I hang out with both rich and poor people. But the poor are easily drawn to me by the warm, metaphysical attraction of their belief in simplicity.
In the beginning, there were no cities or towns because everything was connected to herbs, plants, agriculture, sun, rain, wind and dust. Therefore, to keep our minds calm, we can hear in each other's breath the sun, rain, and countryside flavor while living right in the middle of the city.
We see in each other's lifestyles that there is still a uniqueness of clumsiness and rusticity. Science has confirmed that three generations are not enough to be considered "citizens". Right in this country, for thousands of years, the founders of famous dynasties and their leaders were all farmers, if not, they were fishermen.
Looking at the street as just a place to earn a living and live, you will see yourself as normal, like many people earning a living and living in other ecosystems, other spaces. Only then, people on the grasslands, people on the ocean, people in the mountains, people in the plains, people in the city... will be the same.
Just returning to the essence, being under the same sky; just returning to simple reality to see the loneliness of one's own fate as a living being in a species that one's parents "molded" for.
The countryside has never had the need to compete or “fight” with the city. It is only your mind that makes you think: Being urban is “cool”. Don’t be delusional in your survival, mixing the space for making a living with the notion of pride in that space. It is neither necessary nor right.
Whether you are a citizen of Paris, London, Rome, Jerusalem, or Bombay, the “pile” of concrete called “city” means nothing if it is not for the agricultural products brought up by the countryside. The countryside is the lifeblood, the lifeblood of modern human society. It is the place that creates concrete life for people. The city is only a place of consumption, or a place to provide services so that “life” can spread further.
Whispering to each other, that without cities, all regions still exist, but without "countryside" no city can exist.
And just kidding, not to expose pride, that only city people distinguish "I'm from Saigon...", "I'm from Hanoi city", "That's from Da Nang city"... to prove the status of the place of living, the upper and lower floors, big and small, famous and not famous, more and less impressive...
Farmers everywhere think the same way. Every field is a field, every swidden field is a swidden field, every salt field is a salt field, there is no need to be better or worse, to divide, measure, or praise.
Not to blame, but we understand the city, as we understand the countryside. Big tricks, tricks, or close-up things like weighing something must be meticulous, even giving birth to the game of "weighing less", but in the countryside, people get excited and sell everything by the "bundle", by the basket, by the pile so that the buyer can happily carry it away. In one place, the scale is a means, in another place, the scale is the goal.
Surely the urban people know, only in the countryside there is the phenomenon of uncles and aunts selling things to people counting "tens" as twelve (tens and twelve), not tens as ten. Don't use too much reason or you'll be easily confused and say that they don't know how to count, but it is chivalrous, pure, and extremely heroic without the buyer having to be grateful for the extra, it is civilized and refined to the point of preserving the buyer's self-respect and not even in the name of charity.
Modernity and civilization are in the level of humanity, the thickness of humanity, to be different from other animals, not in objects, means, such as: what car do you drive, what generation of phone do you use, what kind of yacht do you have, what street do you live in, what brand of clothes do you wear, or whether you know how to use IT or AI.
Being a farmer is also very good, city people. Really. We hear about the rain, the sun, the crops, life, the ups and downs, and the pains. Living in the city, city people often do not trust each other. People in the countryside, farmers, do not have that with each other. That is human nature. That is civilization. Have you ever seen farmer girls and boys talking about city girls and boys saying: "It makes me shiver!", when those city girls and boys are so clever and sweet, using their skills to socialize and talk.
To discover a city dweller, you need at most three drinks, but to understand a farmer, you need three rainy and sunny seasons. So mysterious, and so clear, what is in the countryside. Countryside covers everything, the sky, the land, the crops, the food, the grass and trees, the sun and rain, the wind and frost, and even... the "contempt" of the city dwellers.
You easily love the farmer, but you also sympathize with the city dweller. “Do you remember the old house next to the mustard garden/ Where the peaceful mornings had crisp sunlight on the leaves” - Nguyen Dinh Toan, a musician wandering in the South, made those who were not related to his personal love story crazy, “pulling in”, even though he asked for a certain exiled brother in a love song.
When you go out with farmers, remember to bring your sincerity. When you go out with city dwellers, remember to bring your “whip”. Somewhere, there must be times when city dwellers have to sit and remember farmers. Just remember practical things, such as “faith in humanity”, but there is no need to be as passionately and purely devoted to the whole countryside as farmers are.
I remember a contemporary poet who startled me: “At the end of the street is the countryside/ People pass by with a myriad of green colors”. This life, this world, is lovely and precious, because living naturally and purely is still the greatest dream of human beings...
(Article from the Central Highlands Spring Labor publication - 2025)
