"There is only one kind of heroism in the world, that is, to recognize the truth of life and still love life."
This is a sentence written by Roman Rowland in Michelangelo's biography.
And this sentence does not know how many people who have struggled in the swamp of life have been inspired, nor how many real heroes have been achieved.
So, what exactly is the truth of life? What kind of people do we want to be in life?
Zhihu netizen @ human grass and trees gave this answer:
"The truth of life is to tell you that everything is worthless, just in your choices.
At this point, it becomes extremely difficult to continue to choose heroism, because it is much more difficult than cynicism, so this becomes true heroism.
What kind of attitude to life?
Heroism before recognizing the truth is the continuation of value on the basis of great value.
Heroism after recognizing the truth is to create great value in nothingness. ”
As @Human Grass said: "Those who can create great value in nothingness may truly be called heroes." ”
And in the ups and downs of the world, how many such heroes have you seen?
In maijia's "Sea of Life", the "colonel" who still insists on himself after seeing the truth of life and can still live bravely can be regarded as a real hero.
The author takes the perspective of the first-person "I", from the perspective of a child to see the people and the world in the eyes of adults, and all people and things seem to become clearer and more vivid.
01
The "Truth" of Life
There is always a group of people in life who see people who are better off than them and "pick a thorn" from them to comfort themselves with the fact that they are not doing well, and even we ourselves occasionally have such thoughts.
It's not that those people are too bad, it's that human nature inherently has this weakness, and this weakness comes with it.
The "I" in the book lives in a small village, and "I" always listen to my grandfather and the people in the village say bad things about a person, and the people in the village call him "eunuch".
Everyone in the village knows that the eunuch committed a crime and was suppressed by the People's Liberation Army to return to the village, but the eunuch did nothing in the village and lived a very comfortable life.
The eunuch's family has two cats, and he loves the cat owner very much.
The eunuch's cat lived a better life than most people in the village.
Grandpa hated eunuchs, especially "my" father and eunuchs getting close.
Before returning to the village, the eunuch was an officer, who had joined the Kuomintang, later joined the troops of the People's Liberation Army, and had also participated in the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea.
But in the village, only his father called him Colonel.
Grandpa's rival and friend was called the old chief, and many stories about the colonel were mostly heard from the old chief.
Unlike Grandpa, the old chief was saying that the colonel was a eunuch and slandering the colonel, but only others said that the colonel was good.
Although no one in the village wants to see the colonel, the village will consult with the colonel on major matters and small matters and let him come up with ideas.
The colonel would not take to heart what the villagers thought of him, and he would do his best to help the people of the village.
The colonel was a military doctor, and his medical skills were learned in the process of marching and fighting, and he didn't want to kill people, he only wanted to save people.
02
The Colonel's Secret
There are many stories about the Colonel, some of which were told by the old chief, some by my father, and many by what "I" saw with my own eyes.
"I" at first listened to the adults and thought that the Colonel was a bad person, but gradually "I" found that the Colonel had a lot of good qualities.
Listening to his father, the colonel had once been a Kuomintang and had also saved a woman who was a senior Kuomintang officer, and the two cats of the colonel were given to him by the woman.
Later, the Kuomintang was defeated, and the colonel missed the best time to surrender in order to save the two cats.
But the Colonel's kindness and gentleness were not only to the cat, but to the people around him as well.
The colonel's unit later joined the People's Liberation Army, but his involvement in the encirclement and suppression of the Red Army as a Kuomintang was revealed and he was almost shot.
It was also a PLA officer who was saved by the colonel who gave him a chance to go to the front line to make meritorious deeds, which saved the colonel.
There are many legendary stories about the colonel, not only the story of his saving people as a military doctor, but also the fact that during the War of Resistance Against Japan, he once served as a prisoner of a Japanese female officer, and even left a mark of shame on her body that can never be erased.
The mark was on the colonel's belly, and it was his secret, which he had never shown to anyone, and it was more humiliating to him than to be thought of as a eunuch.
03
treachery
During the Cultural Revolution, the colonel was arrested by the Red Guards for participating in the Kuomintang and was insulted by the little blind man and others.
Later the Colonel escaped under the cover of "my" father and grandfather, and I was one of the witnesses on the night the Colonel left.
After the colonel escaped, the little blind man in the village was found to have cut off his tongue and broken his hands and feet, and all kinds of evidence pointed to the fleeing colonel.
The police are looking for the Colonel, but "I", Grandpa and my father are all clinging to the secret of the Colonel's escape.
I don't know when it began, but rumors in the village that the colonel was a sodomite began, at first the rumors pointed to the little blind man, but then the rumors said that it was "my" father and the colonel.
Grandpa had the best face, he couldn't stand his son being rumored to be sodomy.
He had been leading public opinion to the point that the little blind man was a sodomite, just to divert the villagers' suspicions about his son.
The colonel was eventually caught by the police, and he and his elderly mother hid in a temple in a nearby village.
While everyone was discussing what would happen to the Colonel when he was caught, the old security chief inadvertently learned that the person who reported the Colonel's hiding place was the old witch head, "my" grandfather.
The old security chief angrily accused grandpa of his behavior, he betrayed his conscience and betrayed a good man, just for his own vanity.
And my father also completely severed ties with my grandfather because of this behavior of my grandfather, and because I could not stand the finger-pointing of other people in the village, I smuggled out of the country under my father's arrangement.
In the end, Grandpa could not escape the condemnation of his conscience, and when the wind and candle were in his old age, he hanged himself.
Some gossip is like a thorn in the heart, stinging people surrounded by rumors, but what is more chilling than rumors is betrayal.
Gossip will eventually be forgotten by people over time, and betrayal is like a poison carved in the bones, and even death will carry guilt.
04
True heroism
Years later, I returned home from abroad and saw the Colonel again, who was already a stupid old man.
The Colonel was married, and his wife was a young nurse he had once saved in the battlefield, and "I" called her Aunt Lin.
From Aunt Lin, "I" learned some stories of the Colonel's youth.
The colonel was a real man and a hero on the battlefield; he fought in the Red Army, joined the Kuomintang, fought against Japanese devils, later joined the People's Liberation Army, and also participated in the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea.
As a military doctor, the number of people he had saved was innumerable.
However, because of a misunderstanding, the colonel was reported to have a problem with his lifestyle and sent back to his hometown.
The person who misunderstood him and wrote the whistleblower letter was None other than Aunt Lin, who became the colonel's wife many years later.
Maybe it was because of the guilt in her heart, or maybe the fate between Aunt Lin and the colonel was not over, and when Aunt Lin met the colonel again, the colonel was already crazy.
As for the reason why the colonel was crazy, he was arrested that year and was pickpocketed in public.
He could bear to be called a eunuch, but he couldn't bring his shame to light.
Because he had been engraved on his stomach by a Japanese woman, those were his eternal shames, and when these shames were revealed in public, the colonel's spiritual world collapsed.
The colonel after going crazy was like a child, and sometimes he would lift his clothes to show others the words on his stomach.
The inscriptions, which had once been a shame that he had hidden, were now unabashedly and nakedly displayed to the world, which was a fate for the colonel, who had been gentle and acted in a down-to-earth manner all his life.
Aunt Lin took good care of the Colonel until the Colonel died, and Aunt Lin followed in the Colonel's footsteps after his death.
Maybe in another world, they can live happily like normal couples without these distractions in the world.
05
epilogue
The Colonel is such a kind and responsible person, no matter what kind of tests and tortures life gives him, he can face it calmly.
This is what Romain Rolland calls true heroism.
Life is a sea of seas, behind everyone there is suffering that you can't see, in the face of plain and rough days, cherish everything you have.
May you be able to face loss and possession calmly, guard a sincere and kind heart, and live bravely, this is the brightest life.
Author: Zhou Yao, a member of the Intensive Reading Friends Association. Cultivate in the dust and survive in the world.