Things I don't remember

In each person's life, there are countless events, countless meetings with different people, in different environments, contexts, and situations. Often, many times does not necessarily mean deep. Passing by, sometimes there are worries, concerns, and torments.

(Illustration photo).

When I worked at my old agency, he was a colleague who occasionally wrote reports, notes, and sometimes even passionate domestic affairs articles. I was the "gatekeeper" so I was fortunate to read his works, review, edit, and approve them for publication. They were absolutely not topics about remote, difficult mountainous areas that few reporters set foot to work in, so they were favored. They were absolutely not articles that could be published or not published. His articles were all invested with a lot of effort and passion, from discovering the topic, exploiting documents to expressing, arguing, and interpreting. Both the words and the writing style were very deep and meaningful with the mountainous areas and with the people who still had many hardships where he lived. Absolutely no comparison, sadness, boredom,... but very humane, optimistic, and bright.

It had been nearly 20 years since we last met. He had retired for more than ten years. Riding a motorbike to where we were staying, only about 5 kilometers away, but “his hands were shaking a bit, because since retirement he had only gotten used to riding a bicycle, just like exercise”. Passing by the locations, the historical sites in the province, he recalled many stories. The time he went on a field trip with me was nearly 20 years ago. The few times he went to Hanoi . Even the times he “skipped” Hanoi because “the bus company did not go that route, so when he went back to his hometown, he always stopped by the capital”. He remembered many stories, recalled many stories about editing articles, published works, works that won awards, and even stories about how I picked up and dropped off people, drank. Of course, there are things I remember, even very clearly, without forgetting any details. But there are things, in fact, I do not remember anything, especially things related to work.

And at work, not only with him, I also had the same "absent-mindedness" with many colleagues, especially with collaborators. Many people also mentioned similar published works. The things I don't remember, in my nearly 30 years of working life, through 3 different press agencies, must be a lot. The things I don't remember, in my career of traveling everywhere, must be immeasurable. But not remembering does not mean being indifferent, insensitive, indifferent, or apathetic. Simply, because it is the job I have to do. It is the duty I have to perform. It is purely work.

Of course, in life, with other jobs, it is the same. For example, when teaching, even though I am just an amateur, I have taught many classes, with many courses over many years. Of course, any class with a particularly impressive student or student will be remembered, but for the rest, there is certainly not enough time, attention, conversation, or exchange to remember for a long time. I only know that when mentioning the name of the class, the name of the school, the course, it will definitely bring up something general, special characters, rare, impressive events. Therefore, there have been many times when we met again, some people who had listened to me lecture, exchange professional knowledge said that they really remembered the lessons, stories I told, even that subject, that lesson was an inspiration, a turning point that changed their way of thinking, their future work...

In each person's life, there are so many events that happen, so many meetings with different people, different elements, in different environments, contexts, and situations. Often, many times does not necessarily mean deep. Passing by, sometimes there are worries, concerns, and torment. Life is the same. Work, people are the same. The things we don't remember, are not necessarily meaningless or wasteful. I just hope that the things we don't remember don't hurt or harm anyone, even though that is not easy...

Nguyen Tri Thuc

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