The electric shower machine in our bathroom broke down last week, and it worked only with disorder in its internal procedure. My father has urged the repairman time and time again, yet our claim seemed to have been ignored. So we could do nothing but change the old machine, rather disappointly at the service of the manufacturer. As soon as the new machine was carried to our house, our doorbell rang, anouncing the unanticipated visit of the repairman. This young man got a really squeamish spleen, raised his tones and asked us what the hell we were going to do with that unworked machine. We finally decided to supersede the old with the new one ourselves instead of having him do repairs on the old one, which, I guess, perturbed him a lot. Then he told us that we should pay 15 yuan as his coming fee. We got rather confound by this, which, coupled with the impatient attitude of the repairman, roiled the temper of my father who insisted not be charged without proper reasons. So you can see the dissonant atmosphere was escalating, as the repairman claimed with a kind of condescending air: I can spare your money, but you cannot insult my esteem. I am a blue collar worker, but also a human as you guys, no matter what kind of governor (my father is a public servant in the local government) you are! I got confound once again on hearing what he said. We at most vented our disapproval on his demand, or rather his company's product service, when did we look down upon him, or rather him as an ordinary blue collar?This was one thing, and then there was another. When my parents and I went shopping this evening, we came across several shoe shiners flanking the road. I took a rest and one of the shiners offered to brush my shoes for me. This was my first time to have someone brush my shoes one-on-one, I mean, a woman was assiduously brushing my shoes under my eyes, head hung, hands moving swiftly and incessantly, while I was just sitting there, foot raised, and with great comfort. This woman was really kind, and what she did touched me a lot. She was not doing an admiring job, instead, what she did tend to be considered quite dirty and vulgar to most people in the city. However, what I can see was the particularly graceful smile under her withered face, a smile that conveys to us that she feels really decent earning her living by her own work. Subliminally, I feel a little bashfull pinned under such a circumstance that was somewhat weird to me. I took notice of her sweater, on which the insignia Nike was rather conspicuous. Obviously, another stunt from Nike counterfeiters. Now take a look at my shoes, a Nike too, but the different thing is, it is a real one that cost more than 800 yuan. Ironical, isn't it? These shoe shiners, talked buoyantly, and worked like they have already had gratification, but I cannot help feeling sympathy for them. Although they struggled to get rid of abject poverty, what in essence can they gain from their cheap labor? They only charge 2 yuan each time they serve a customer! What indeed sustains them to lead a vigorous life is not the humble pay from their humble jobs, rather, I guess, is their tenacious faith to earn a living, for themselves, or more precisely, for their family, for the chance that they can lead a better life than they themselves in the future.
I am not born in a wealthy family, nor in a precarious one. Yet I am fully aware of my difference from people living through their humble working. If there is any invisible bond in this society, I am, undoubtedly, not on the same end with those people, like the repairman, like the shoe shiner. I always harbor an ideal, that some day I can employ my own purse to help those who are kind, honest, but belonging to another end of the social tie. Believe it or not, I dare not forget what Einstein said: our life is bound with others' by ties of compassion. I think we all are born endowed with these powerful ties, but not all of us preserve them all our life. Some get rich, but sever the tie from the poor due to the forfeit of benevolence, while some give up on themselves and acknowledge them to be humble and inferior to others, thus dissociating from the pull of the ties. God never abandons us, and is always there delivering us, for we have been given the power to have tremendous emotion. In the meantime, we have to deliver ourselves too, that is, never leaving the social ties.
In China's society, mores is from bad to worse. I am struggled but have to admit that this saying is not unreasonable. The rub lies in the fact that the wealthy are impassive to philanthropy and the poor hoard hatred towards society. Ties of compassion is limp or people on the two ends of the ties strayed. That is a dangerous message, because it would lead us separately to two poles far more apart, because it can become a culprit who turns blind eye to the lapse of great human emotion, and because it connotes that a lot of us abstain from delivering ourselves!
Whenever I am deeply moved by human beings' tough, full of trials and tribulations, yet epic and laudable life, I can see the stars in my eyes. I always believe that the most pure and shining tears are sheded for our shared sentiment in this world full of miracles.
