beliefs. There is nothing bad when we choose for ourselves a belief in a time where science can explain these thousands and thousands of things. But it would be weird if we put our faith in a mess – pí – of belief, confusion and lack of dominant spirit. This messy placing of faith is the best proof that a person really does not have a faith of his own. Having a pure and faithful personal faith is your own choice, but in fact it also comes from the home environment. Parents, brothers and sisters believe that a little mess in each place will definitely lead to their children being affected and also easily distracted. That stray is confusion. And the two hours of “superstition” were just too precise to judge the beliefs of the majority today. Those who believe that eating duck, eggs or squid at the beginning of the lunar month will bring bad luck understand that no religion teaches their followers to abstain. And in the South, where there are so many Buddhists, there is no one who believes that such junk food can bring them bad luck. Basically, because when they really believe in Buddha, the power of Buddhist philosophy is enough for them to understand that the other three abstinence is the delusion of those who actually do not believe. Have we ever asked ourselves a question, “Yeah, what do we really believe in?”. Answering it actually opens up huge doors for ourselves. Because when we are determined to believe in a particular belief, we inevitably have to go through a process of defying the beliefs to see how much they truly conquer us. Having not overcome these challenges, it is clear that all that remains is blind.