gift for vietnamese women image
Firestorm
Answer
How will I be remembering our brave men and women in uniform this Memorial Day? Well, I've done that for the past four days with special zeal and usually do it 365 since forever. I have a grand-daughter that my wife and I raised since she was 16 mo.old who is in the USMC with a rotary wing aviation unit. She turned down two modeling schools and two prestigious colleges so she could be a Marine. One grandson in the USAR who served in Afghanistan and Iraq, One grandson who graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy, completed BUDS, and is with a S.E.A.L. team God only knows where. Another grandson, who is serving with the USMC in Iraq and another enlisting after graduation from high school with the Army. So see, I honor not only them but all of our young men and women who wear any U.S. military uniform 24-7, 365- forever. Me personally? I remember faces and names of people who are no longer with us, and some who are, every day and night but especially so on this day. I remember places with no names, fire-fights, and battles, ( that meant nothing to history but sure as hell helped write it!)holding wounded and dying comrades in my arms, still hearing the song of the bullet, grenade and RPG explosions, artillery, Alfa- Sierra, and ARA requests, clicking the handset once for o.k., twice for " I can't talk now. Enemy close." ambushes, theirs and ours, downed bird missions, carrying the dead out in OD body bags anf knowing who they WERE, the cries for help and "Medic"!, the sounds of chopper blades that still brings back memories when I hear them today and look skywards, the medals that I earned with words on those certificates for "extreme valor", "gallantry in combat", "extreme heroism, or just plain heroism, while engaged with hostile forces", " for wounds received while engaged..", looking into the mirror on the wall and wondering where did that young man disappear to when I see my picture on the wall behind me in the reflection also, ( God! How I aged from 19 years old to an old man in three years.),remembering those days and what I did to earn those citations and wondering now, "Did I really do that"?, or " Could I ever do that yet... again"? Touching the scars on my legs, arms, forehead, nose, shoulders, from shrapnel and one ugly scar on my chest from a young North Vietnamese who shot me as I shot and killed him, the irregular round scar on my right thigh... another gift from the North Vietnamese, (semi-personal for me), wondering if perhaps some of them who made it through that war alive would remember me and me remember them. I wish them peace and happiness for they did no more or less than I. The latest nightmare about that war that I fought in for three years, 40+1 years ago today, and thinking it just seemed like only yesterday. My men. I got them all home alive but one and he and I walk together every day. I wished you would have listened to me that day Dave. Finally. my father, my uncles, cousins and friends who have crossed over and are no longer haunted by their wars and bad memories. Yes, I honor them all. There are 30 small American flags for my classmates and friends who died in Viet-Nam mounted on fence posts along my driveway, five medium sized American flags planted around the front yard flag-pole for my father, uncles, and cousins, one flag for two each, who served in WW2 and Korea, and on the flagpole a large American flag for all of those survivors of my war and for the young men and women of today's war, along with the POW/MIA flag underneath it and a blue star flag with four blue stars on it. But most of all, I remember. I never seem to be able to quit..... and doubt if I ever can, Yes, I remember.
How will I be remembering our brave men and women in uniform this Memorial Day? Well, I've done that for the past four days with special zeal and usually do it 365 since forever. I have a grand-daughter that my wife and I raised since she was 16 mo.old who is in the USMC with a rotary wing aviation unit. She turned down two modeling schools and two prestigious colleges so she could be a Marine. One grandson in the USAR who served in Afghanistan and Iraq, One grandson who graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy, completed BUDS, and is with a S.E.A.L. team God only knows where. Another grandson, who is serving with the USMC in Iraq and another enlisting after graduation from high school with the Army. So see, I honor not only them but all of our young men and women who wear any U.S. military uniform 24-7, 365- forever. Me personally? I remember faces and names of people who are no longer with us, and some who are, every day and night but especially so on this day. I remember places with no names, fire-fights, and battles, ( that meant nothing to history but sure as hell helped write it!)holding wounded and dying comrades in my arms, still hearing the song of the bullet, grenade and RPG explosions, artillery, Alfa- Sierra, and ARA requests, clicking the handset once for o.k., twice for " I can't talk now. Enemy close." ambushes, theirs and ours, downed bird missions, carrying the dead out in OD body bags anf knowing who they WERE, the cries for help and "Medic"!, the sounds of chopper blades that still brings back memories when I hear them today and look skywards, the medals that I earned with words on those certificates for "extreme valor", "gallantry in combat", "extreme heroism, or just plain heroism, while engaged with hostile forces", " for wounds received while engaged..", looking into the mirror on the wall and wondering where did that young man disappear to when I see my picture on the wall behind me in the reflection also, ( God! How I aged from 19 years old to an old man in three years.),remembering those days and what I did to earn those citations and wondering now, "Did I really do that"?, or " Could I ever do that yet... again"? Touching the scars on my legs, arms, forehead, nose, shoulders, from shrapnel and one ugly scar on my chest from a young North Vietnamese who shot me as I shot and killed him, the irregular round scar on my right thigh... another gift from the North Vietnamese, (semi-personal for me), wondering if perhaps some of them who made it through that war alive would remember me and me remember them. I wish them peace and happiness for they did no more or less than I. The latest nightmare about that war that I fought in for three years, 40+1 years ago today, and thinking it just seemed like only yesterday. My men. I got them all home alive but one and he and I walk together every day. I wished you would have listened to me that day Dave. Finally. my father, my uncles, cousins and friends who have crossed over and are no longer haunted by their wars and bad memories. Yes, I honor them all. There are 30 small American flags for my classmates and friends who died in Viet-Nam mounted on fence posts along my driveway, five medium sized American flags planted around the front yard flag-pole for my father, uncles, and cousins, one flag for two each, who served in WW2 and Korea, and on the flagpole a large American flag for all of those survivors of my war and for the young men and women of today's war, along with the POW/MIA flag underneath it and a blue star flag with four blue stars on it. But most of all, I remember. I never seem to be able to quit..... and doubt if I ever can, Yes, I remember.
What are meanings of a smile?
ngoc
In my country, Vietnam, people say a smile means happiness, disgust, sadness,anger,confusion,disbelief,apology,shyness, cunning,mock,sympathy,disappointment. They also point out that people smile when they feel uncomfortable, especially in front of a person they don't like, when they have to answer an embarrassing question...
What about the people in the US? Or in Japan?
Do have the same smile as the Vietnamese?
Answer
I suppose the people in the US smile when they are feeling some of those things.
But it is certainly not how we generally interpret or think of a smile, nor the main reason we would let smiles light up our faces.
We consider a "genuine" or "sincere" smile to be a sign of happiness or pleasure.
It might be possible to see
> a "tremulous smile" -- where the impulse to weep is also present
> a self-conscious smirk due to embarrassment
> a kind of "smile" that indicates comical disbelief, a laughing "Whaaa...???"
> a lips-drawn back kind of facial expression of anger (maybe more "showing the teeth" than "smiling")
> a mocking and insincere smile
People may use a smile to "cover up" the presence of some feeling that they don't want to share. But this is recognized as a deliberate falsification of an emotional display.
For example, if your favorite sister gives you a birthday gift that disappoints you, you may force a smile and pretend to be happy -- so as not to hurt her feelings. The goal is to mislead her with your smile into thinking you are happy. The smile does not "indicate" disappointment -- it "hides" it.
But if there were no reason to hide that you are disappointed, you would look "disappointed" (sad with a little pouting), but you would not smile.
I don't think most Americans would smile if they felt disgust, sympathy, or disappointment, and a smile is not the usual facial expression of sadness, anger, confusion, disbelief, cunning, etc.
I think that smiling when feeling negative emotions is a common practice in cultures where the display of negative emotions (maybe especially by women or children) is disapproved of.
Americans generally do not feel the slightest need to suppress or hide their negative emotions -- except in special and rare circumstances. There are differences from one individual to another about the acceptability of showing a negative emotion, but it is not a cultural prescription that everyone (-- or women -- or children -- or employees --) should not exhibit negative or challenging emotions.
I suppose the people in the US smile when they are feeling some of those things.
But it is certainly not how we generally interpret or think of a smile, nor the main reason we would let smiles light up our faces.
We consider a "genuine" or "sincere" smile to be a sign of happiness or pleasure.
It might be possible to see
> a "tremulous smile" -- where the impulse to weep is also present
> a self-conscious smirk due to embarrassment
> a kind of "smile" that indicates comical disbelief, a laughing "Whaaa...???"
> a lips-drawn back kind of facial expression of anger (maybe more "showing the teeth" than "smiling")
> a mocking and insincere smile
People may use a smile to "cover up" the presence of some feeling that they don't want to share. But this is recognized as a deliberate falsification of an emotional display.
For example, if your favorite sister gives you a birthday gift that disappoints you, you may force a smile and pretend to be happy -- so as not to hurt her feelings. The goal is to mislead her with your smile into thinking you are happy. The smile does not "indicate" disappointment -- it "hides" it.
But if there were no reason to hide that you are disappointed, you would look "disappointed" (sad with a little pouting), but you would not smile.
I don't think most Americans would smile if they felt disgust, sympathy, or disappointment, and a smile is not the usual facial expression of sadness, anger, confusion, disbelief, cunning, etc.
I think that smiling when feeling negative emotions is a common practice in cultures where the display of negative emotions (maybe especially by women or children) is disapproved of.
Americans generally do not feel the slightest need to suppress or hide their negative emotions -- except in special and rare circumstances. There are differences from one individual to another about the acceptability of showing a negative emotion, but it is not a cultural prescription that everyone (-- or women -- or children -- or employees --) should not exhibit negative or challenging emotions.
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