Source: CCTV.com
11-11-2007 13:41
Special Report: 2007 CCTV Cup ESCUnity and Diversity -- Unity Survives When Diversity Thrives
Human history is a record of adversities and miseries, and all are different. The Great Russian writer Lev Tolstoi summarized that, “every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” This insightful quotation gives me the perspective that being happy is difficult to accomplish. Any petty deviation from happiness would possibly result in the most undesirable consequences. Therefore, after a series of reluctant failures, sooner or later we must realize that the echoes of cries of pain, as Bertrand Russell described, never stop reverberating in this world.
I know it’s impossible, but I just cannot help imagining the conversation between Lance Armstrong and Sima Qian. Lance is the eminent U.S. bike racer and fighter against the ghastly testicular cancer, while Sima is most renowned for his book History Speaks or Shi Ji, and his castration. I am wondering what the two are going to talk about. Among others, they will share, I think, the experiences of similar afflictions that put them through pains, the afflictions that would have paralyzed them physically and deteriorated the entire situation emotionally.
But they both made it through the afflictions and managed to survive. It’s hard to imagine the hidden strength that burst out to heal and to empower the wounded hearts. Diverse as they are, they fought the unjust fate in common as if they were no longer humble individuals, but as united as Napoleon’s regiments.
The humankind has been prospering on this planet for a long time. It would not be possible were the communities not united. Diverse as it could be, each and every protagonist from their own tragedies would finally become oneness and overwhelm the evil. It happens because deeply rooted in everyone’s heart is the original motive to live and live together and that motive serves to transmit signals of support and help in times of need.
Lance and Sima’s spiritual sources are definitely different. Athletic and Confucian. Chinese and American. That’s diversity. But as it proves time and again, it would not be a problem for Lance to draw on power from Sima to fight the cancer and cut himself loose. Unity is the human being’s salvation. For this I believe, unity survives when diversity thrives.
Editor:Yang Jie
