thirstythong

“But the most significant derivation from the meaning of as ‘water’ is the concept of people who have gathered near a body of water to grow rice for one another, and founding a stable community, sharing rain and drought, plenty and famine, peace and war: from ‘water,’ its basic meaning, has come to designate ‘the homeland, the country, the nation.’ It is in this ultimate exception that the monosyllable nuoc reverberates throught the deepest and farthest recesses of the Vietnamese collective unconscious and stirs there the most potent feelings. The nation’s fateful course, marked by ups and downs, is figuratively rendered as a ‘tide of water’ (van nuoc) with its ebb and flow. The highest virtue demanded of a Vietnamese is that he or she ‘love the nuoc‘ (yeu nuoc).” –Huynh Sanh Thong (no relation)

My Letter to Ishle Yi Park

Ishle

I believe in god, now, I reason that’s why I’ve been listening to Cody Chesnutt and why I am writing you now.

Work is Love.

I’ve had utmost respect for your work, when it first came out. I was particularly drawn to the piece “Work Is Love” - actually, I am unsure if this is the title of it. Essentially, it was about that phrase “Work Is Love” - what sticks with me the most are the stanzas/passages about Philippe Petit, in his walk between the towers.

Allow me to double-back, although I had utmost respect for your work, I didn’t fully understand the breadth of it at the time, I was distracted, my eyes and ears wandered. This is the reason I am asking if I can get a digital copy of that book specifically, so I can read it now, to serve where I am at and where I need to go.

I could have easily checked on Google if your personal artist website is still up, to purchase the book from there, but I didn’t want to go through the backdoor of buying it without you knowing I bought it. I want to say, thank you for creating that work as it serves my formation of my definition of God.

Real talk.

I actually have your Work Is Love CD, but hear me out on why I like the printed word versus the audio version of a book.

With audiobooks, there is a certain level of disengagement, passive consumption, purely entertainment in that you are not involved with it. There’s no call and response like a Jazz concert.

I like to read others words in my own voice. To engage with the words, as the words come into me like improv notes from a trumpet, I speak them in my mind, most importantly, I sing them back out with my heart, like gospel, with what it is I am good at, as those are things I love to do, for my friends, for my family, to make their lives as smooth as possible, in any way I can, on any given day.

Being in Ho Chi Minh City, it may be difficult to obtain a physical copy of it, so if you have a digital version of it, say in an e-mail, or a PDF, or an e-book, if you can, send it to me, I would sincerely appreciate it and of course, will Paypal you for it.

Thank you Ishle. Much love to your fiance and your child. Hope all is healthy and balanced.

Work is Love.

Sincerely,

Jimmy Thong Tran