From Stone Age to Space Age

My father was born in the Stone Age. The exact date was unknown, but it was sometime during the 1920s. He grew up in a small, forested village in Vietnam where there was no electricity, gasoline or running water.

The world soon came to him. The colonialist French were there first. Then imperialist Japanese came. After World War II, the French returned, and soon the Americans, Russians and Chinese showed up. These foreigners brought with them cars, radios, TVs, guns, tanks and bombs. But most important, they brought news of the outside world. My father remembers hearing about Hiroshima, the Holocaust, the Apollo missions and even the “Thrilla in Manila.”

Like many people of his generation, my father witnessed destruction by war. He suffered enslavement by communism. He experienced ignorance, poverty and hunger. Yet he lived through it all. He was able to bring his children to America, where he now enjoys life with all of the modern technological conveniences.

I have often thought what an extraordinary journey my father lived. He has gone from Stone Age to Space Age in one lifetime. And yet, I realized that is very common. There are thousands of people living in America now who were born in countries like Vietnam. There are millions being born today who will begin life without good food, clean water or decent clothing. Who knows where some of them will end up, maybe in America, maybe even in space. But right now they are not dreaming of colonizing Mars or picking the next hot IPO or making love to Cindy Crawford. Their goals are more immediate: to survive and raise their children. It is a noble goal, for it has been mankind’s only common goal for thousands of years.

The common man and woman did not make Time magazine’s 100 most important people list. They did not make anyone’s list, but they did something very important in our history. They endured.