”他を生かす為に”
I was staying up late to settle some forms when I just randomly happened to watch part of episode 12 of よみがえる空 -Rescue Wings-. I don’t exactly know why, but I just felt like writing a little about it.
To be honest, dead honest, I always thought I was pretty smart. I always thought that despite my youth and inexperience I had something over others, something that others could never match up to me by, and that I was sort of superior. I truly believed in that, until recently.
Now, though its not really due to my rewatching of episode 12 or anything directly, I realized that there is just something about being old that no amount of inborn intelligence or Wikipedia can quite compensate for. Ancient societies in which formal education was scarce traditionally have much respect for the elders, and this in the modern age of globalization and the knowledge economy has been quite forgotten in many places, and rapidly eroding in most of the rest. Indeed old people can no longer be counted on to work the economy, to produce economic output, or to guide civilization. However at the root of it all, old people, be it the geniuses or the most retarded man you can find, have something that the young cannot and indeed, should not have - experience.
With experience comes wisdom. Wisdom is what many seek, but those who seek wisdom do not what it is that they seek. What is wisdom, then? I’ll share a little piece of what I have gained recently, and consolidated in my thoughts mere minutes ago.
The moment a person truly believes that he knows virtually nothing, and knowing full well what he learns could just as easily hurt as help him, or be virtually useless, but somehow, by force of will or naturally, continues to strive for knowledge and understanding is perhaps the beginning of wisdom. People see a lot in their lifetimes. Perhaps less so now - few have seen the horrors of war among those of the younger generations in the more peaceful parts of the world, and none know the hardships of migration, pioneering, or indeed the traditional concepts of seafaring or seeking a fortune. Sitting behind our computers and getting access to most of documentable human knowledge through the internet and perhaps all factual information that people and the environment generate simply isn’t enough. People are knowing more but perhaps ultimately understanding less, as compared to our forefathers mere generations ago.
Why did I title this post as such? “他を生かす為に”, or “So that others may live”, is the motto of the Air Rescue Wing featured in よみがえる空 -Rescue Wings-. I found myself amazed at how sublime this simple phrase - no matter how trite, repeated, indoctrinated, abused, mutilated, whatever - still contains so much meaning.
Ultimately, what defines the human condition is perhaps life. Setting aside questions of life after death, life is all we have. What we think, do, or experience are all when we are truly alive. What kind of a person would willingly wager his own life for the chance of saving another, knowing full well that a wrong tip of the dice can cost his own life, and even if it doesn’t, failure to save another could ultimately corrupt and devour his soul. “Survivor’s guilt” is a concept everyone’s at least heard of, but even professionals who are supposed to know better do get affected by their failures, which compared to losing a job are indefinitely more serious in its implications.
I have by now lost almost all respect I used to have for people like lawyers, entrepreneurs, traders, investors, and the like. Certainly they do serve important functions, but none of them ever have to risk life and limb, or indeed, their souls. Doctors may be safe from the diseases they treat with proper protection, but do people fully grasp the suffering they go through when they fail? Do people understand the pain a paramedic is struck with when his subject stops breathing in his arms? Can people understand what helicopter pilots working with rescue units, or other people of similar professions go through? I confess I cannot understand fully, but I believe that watching the show has given me some idea.
It is all very easy to watch a show, and be momentarily struck by the horrors or fascination or fantastic new insight it offers. It is quite another to think through it dispassionately and formulate ideas, and it is yet another to ‘feel’ it through. I am not going to say that everyone should think through or feel through whatever they are exposed to. There is no point unless the person is inclined to do so even if I should say so.
Why do people risk their lives for others, people whom they have no direct interest in saving? It is not for money. The best way I can rationalize it is that they do so to be able to perceive and believe that their lives have meaning. They might not be the saints of legend or of history - but I believe that the best of people are those who genuinely suffer and who more often than not, insist on suffering on one end in order to find a small measure of peace on the other.
Indeed, what does man seek? Man seeks many things. I don’t have to list them out. But perhaps one of the things to work towards to would be that “small measure of peace that all man seek but few ever find”.
Well, I am a real wreck now. Thinking about heroes and somewhat deep things never calms me down, and ROUND TABLE featuring Nino’s 潮騒 is not helping. But perhaps, I have today found a tiny fragment of what they call やすらぎ, or peace, which I shall experience to the full before committing myself to the constant nightmares that haunt me even as I am unconscious.
November 20th, 2006 at 10:27 am
Risking your life to save another is noble, yes, but not everyone can do it. And that’s what makes these noble people stand out. It is not a requirement for people to risk their lives for others. So while you may love, respect, and look up to these noble people, forget not the other ordinary people. They may be contributing in other ways to society. Never be too hasty to judge others, for you may not know them completely. I’ll share a poem from my FTs here:
Judge Gently
Please don’t find fault with the man
who limps or stumbles along the road
Unless you have worn the shoes he wears
or struggled beneath his load.
There may be tacks in his shoes that hurt,
though hidden away from view,
Or the burden he bears… placed on his back
might cause you to stumble.
Don’t sneer at the man who’s down today,
Unless you have felt the blow
That caused his fall or felt the shame
that only the fallen know.
You may be strong, but still the blows that were his
if dealt to you
In the selfsame way at the selfsame time
might cause you to stagger too.
Don’t be harsh with the man who sins
or pelt him with word or stone
Unless you are sure
Yea doubly sure that you have no sins of your own
For you know, perhaps if the tempters voice should
whisper as softly to you as it did to him when he went
astray it might cause you to falter too.
Author unknown
There may be people who do great and noble things behind closed walls, and you may never know what great deeds they have done. If scientists were not risking their lives making vaccines and cures, would doctors be able to treat patients so efficiently? So, before you know the person completely, never be too hasty to judge him - it is the person’s character that matters, not his job.
November 24th, 2006 at 10:27 am
Everyone seeks to exist. It just happens that everyone does it differently. Some do it by seeking to be part of other’s lives. Some do it with material drugs. Some do it with sex and drugs. Everyone is different in their search of their identity and their place in this world. Perhaps in this aspect, all the people you have mentioned are essentially doing the same thing for themselves. You assert that the sanctity of life makes doctors and paramedics rise above the rest, but I would like to ask, how are they exclusive in this search for their identity? Are they not inevitably seeking to fulfill their own selfish desires? To prove to themselves that they exist? In saving others, they are merely seeking their own existence by becoming part of other people’s lives.
Indeed I agree that Survivor’s Guilt would be very painful, but in the search for one’s identity, is there anyone who does not get hurt? However, I believe the people who have chosen the this path know very well what they are getting themselves into. And perhaps they consider it a fitting price to pay for their existence.