Power, Money, Love, Ideals, and Life frames

- You know why you should advocate for U.S. colleges over other countries? Because it's where kids can be asked to dream and have both the freedom and the social pressure to dream and pursue one's dream.

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The Singapore and U.K. education frame students' purpose around making it to the top of the corporate ladder, and hence, valuing money.  The Australian education teaches students specific vocations, valuing stable life.  The Vietnamese education separates professors from students, which makes students have nothing more exciting to do than to bond with each other more and hence, to value love.  And here I am, indoctrinated by the habit to ask why, wonder about life's purpose, like a black sheep in these circles when talking about "dreams." 

I recently find myself at odds with the circle I'm familiar with as well.  These people I know, inspired by their U.S. education and understanding so well their own life reasons, are pursuing their dreams, ambitious, worth-pursuing.  Some others make do with what they need to live first, money and family.  Some take advantage of the time and the skills to become, step by step, more powerful.  When the pieces are arranged together, the attractive picture of various impacts and happy lives shimmers.  On the pessimistic frame, it looks as though some dreams have been left behind for new dreams and the realistic life to take the lead.  On the optimistic frame, maybe it was just a hole in the U.S. college education: one should not strive for individual impacts or for becoming heroes, because in reality, the collective impacts of a generation and how those interact with external forces of the society they live in should worth more than any particular case.

When I get depressed and put on my pessimistic frame, I could be so sarcastic of people, even though they do nothing wrong or bad, and being sarcastic of them means being sarcastic of my own self.  When I put on my optimistic frame, I have to turn off my impatient desires for answers and angst for knowing the future.  When I couldn't care more about anything and stay with my under-twenty personality, it feels like a kid, so optimistic, moving on, playing, smiling.  Sometimes, it feels sad having such a messy soul, as it makes sharing too challenging.

Adjusting our life

Adjustment Bureau is ok although philosophically speaking, it can go much deeper than just quick-and-simple lines about destiny and free will.  And there the can-change can-do American spirit, as humble as it is trying to be when talking about all the man-made wars all based on free will and the perpetual search for self-interest benefits, still remains forever strong with the ending.  Is there a deeper plot when the original novel's author wants to elude about God's intention to test human beings and to let them have a say and be a part of their own lives?  And there is a "protecting angel" who might come in any form as well?  Is there something more thought-provoking to think about the choice of risking everything, the usual comfortable route - "on the way" to be a great dancer, a successful politician, a president - to select the non-beaten track of to pursuing love and letting love complete the rest?  Power - Money - Love - the triad competing interests and options that makes the analytical mind weighs.

A soft and sweet song to the "hopelessly romantic" catered to the Western-raised consumers, the movie makes me think about how in Eastern novels or folklore, those who don't listen to the Gods' words, end up being separated from each other or having to suffer from limitless pain as they live their love and their life (Nguu Lang - Chuc Nu, Truyet thuyet Lieu Trai). 

Off-topic: the Plan Book in this movie is so detailed and precise, so different from the typical general La so tu vi that many Vietnamese usually read and "adjust" their lives accordingly =p