Akyidaw - Zero Thoughts

Zero thoughts

I remember living in Karen State when I was young. As my consciousness developed, I naturally wanted to be Karen. When I saw other people wearing traditional clothes, I wanted to wear them too.

My father is half Karen, so it's not surprising that he wanted to be Karen. So I asked my uncles.

Uncles and aunts are really big people.

“Uncle, are we Karen?”

My father didn't finish the glass of wine he was about to drink, trembling.

“Aye. We are Karen, genuine Karen people.” I was delighted.

“So are we Poe Karen or Sko Karen?”

There are different races in Karen. My father lowered his glass of wine and shook his head. “It’s not a worm, it’s not a snake, my son.”

I'm a little confused. I only know two things. These two things are not true.

“So, are you from the mountains or from the Karens down there?”

My father shook his head as he sipped his glass of wine.

"Not Karen on the mountain, not Karen under the mountain, son."

I ate a little. I haven't heard of Karen from the middle of the mountains. After all, there are only two types of mountains, up and down. As I said,

There is hardly any in the middle of the mountain. So.....

"So what are we doing?" My father said, before he finished the glass of wine he had poured...

“My uncle and I are Katon Karen, son. We drink too much and we become Katon Karen.”

Now... it's clear, right? We are like that Karen,

There is one thing I have noticed about the Karen people. I see both men and women working all the time.

Even if the men do the work of chopping branches, the women are helpless. In addition to collecting firewood and drawing water, they also have to pick mushrooms and cook rice. What is even more remarkable is that despite all this hard work, they still give birth to children. Some are very strong. Some have eleven, some have nine.

At least our family was born with seven members. Now think about it.

Even so, my father and mother are not equal. If they are equal, should I even pick them up with a plan?

We have to use birth control like we do now. We have to use protection, so we give birth like this. There is a woman named Ma Hla Khin near our house. I have forgotten her Karen name.

If he had been in touch with me back then, I would have wanted to include him in the Myanmar Weightlifting Federation.

Anyway, if you look at Ma Hla Khin, you can't always have a stomach. A stomach is at least four or five pounds, and since it's not always possible to have one, the Myanmar Weightlifting Federation should at least have a coach.

So it's not easy to keep track of so many children. So we had to dig holes to keep the children safe.

It is mainly aimed at children who are the most difficult to control, the age when they can sit on all fours. Because children of that age are curious about everything, they like to pull here and there, pull and swing.

The age that doesn't know how to handle hot coals. The age that doesn't know how to handle a knife. So, we dig small holes for the age that can sit. The holes we dig aren't very big. They're about a cubit in circumference and a cubit in height.

As soon as the morning dawned, the mother placed the baby in the hole she had dug for him. The hole was so neatly made that even snakes would be safe. If there was anything to feed the baby, she would put a small plate in the hole when it was time to feed him.

The mother did what she had to do. She did the housework. Or she took care of the baby who was born younger than the baby in the pit. At that time, women didn't know what to do with the children. They pulled a button and said, "Dai Nyawong," and a baby came out.

So the child picks up the food that is put down for him/her and eats it himself/herself. If he/she is not good at eating, he/she eats it with his/her mouth.

He cries when no one looks at him or pays attention to him. He is very sad, but his parents don't bother to look around. He is busy with his work. When he cries too much, he will automatically fall asleep. When he cries too much, he will automatically fall asleep.

So, every day, as I put it in the hole at dawn and took it out in the evening, the baby in the hole naturally began to wonder who was doing what outside the hole.

I heard voices outside the cave, "Hey, listen, this is my brother's voice."

"This is my father's voice. I don't know what he's saying to my mother."

"This is my mother's voice"

And so on, he began to wonder what was happening in the world outside of the cave.

To see what was going on outside the hole, the baby had to climb up the wall of the hole. So the baby reached out from the hole and held the wall with his little hands. He struggled to stand up with his little legs. A baby who doesn't hold onto anything well, a baby who has never stood on his own two feet, will always have weak limbs. He often falls. Every time he falls, there is pain. When it hurts, the baby cries. The baby will get hurt.

When he cried, there was no one to comfort him. His parents were not happy with his work. His father went to the forest, and his mother was busy with household chores.

It's one thing to send the big one to school, another to catch the middle one to bathe, and another to bring the little one back after swallowing a marble. Where will his turn come from?

They know that babies cry because they are hungry and because they are sick. But they can't turn around.

That's right. A country is a pit.