Happiness is not an apple
▪ Liang Wuyi
I was born in the 1970s and am now in my early 40s. The living conditions of our generation were not particularly good compared to the present. I remember when I was a child, every household was generally not rich, and three meals a day, although they could be self-sufficient, they were nothing more than coarse grains and light meals.
The hunger that emanated from my body has always accompanied me through my childhood, becoming an indelible memory of my youth. At that time, my friends and I needed to climb mountains and wade to school. Children are thin and weak, the road is far away, and often before the mountain road is halfway through, they will be tired and breathless and thirsty.
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Once, a playmate from the neighbor's house took out an apple on the way, drummed his little cheeks in front of me and other friends, and ate it as he walked, biting the crystal clear flesh and chewing it with relish, so hungry that we all kept swallowing. I thought how happy I would be if I could eat an apple every day in the future.
Time flies, when I was young, I later packed my bags, studied, joined the army, and worked hard, and I kept fighting in the distant frontier, and to this day, I am still in the military camp. The happiness of childhood has also changed from being unattainable to being within reach. However, the understanding of happiness, with the increase of experience, the abundance of experience, and the deepening of perception, has also changed from "an apple" in childhood.
When I first took office, I felt that happiness was to grow and progress as desired, and I longed for a glorious military life; when I got married and had children, I felt that happiness was to be able to rely on each other and warm up, and yearn for a sweet family life; I felt that happiness was to be able to live in peace and envy the mortal world with calm wind and waves...
Life is full of changes and happiness. What happiness is, a thousand people will give a thousand answers. Maybe it is the comfortable romance under the moon before the flower, or the highlight moment of life's summit, or it may be the calm and calm of watching the flowers blossom and fall in front of the court.
However, just last September, I accompanied the troops to the Karakoram Mountains at an altitude of 5,300 meters for training. Majestic Kunlun, turbulent, there are many stories about it. It was also there that I heard and witnessed the touching stories of border guards officers and soldiers, which gave me a new understanding of the meaning of happiness.
Purple-red skin, chapped lips, sunken nails... In the Karakoram Mountains, the harsh natural environment gives border guards a unique makeup that is common to the border guards.
When chatting with these border officers and men, they admitted that they had doubts when they first came to the snowy plateau, but after a long time, they understood the true meaning of the veteran's words that "defending the border and defending the country is a great thing."
What touched me the most was the story of Wu Deshou, a veteran of the Kudi Soldier Station.
The Kudi Military Station was the first military station established on the Xinzang Line. The oldest poplar has been growing for more than 40 years. However, even this tree did not have as long as Wu Deshou stayed at the military station.
More than 60 years ago, Wu Deshou, a young soldier, came to kudi, set up tents, built pot stoves, and built the earliest military station with a camel and a pot. From soldier to worker, he worked in the harsh plateau for more than 40 years, retiring at the age of 68, and was known as the "Kunlun Bulao Pine" rooted in the snowy mountains.
Triumph keeps going. 10 years ago, non-commissioned officer Liu Xiaogan took the initiative to apply to the Shenxian Bay Border Defense Company to defend after 14 months of defending the astronomical point border defense company, and later he won the Outstanding Talent Award for Noncommissioned Officers of the Whole Army, and was also commended by the former Lanzhou Military Region as "One Hundred Advanced Models for Practicing the Core Values of Contemporary Revolutionary Soldiers" and promoted to do it.
In fact, Liu Xiaogan, who grew up in Wenzhou, had very superior family conditions, and after taking a pen from Rong and rushing to the plateau, he also hesitated in the face of the extreme environment of high cold and lack of oxygen. But later, he stayed down with resentment, fell in love with it, and finally could no longer do without Karakoram, and now he has grown into a company commander of the border defense company at the astronomical point.
During the days of stationed training, I happened to catch up with the selection of non-commissioned officers. A company stationed at an altitude of 5,300 meters above sea level, 24 full-service personnel, 21 strongly requested to stay in the team, including 1 college student soldier named Liu Wanzhen. Someone asked him why, and he said, "Karakoram suffers, but it is this suffering that makes me feel the value and meaning of life." ”
From Wu Deshou to Liu Xiaogan to Liu Wanzhen, a college student soldier, these people are actually just a concrete epitome of the many defensive officers and men in the Karakoram Mountains who are at ease with defending and single-mindedly fighting on the side.
Highland car soldiers drive in the Karakoram. Photo by Zheng Qianglong (Data Map)
Listening to their stories, I was moved; reading their deeds, I thought. The long border defense line and the majestic Kunlun Mountain, it is precisely because of their values of focusing on their homeland that they have the firm figure of those who climb ice and lie in snow, and only then do they have this indestructible steel border pass.
If you can be weak, who wants to be strong all the time. Who would have thought that these border officers and men were actually very young. Each of them, growing up in the new era, has their own "small fortune", and is eager to pursue their own poetry and distant places. But because the military uniforms on their bodies stem from the responsibility on their shoulders, they bravely stepped out of the crowd, shouted "look at me", and did not rush forward with their heads, willing to go to the soup and the fire, without hesitation, never retreating.
Bacon said: "It is a very happy thing that human nature is suited to the requirements of his profession. The famous Russian playwright Rozov also famously said: "Man is happy in the performance of his duties." It's like a person carrying something, but the heart is comfortable. ”
If you think about it carefully, isn't what these lovely border guards have experienced and embodied in them also a respectable and respectable view of happiness that belongs to the soldiers?
To the table they, can't help but be relieved. The so-called happiness has never been a superficial sensory satisfaction, but the sublimation of the spiritual realm and the realization of value pursuit in the process of positive struggle and payment.
Facing the cold wind of the plateau, guarding the territory of the motherland. (Courtesy of Rivertail Beach Border Defense Company) (Data Map)
Today, I have been in the military camp under the Karakoram Mountains for more than 20 years. Personal promotion, living treatment, and working environment have long been insignificant, and the most urgent thing is to perform their duties well, shoulder the burden on their shoulders, and use their unashamed and outstanding work performance to repay the organization, return officers and soldiers, return relatives, and add salary and strength to the rejuvenation of the army.
"Success does not have to be in me, success must have me..." As a Chinese soldier in the new era, only by guarding the territory of one side and protecting peace and tranquility can we truly display our own value and taste the "exclusive taste" that belongs to the happiness of soldiers!
(The author is the director of the political department of a division of the Xinjiang Military Region)
Source: China Military Network WeChat
Author: Liang Wuyi
Editor: Huo Yujia