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Biết ra sao ngày sau?
Trịnh
Nhật tháp tùng một người bạn đi Melbourne, ở Miệt Dưới, có lẽ v́ tâm cảnh “anh
khách lạ đi lên đi xuống”, trong thế giới thật (Crown Casino) cũng như trong thế
giới ảo (Cyberspace), nên Trịnh Nhật đă không từ nan ghé thăm Chuyển Luân
và đây là hồi âm…
Nhân mới đọc Chuyển Luân số mới, có bài Huỳnh Bất Hoặc
viết về chuyện Bùa Ngải, tôi xin gửi anh bài tôi đă viết về Mê Tín Dị Đoan cách
đây mấy năm trước để anh tuỳ nghi.
Đọc bài của anh người ta sẽ không khỏi cảm thấy hơi ấm của
một nhà mô phạm lạc quan. Anh lạc quan trong chuyện thua được, thắng bại, và
luôn luôn nh́n thấy ánh sáng cuối đường hầm cho cuộc sống. Cũng v́ viễn tượng
lạc quan không chịu “sắp hàng” (to toe the line), không chịu ăn nói cho “phải
đạo” đó, mà Trịnh Nhật từng bị một “người bạn trẻ” trách nhẹ: “có một người như
anh th́ chẳng ai cần kẻ thù nữa.” Khuyết điểm của Trịnh Nhật, nếu có, là anh đă
không ngần ngại nói thật với chính ḷng ḿnh (kể cả chuyện vui chơi ‘đổ bác’),
cái thành thật của một nhà giáo, chứ không phải của chính khách. Triết lí chỉ
đạo mới đây của anh là “gạt hết ưu phiền để sống vui.”
Chuyển Luân ao ước chuyển bài này ra Việt Ngữ để
chia xẻ với một số đông người đọc hơn, nhưng lại ngại vô t́nh khi dịch có thể
làm mất ‘ư tại ngôn ngoại’ trong bài viết của tác giả. Nên thôi, đành để vậy…
Superstition: Good or
bad?
Frank Nhat Trinh
In Asian societies, people have a habit of being superstitious, and this has
been part of their everyday life. Vietnamese people are no exception. On such
occasions as marriages, funerals and moving house, people will try to choose a
propitious date. On the Vietnamese New Year, people believe that the first
person who visits their home during 'Tet' has a bearing on their welfare for the
whole year, and those who sweep the floor on the first three days of this
festive occasion might sweep away their wealth.
As for other things such as setting out for an examination, embarking on a
business venture or planning an escape from Communist Vietnam, people will try
to avoid "crossing the path of a woman", in much the same way as Western people
would try to avoid "crossing the path of a black cat" when undertaking something
important.
When we were young, my
father placed a lot of importance on his children's education. He looked after
us, especially when we had the pressure of an impending examination. I remember
when I was on my way to sitting for any important examination, my father would
keep a watch out in the street for any women who might happen to cross my path,
for fear that bad luck may dog me.
During an Australian
Federal election, when the Liberal Prime Minister, John Howard, walked out from
an important meeting with Kim Beasley, the would-be Labor Prime Minister, a
black cat streaked across his path in the corridors of Parliament House.
Needless to say, the media had a field day in looking to this happening as
having an ominous portent for the incumbent Mr. Howard. However, as luck would
have it, it was not to be.
In the game of chance,
gamblers, because of their superstitious mentality, try to take into account
more than the above-mentioned precautions. Gamblers fear that when they are
fully engrossed in playing their game, someone will happen to come along and ask
them for a loan. It really "cheeses them off" to have to lend someone money, or
if, all of a sudden, someone pats them on the shoulder. Picking up or looking at
your cards with your left hand is also considered bad luck. Gamblers also don't
like anyone looking over their shoulder while they play. They even go so far as
to avoid the use of the word "lose", as in, "I will stop when I've lost this
money."
Gamblers are afraid of
the colour black, because it is synonymous with bad luck. During the
construction of the Star City Casino in Sydney in 1997-98, the Australian
yellow-skinned "big-time punters", of what was then the Sydney Harbour Casino,
had to use the black-painted Casino shuttle bus to get to the "combat zone". It
was expensive and very hard to get a parking space at the Casino's car park, so
parking at nearby hotels was the better option, then get a bus to the Casino.
Vietnamese people, within their own community, laughingly referred to the bus as
"a hearse". There were those who purposely avoided catching "the hearse",
because they felt better walking a kilometre rather than attracting bad luck.
It is rumoured that the
Asian gambling community protested to the Casino management, and consequently
the shuttle bus was repainted in two colours: bright yellow and dark blue. Well,
since then, has the fate of Asians fared better? Has the Casino developed a
"black hole" in their finances? No one knows. There are no figures available to
prove or disprove whether the colours made a difference to people's luck.
Confidentially, the only information available is that, those gamblers who chose
to walk to avoid bad luck now have to be content to stay at home.
"Yellow-skinned" Australians believe that if you are unlucky in gambling, you
will be lucky in love, the same as "white" Australians believe, when they say
"Lucky at cards, unlucky in love." In this sense, East and West share a common
concept. Because of this belief, people convince themselves that if they are
unlucky in love they will probably be lucky at gambling. It's not known if, with
beliefs such as this, when the gambler is spurned by their partner, they will
enthusiastically enter into gambling, with the hope that Lady Luck will come
knocking at their door. On the other hand, if the gambler is confronted one day
with the situation of constantly losing, will he determinedly seek out a woman
who is beyond his reach in the hope that she will welcome him with open arms?
Has anyone's curiosity been aroused enough to record their winnings and losses
under these circumstances, and to prove in black and white that both East and
West are correct?
I don't know what you
think, but throughout the whole process of assessing what constitutes good or
bad luck, I found myself to be nothing but ordinary, having no psychic or
mysterious powers that might help me to foresee whether I would win or lose on
any particular day, when I went into "battle". Many times, I've been right, and
many times I've been wrong. I would like to mention the following anecdote for
your consideration.
Over three years ago,
when Sydney Star City Casino was still being built, I decided to drive to the
then Sydney Harbour Casino. It was over half an hour's drive. That's if you had
a good run; longer if the traffic was heavy. It was a miserable, windy, rainy
and boring afternoon. I drove into the Harbourside car park. While driving
around looking for a car space, I hit the driver's side of another car whose
owner was coming from my left. Bad luck had struck! Both of us exchanged
details, and I admitted to being at fault. Not having done "battle" yet, I was
down $350 in excess to the insurance company. Leaving the car park I caught "the
hearse" to the "battle field". Sitting in the bus, it suddenly struck me as to
whether I had made the right decision or not in coming to this place and meeting
up with such bad luck to start. It was clearly a bad omen! Why shouldn't I just
go home? Like many other people had done before me, I should have turned on my
heels and returned home, in order to avoid the bad omens. But the fact is that
personally, I do not believe in such nonsense, so I decided to leave it to fate.
At that time, I told myself, if my decision to come here was right, then I would
have a win of at least $1000 to make it worthwhile.
The result was that on
that dismal, rainy and dark evening, I was lucky enough to win $1600, much to my
relief. If I had tried to avoid the bad omens that day, then I would not have
gained the good things, would I?
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