Ma Wint (Myit Nge) - 5 short stories

Also called a pot of gold.

I have a son. I had to give birth to my only child at a very old age, and I love him very much.

I remember raising my son with love and affection, and reminding him to compare his love for all living beings to the love of a mother for her only son, as described in the Buddha's Sutta.

I am satisfied that my love is a mother's spirit that even the Buddha can praise. If I love my son so much, I don't even know how to answer what expectations I have for him.

If I ask my son if he wants to be a doctor, a military officer, a company owner, a computer scientist, etc., he'll shake his head. Or a writer, a singer, a musician, a movie star, no. I don't have any expectations like that at all.

So if you ask your son if he wants to be what he wants to be, without setting any expectations for what he should be, you can't say yes.

My hope for my son is that he will become a good person who loves the truth. He is intelligent and well-read, and his parents have enough money to support his education.

Even if he becomes a "professor," he will be a brave professor with courage and intelligence. If he becomes an ordinary worker because his life is not good, he will be satisfied only if he becomes a good worker who dares to face life.

A person is a real person only when they do what they think is right, with courage and conviction. Your father and mother don't have those qualities. Doesn't that require strength from the start?

I want my son to be a "real man". So I needed to have both physical and intellectual strength, and since my son was born, I breastfed him with that idea. He was a rice cooker. With that idea, I enrolled him in school. He gave him an education. Didn't I tell you? His mother didn't have much strength. Even though she was strong in her mind, she could cook food, but her hands were weak. Because she was going to leave school.

Meanwhile, my son was watching TV and thought, "Mom, I want to eat Korean food, so why are you so hungry?" Then I remembered the Korean cooking competition drama, "Ho Daung and the others."

My son said, "Mom, I want to go to ILBC because he's a first grader. He's got a good accent. He knows what he's talking about."

But you know what? How can I say that my mother can't do it? When children are upset, as mothers usually say, "Hey...this child, I don't know what's wrong, I'll buy it for them when the time comes," I scold them firmly.

One day, my son got angry because I bought him a computer. This time, I was the one who scolded him. Heh...what does a computer have to do with a child? So, what do you think my son said?

“Ha... Mom, you're so behind the times. In foreign countries, every child uses a computer. My son uses it in Myanmar too. My son's Chinese friends can even play computer games. This is the internet age, Mom.”

My son spoke in a sarcastic tone, and I burst into laughter. I burst into tears as I laughed. Why didn't a mother, who would raise her son to be a powerful man, think of these things? My son, who has learned to read magazines and journals, has learned to demand these things on his own?

My son is a smart child. Genetically, my wife and I were not weak in intelligence. Environmentally, my parents and friends were mostly writers and intellectuals.

Even when I talk to my son these days, I have to be careful. He is always thinking and flowing. He doesn't always follow the purpose I want to convey. That's why I have to be careful when talking to him.

One day I told my son a story. My intention was to tell a story about how people are destroyed by disagreements and division.

"Once upon a time, a couple from a village moved to the city because they were so poor and tired of working as farm laborers in the forest because of the bad weather."

"What is a farm laborer, Ma'am?"

"A farm laborer is a farmer who does not have his own farm and works in other people's fields for a living."

"It's not my own...how much better the weather is. It's better to move to the city."

“Hey, Mom and Dad, I’m telling you a story. I’m not criticizing you. Listen. When we got to the city, we were looking for a job that would be convenient for the couple. The one that seemed convenient for them the most was helping out at a restaurant. That job provided food. They also provided a place to live and a room. Since both of them had to work together, it was quite convenient. But the salary was very small. But since the food expenses were covered, they happily agreed to work.”

"But something is going to happen, isn't it, Mom?"

"Hey, listen to what I'm saying, Mom."

"A story is just about something happening, isn't it?" said the old woman.

“If I knew that much, I wouldn’t have told you. Listen, we serve rice, but we can’t sell it at the restaurant, so we have to eat the leftovers from the meal. The work is that we have to get up early in the morning and go to bed at midnight. The couple is very tired because they work all day long without a break. The couple has been working for three years and has planned to buy an acre of land in the forest, but the salary is low, so they have to pay for tobacco and betel nut. They haven’t saved up enough money.”

"I feel sorry for them, they will miss their village."

“Yes, that’s why they look for a better job. But they have to find it without the restaurant owner knowing. Wouldn’t they be angry if they found out? It’s a big city, so there are plenty of jobs. But if it’s a job that pays a lot of money, then finding a place to live is a problem. The place to live is good, and the money is good. But it’s a job that only one person can do. That’s how the restaurant owner found out.”

"I'm going to make them very angry."

“Where are you getting angry? If you don’t want to work, you can leave. He knows that too. In the past, the people who came to his shop didn’t stay because they didn’t give them a place to stay. He insisted that they leave after paying their living expenses. The couple from the forest couldn’t go back to the village, and even if they stayed in the city, there was no place more convenient than this shop, so they had to apologize to the owner of the restaurant and stay there.”

"They're not looking for work anymore, are they? If it were up to me, I'd try to find one."

“Yes, of course. But they are still afraid that if they find out that the restaurant owner will immediately kick them out if they find a job again. So they will have to continue to face this situation as long as they can’t get a job. That’s where the problem starts. The wife of the couple thought. Well, we won’t be able to get a job as long as we don’t feel comfortable. It’s not going to happen because we have to endure all the bullying he has done all the time.