After the guy had undergone an operation to remove the tumours on the right-side of his face, his mother and brother entered his room and his mother was calling his name repeatedly. And it was so heart-aching to see her motherly calls go unheeded as her son laid still on the hospital bed in agony and the blood seeping through the thick white bandages. Yet he managed to raise his hand, as if to be reaching for the person who brought him into this world whilst seemingly passing through another. Even after the operation and back at his small village, all he hoped for in having a 'normal' life was to be able to fulfill his duty as a son and look after his parents in old age...and this hope is what gave him the strength to live.
This human fragility is something that is particularly able to generate feelings of compassion in myself and more so poignant as I'm often dubbed as a rather cold person. Also, this helplessness seems to stoke an inner sense of responsibility to help and care for those who are less able to provide for themselves. If anything, responsibilities now have fallen to the societal steamroller that is hedonism and a rights-based culture.
But most fundamentally, I can't help but think, is this powerful resolve of the Chinese Elephant Man innate to all or is it self-learned through pain and denial of good things?
No comments:
Post a Comment