Epilogue-Song of Enlightenment

"A long time ago..." (363)

Life is the longest journey a person will ever take. In the Epilogue of When Heaven and Earth Changed Places, Le Ly tells an anecdote about two young boys.  One boy takes the other's arm. Years later, the boy without the arm attacks his enemy's family.  When the boys meet once more, they are given the opportunity to take one another's lives, but rather they forgive each other and move on "to hear the song of enlightenment."  Le Ly describes in the epilogue of her book her hopes for the future.  She has lived through war and continues to see the fighting within those around her.  Her hope, though, is that someday all will see peace.  She discusses her purpose for writting the book: to pass on her ancestry, to tell the story of the peasants, and to share her experiences in life, many of which most people will never know of. Most importantly she shares her discovery of life's purpose: to grow.

Le Ly's epilogue reminds me of the book, Tuesdays with Morrie, by Mitch Albom.  In this powerful book, Mitch Albom recounts the stories and experiences he shared with a man named Morrie.Every Tuesday, Mitch Albom would visit Morrie, his old college proffessor, and be "taught" about life as Mitch slowly dieded.Mitch Albom captured these lessons in his book inspiring people around the world. People were so moved by Morrie and Mitch Albom's journey that movies, telivision stations, and plays have been performed to continue this emotional story.

                             

No matter where life's journey takes you never forget the lessons you have learned.

The end.

Chapter Fourteen- Letting Go

In the final chapter of When Heaven and Earth Changed Places, Le Ly focuses on letting go of her past and moving on to the future.  As she sees the changes in Ky La, her hometown, she decides not to dwell on the past, but rather to change the future. Though she must once more leave her family, she begins to move on from her childhood.  She begins working not to restore Ky La from the war, but rather to build a new Vietnam through her foundation "East Meets West Foundation." She describes her experience saying:

"By coming back to her place of landing, she completed the first circle of her life. By reencountering her companions on that journey, she recited to them the lessons she had learned, and was judged by the universal law-that more-than-physical bond between beings everywhere and at all times- and was told the purpose of her life." (361)

In this anaphora, Le Ly concludes both her journey and book as she recounts the circle of her life. As one grows into a mature adult and is faced with new responsibilities, one is faced with the challenge of letting go of their childhood, closing another circle, and preparing for the new course ahead.  With only two years left of high school, I too must look to the future.  While the past is full of valuable and unforgettable lessons, one must not dwell on the "good old days," but find the goodness in the life ahead.  As Carrie Underwood teaches in her song "Jesus Take the Wheel," one must "let go" of yesterday and hope for tomorrow.

To listen to "Jesus Take the Wheel" please visit http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=lydBPm2KRaU.

Chapter Thirteen- Finding Peace

The Vietnam War begins to come to a conclusion for Le Ly as she is married to an American soldier and leaves Vietnam to start a new life in America.  As she leaves behind her past, she states:

"...I feel an immense mountain of peace rising inside me. But to rise above the surface of my life, that mountain of peace must break ground." (318)

Throughout the story, Le Ly uses flashbacks to recount her past as she journeys back to Vietnam to start her future.  From the wisdom of age and experience, Le Ly discovers the power of forgiveness and peace in a time of war. As she forgives her past boyfriends who both physically and emotionally abused her, she is able to find peace with her new husband, Ed. Taking the lessons each relationship taught her, she is able to move on to an unknown future. Yet, she finds that her peace must be broken as she must face the pain of parting with her family so she can find peace in a new family. Similarly, on her return trip to Vietnam, Le Ly is preparing to part once more with her family as her time with them is running out.  Once more, she is faced with the pain of parting in order to start a new life. 

Finding peace is a daily struggle.  Finding peace takes chances and risks as Le Ly risked everything she knew for a new life.  Lee Ann Womack's song "I Hope You Dance" describes perfectly the journey to peace and the challenges one must overcome. Written from a mothers perspective, I feel that this song describes Le Ly's hopes for her sons.  She left her past behind so that her family might live. For her sons, she hoped they could have the opportunities or "dance" that she did not have.  Similarly, Lee Ann Womack's song states:

"I hope you never fear those mountains in the distance
Never settle for the path of least resistance
Living might mean taking chances but they're worth taking
Lovin' might be a mistake but it's worth making"

As Le Ly feels a mountain of peace, she realizes she can no longer settle for the easy path.  She takes chances so that she might find peace.

To listen to the song, "I Hope You Dance", please visit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RV-Z1YwaOiw&feature=player_detailpage

Chapter Twelve- Finding a Family

Le Ly stresses several motifs during her beautifuly account.  One of her most prominent and powerful themes, however, is the importance and value of family and respect for elders.  Throughout the story, Le Ly is searching for a family.She searches diligintly for her brothers and sisters to return, for a husband for her son, and for acceptance and approval from her parents.  Acceptance is another powerful theme that appeared continuously throughout  the story, When Heaven and Earth Changed Places, as she discovered that a family could be formed anywhere where kindness and love where shown as she states below.

"Now, after nothing more than a good meal and a little kindness, we were almost talking like family." (294)

This quote reflects the "river" and challenges Le Ly has over come in her life.  As she litteraly crosses the Cau Do River, she also crosses the threshold of letting go of the past and moving on to the future.  She takes an unlikely group of travelers and finds a "family" while she also rediscovers her true family from dating and becoming a mother. 

People and children around the world continue to search for a family.  Worldwide, there are over 130 million orphans searching for homes(http://www.ag.gov.au/www/agd/agd.nsf/Page/IntercountryAdoption_Statistics), but from 1999 to 2010 the total adoptions by the United States was only 224,615 adoptions (http://adoption.state.gov/about_us/statistics.php).  Thus, there are still thousands of children trying to find a family.

Chapter Eleven- Almost in Paradise

Throughout When Heaven and Earth Changed Places, Le Ly uses rhetorical questions to challenge the reader to think deeper.  In chapter eleven, Le Ly is challenged to think deeper into politics and her own life as she examines the world around her.  She is challenged to discover what "paradise" is really like and recalls a time when she was almost in "paradise" when she began working at the hospital in Danang. This new job was a paradise for her as she had never been in an atmosphere of such friendly people before.  On her return trip, she rediscover paradise through the eyes of a young girl.  The young girl, upon seeing Le Ly and her American fashion, is amazed at Le Ly's beauty and dreams that someday she could go to America to be in paradise. The young girl is a worker in a factory in Vietnam under the management of a staff of all men except one woman, Tam, who challenges Le Ly saying:


"The world is always out of balance, eh?" (287)


Although this question is rhetorical, the reader is challenged to look deeper into the words of the female manager.  The world is unbalanced for Tam as she is the only woman manager at the factory.  In addition, the world is unbalanced due to the wealth of some and the poverty of others.  Physically even, the world tilts causing the rotation of the Earth to be unbalanced.  Thus, how can one define balance when everywhere their is unfairness? Le Ly believes she has almost found true love in her boyfriend Red, paradise in her job with good people and pay, family as she is almost home, and peace as the war is almost over. Yet still, from love to peace, nothing turns out as planned as unbalance causes Le Ly's scale to tip too far. 


Today, unbalance continues to tip the world's scale as people are faced with disadvantages physically or are unbalanced statistically in wealth.  The richest twenty percent  of the world's population accounts for three-quarters of the worlds income, leaving the other eighty percent of the population only twenty-five percent of the worlds income.  The unbalance of wealth in society is one of the most dividing factors in the world today. Without balance, one is only almost in paradise.

http://www.globalissues.org/article/26/poverty-facts-and-stats

Chapter Ten- Power on Earth

The world is full of choices and as one matures, they are confronted with more decisions, changing the course of their future.  For Le Ly, her maturity came quickly as she was forced to find a way to live to support her family.   Similarly, the officials of the war were faced with decisions that would change the world, particularly Vietnam.  As Chapter Ten unfolds, Le Ly realizes that their is no future for herself in America and begins to try to find a  way out. As she states below foreshadowing her future, she finds that:

"This since of necessity led to one rash act, that looking back, was to change my life tremendously." (256)

That rash act sent Le Ly on the course to freedom in America.  On her return trip, as she speaks with a few of the officials, they discuss the importance of risk.  Le Ly took a risk by making a rash act, but that risk was necessary for her to reach America.  Without risks, Le Ly would have been struggling to get by just as her siblings and mother were.  Similarly, the officials took risks in the war, risks they thought would save their nation, and continually are faced with the decision of risk taking as they try to rebuild their nation.  Le Ly realizes the fragility of peace and how quickly power can shift.

As Le Ly took risks, people around the world continue to take similar risks that sometimes result in their freedom from poverty.  In Argentina, a young girl born illegitimatelyand destined for a life of hardship and poverty, took the risk of going traveling to Buenos Aires by herself when she was only a teenager to begin a life of her own.  That life led to her becoming one of the most influential women in history.  While she was in Buenos Aires, she met Juan Peron whom she married.  With her help, he became the president of Argentina, making her the first lady.  Shortly before Mr. Peron's second election, she died leaving a nation behind distraught for she had internationally helped Argentinians. Her name was Evita Peron.

Evita founded the Evita Peron Foundation
which provided jobs, education, food, and housing
for Argentine people and people around the world.

Today, books, movies, and Broadway plays
have been made in honor of Evita

Chapter Nine- Daughters and Sons

In chapter nine, Le Ly recounts her experiences as a mother and her bond with her own mother and father.  She reminds the reader and illustrates the love of parents.  During the war, parents were faced by constant fear that their children might never come home. As Le Ly's mother, Tran Thi Huyen, describes the world of a parent during and after the war, she states in the epigraph:

"Troi dat doi thay- heaven and earth changed places!"

This powerful phrase that serves as the title of Ly Ly's book describes the turmoil that the war had turned the world into.  The phrase depicts how a society, though not perfect, once survived peacefully was turned completely upside down due to the fighting that destroyed this peace.  It describes how the parents, family members, and friends of those who died felt when they learned and tried to move on after the death of  a loved one.  With such despair, their was little for the people to look forward to as they felt that tomorrow could at the most, only be the same as today. They could no longer look forward to the return of their loved from war or the victory that would end the fighting as both had been taken away. 

Today, heaven and earth continue to change places for people around the world.  Everyday time a child dies unnaturally before the time of a parent as is customary, heaven and earth changes places for that family and their friends.  At times, those living in poverty begin to loose hope that tomorrow can be better than today.  For them, heaven and earth changed places.