The Beauty of Time – The journey has not brought happiness

Meeting a painter who is proud of herself with a title she confers on herself “The most kisses given to Vietnamese Heroic Mothers” and discovering her passionate journey of saving historical treasures for next generations.

5:30 am one day in December, I took the earliest bus setting foot in Binh Duong province. Fortunately, becoming a special guest joining an incredible journey of the painter Dang Ai Viet, I got a bit nervous but excited on my way. This 70-year-old woman has devoted over 8 years to traversing 63 provinces of Vietnam to portrait Vietnamese Heroic Mothers.

The sun-drenched weather of the South-eastern region took the painter and me to a Mother’s house located in Tan An Commune, Binh Duong province.

She eventually makes her desire come true

In the Vietnam war, Mrs. Viet was called a monumental nickname “warrior” because of her true senses of consistency, frankness, but the humor in her personality. With the fear of death in the devastating war, female soldiers serving in her front-line combat unit made a promise that “we will definitely tour our whole S-shaped country to soak up the freedom of every inch of land we are fighting for and to visit homelands of our comrades passing away on the battlefield”. This turns out her dream, desire and motivation urging her to embark on “The Beauty of Time” journey.

Accompanying her that day, I got to know how she gets along well with aging Mothers, takes note their information and meticulously sketches the Mother’s soul on the paper.

She was kind, hilarious, and close to Mothers like a family member, a loved daughter who has never met before. Looking deeply into Mother’s eyes, she cooed: “Looking at her inside and out, there is the sky of memories hidden in such a small figure; her eyes are filled with joy, pain, loss, loneliness, nostalgia… can’t tell it all. Their face wrinkles seem to be the creation of nature, be profound age-related changes that not everyone has. Those are a wrinkle in time; inmost feelings of a wife who lost her husband and a mother who lost her sons; the joy and hope throughout Mother’s lifetime.”

Mrs. Viet kisses Mother on the cheek each time she finishes drawing their sketch. That she set an Asian record for the most portraits of Vietnamese Heroic Mothers appears to make her less proud of than a title she confers on herself “the most kisses given to Vietnamese Heroic Mothers”, she joked. Those fleeting but precious moments suddenly melt my heart.

“Phoenix Wing” honda cub is her traveling companion, every region is home

At the age of 70, she has still crossed over every corner of the country to find Mothers. She is in a race against time to paint their portrait with a ray of hope that they have been waiting for her “Mom, give me some time, I am keeping going”. Her aging comrades are prone to health concerns preventing them from fulfilling their old promise. Therefore, Mrs. Viet always keeps her mind that on behalf of them, she would send Mother’s love and sympathy on her alone journey. 

Her honda super cub 81 called “Phoenix Wing” and the map-marked places she has set foot in are her companions. Looking back on the beginning of the project, she had to set a detailed schedule relating to the right place at the right time, to learn about the principles of cub’s engine and how to fix it in case of emergency on the road. On top of that, she cautiously made physical and spiritual preparation for her well-being before leaving. For others, every little thing she does is magical, but for her, she is pursuing her freedom. To be free, you must force yourself to take action – To be free, you must contend with your laziness and fear. “Nothing prevents us from pursuing what we want, only we limit ourselves to fulfill our dreams”.

Although she goes hopping in every region, she still has a feeling of family affection in a very special way. When it comes to lunchtime, she sometimes stays and has lunch with Mother’s family, and those shared meals drive her to absorb the value of gratitude among people. She always enjoys home-cooked and warm bowls of rice with a full of respect in her comrades’ hometowns.

Having set out on this project for over 8 years, she has not achieved happiness

I often wonder what does happiness means and also ask others for the answer. However, most of them have still been on the go to figure out the definition of happiness in their dictionary.

Meanwhile, Mrs. Viet has a different perspective on being happy. She is satisfied to devote her considerable effort to developing the art and cultivating the next generation of artists. She is so proud of her beloved husband and children who always support her in carrying out the project.

However, she has still not been happy on the journey of portraying the beauty of time – MOTHERs. With over 1800 Mother’s portraits which have been done, she has moved back and forth to contact competent authorities in order to make sure that she would not miss any Heroic Mothers over 1800 times. She takes the leap into this race against time full of energy and enthusiasm. It is undeniable that time goes by so fast, while we have no choice but to face reality; and she continuously attempts to come to Mothers as fast as she can, while their limited time remaining is shortening every single day.

After all, Mrs. Viet simply divides her life goals into different types of satisfaction in order to comprehend fully every moment she obviously takes and then makes her life more worth living. Turns out, we do not need to go through our whole lifetime to realize how happy we are. Happiness is defined by the realization of being not happy, urging us to look back at what we have done, determine what we want to do, and keep going no matter what might happen. “The Beauty of Time” journey is not just about the number of portraits she paints. Not until she has finished drawing Mothers will she experience the sense of contentment.

She becomes her own Mr.Right on the journey

People are curious about how a woman aged 70 can incredibly go for an ambitious project, while I wonder whether men can do that?. For her, male and female humans differ from one another in the sex organs and several biological factors. How strong women are is not as important as how driving their ambitions are to make differences happen.

During the long journey, the painter is her own Mr.Right who has taken care of her and shared full of emotions on her way. Her journey has no purpose but to record portraits preserving Mother’s soul for next generations when Heroic Mothers lay down their lives in coming years. Her desire is so passionate that it can fuel the flame of determination driving her to find Mothers without any sense of fear and hesitation.

Being women of the 21st century, we are determined to achieve self-control no matter who we are and what we do to build up our life. This means we are free to be happy. We might suppose that men will bring us joy until we realize that there is another true man inside ourselves when we take a big leap of faith in our true selves.

The Vietnamese version here
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Translator

Huynh Kami