Keeping faith

Little Sơn ran out to take Vinh's father's bag and pulled his father in to rest on the sofa. He scampered off to fetch tea for his father, while his mother smiled and laid the food out on the table. As they ate, she asked Vinh:

• Is old Mrs Thanh's house finished yet, dear?
  Vinh replied:
• It will probably take two more days to finish, love.
  Sơn asked:
• Then why do you have to help her build the house, Dad? You could tell someone else to do it.
  Vinh replied:
• Mrs Thanh has been resentful for many years because, in the past, the officials who dealt with her land matter did not settle it satisfactorily. She carries in her heart the bitterness that no official is any good. She keeps on and on speaking ill of the government. Whoever dealt with her land and did not settle it properly was wrong. Her ranting against the whole state system is also wrong. But she's old, and we don't blame her for it; we just feel sorry for her, as we would for our own parents. Old people often hold grudges and keep going on about them. Her land matter has been settled, very satisfactorily, but the anger in her heart is still there. So I've had to visit and comfort her in person all this time. As her house was being rebuilt, with no children or grandchildren to look after it, every day on the way home from work I've had to stop by to oversee everything for her. The house is nearly done, and only today has she started to calm down and regain her belief that there are still officials who care about the people.
• But why do you have to go to such trouble just to please such an old person?
• Everyone matters, son. Old or young, rich or poor, everyone matters. When people no longer believe in goodness, they easily do wrong. When people think that nobody is good any more, they easily let themselves drift and live recklessly.
• But it's only Mrs Thanh, and you take so much trouble; there are so many other people in the world in the same situation. How can you cope with them all, Dad?
• We just help Mrs Thanh regain faith in life first, son. Whoever we manage to help, we value. Of course we can't help everyone regain faith in life, but we patiently help the people we have the best chance to help, one by one. Rebuilding someone's belief in goodness, rebuilding their belief in good people, is saving their life, son.
• Isn't that too hard for you, Dad? Your salary as chairman isn't much.
• If you counted your salary in order to work, you couldn't be an official, son. In accepting to be an official, from the very start I affirmed that salary no longer mattered, and what matters is that I can serve the people. That is my happiness. Your mother chose me too because she accepted working hard to earn money for the family so that I could work at the commune.
• I admire you, Dad, but I don't have the courage to follow you.
• If you fell into an abyss and someone lifted you out, you would be like me. In the past I too lost all faith in people, believing that nobody in the world was good, so why should I live ethically? I began to live badly, and then I came across something strange. One time when I left home to wander without asking permission from your grandparents, I was riding along the road and witnessed a traffic accident. The one who caused the accident ran away. The victim was taken for emergency care. Suddenly a child ran up and handed the traffic policeman the victim's wallet, which had a lot of money in it. The policeman wrote a report and took the wallet. I turned my bike around, went home, apologised to your grandparents and began to study seriously. I believed that goodness and good people were real. I resolved to be a good person and do many good deeds to preserve other people's trust. I thought that helping others still to have faith in goodness and in good people is nobler than any other good deed. I don't know whether I'm exaggerating a little, but clearly that view has given me a strong and happy drive to live. 🤵

Often we help only one person, but without knowing it we have helped many others. The person we help is moved, of course, and those who witness our kindness gain more belief and hope to live. It is precisely the belief that there are still many good people in this world that stops us from giving up when we lose our way. We will try to rise up.

Many religious followers also strive in their practice when they have witnessed the saintly life of some true practitioner. They believe that saintliness is real, that the state of a saint is real.

A soldier too will fight with everything he has, even sacrificing his life, if he has faith in his immediate commander, that this commander is a person with the high ideal of serving the country and the people. If they lose faith in the commander, they just work to get by and wait for the enemy to come and approach them with money. Whenever our country has passed through hardship and stood up again, it has been only because many commanders on the fronts lived with hearts of towering idealism. The flame of their ideal lit the way for many comrades beside them.

A business has strength only because its employees have an ideal of service greater than their salaries. They realise that the owner founded the business with another noble purpose and not only to seek profit. They take up that ideal of living and become far more dedicated.

This life badly needs people who live with moral ideals, to keep the world's faith.