Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Nhàn cư vi bất thiện – Leisure living is not good. It means if you have a leisure life, you are not busy with working, then it is not good for you.

Why?

When we have so much time in our hand because we are not working on anything, we become couch potato. Our health is on the way downhill – we are overweight, our muscles weaken from lacking physical activities, cholesterol builds up everywhere in our body from the veins to the heart, and we will start having all kinds of diseases due to the deterioration of the body and the immune system. In addition, when we have too much idle time, our mind goes down because it is inactive so much, and the mind may often wander off into negative thinking, unhealthy thoughts, ailing attitude.

That’s why keeping ourself working regularly on some physical and mental activities is a wise way to live. It keeps us active physically and mentally and maintain the strength of both our body and our mind.

When I was 24, I worked as a senior accountant for a city in Wisconsin, a cold state in the northern part of the US, close to Canada. I was trying to convert the city’s old accounting system into a new and advanced system, using the state-of-the-art accounting principles at that time, and also worked with the computer department to computerize the new accounting system. Really heavy-dosed work for a kid at 24. So, I worked with every department of the city, from police, to civil engineering, health, treasury… and became friend of all the department heads of the city. They all were about 20 years, 35 years older than me. One of those older friends was a sweet gentleman named Al Reid. He was the City Clerk, which was the politician of the city, along with the mayor, doing politics for the city. He was sweet, strong and very active.

And he retired. We had a farewell party for him.

About a year later, he came back and stopped by the Finance Department to visit with me. When I saw him, I startled – only one year into retirement, Al now looked 20 years older. He looked pale and sick and slow. His voice was weak and tired. I felt very sad for him. And I told myself then, “I will never retire. After retirement age, I will continue working, never stop.”

Al died a couple of years after that.

And today I am still working very actively every day, both mental labor and physical labor.

Every time someone tells me s/he wants to retire and stop working to be more relaxed, I say, “Don’t stop working ever. Keep your body and mind going. If you don’t use them, you will go downhill very quickly and die early.” I think most people do listen to me and try to maintain an active life after retirement.

So, my friends, an ide life is not good for you. It is dangerous. You want to be active constantly, every day, physically and mentally, for both your body and your mind.

Our body and mind need to be active constantly to stay strong and healthy.

If you don’t use the door for too long, all its hinges will get rusty and ruin the door.

Be active, my friends.

Wish you all stay active always.

With compassion,

Hoành

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Trần Đình Hoành
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