Voices

Spiritual pain is the worst pain for lives without value

By Xue Yong (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-05-24 07:59

There are many things in our lives that are beyond our control. We can't choose our parents, our appearance and many can't even change their jobs. But we can choose how to live our lives.

The 10th fall by an employee of tech firm Foxconn last Friday shocked China. I've been reluctant to write about the spate of deaths of Foxconn employees, but I've been following related reports to learn about what those workers' lives were like.

But a recent unfortunate event made me pick up my pen.

A friend of mine, a woman in her 50s living in the United States, passed away, leaving behind two children and her husband.

Her husband said his heart was broken as he waited beside her body which was about to be cremated. Right at that moment, he said he heard his wife's voice from heaven, telling him she was happy up there and wishing he could live happily as well. The husband felt refreshed and asked his children over to dance around the body

Such telepathy can only happen between people with the same values.

We can get some clues from things that happened before her death.

In the later stages of her cancer, the wife was discharged from hospital and her husband needed to care for her around the clock. Yet, because he was the only breadwinner for the entire family, it was impossible for him to quit his job. After using up his 20-day paid holiday, his colleagues donated their holidays to him. And his boss told him in private to work from home for 20 hours a week and not to worry about things at the office.

This happened in a capitalist society where "money is everything" during the economic recession.

Now look at Foxconn, where employees are allegedly punished for small mistakes and are watched closely by quality administrators. We are told they don't talk to their colleagues. When life is meaningless, what's the value for being alive?

My friend is gone. Her body is gone, but not the significance of her life. Every day, her husband and children can hear her voice. Before she died, her husband told her it was heartbreaking to see her suffering from pain. But she said: "Our body can't avoid pain, but spiritually we can. We don't need to tolerate that pain."

Her words are food for thought. At the last moments of her life, she gave her family and the world a kind of spirit that will change our lives if we choose to believe it.

Excerpts of a comment that appeared in the Beijing News on May 22

(China Daily 05/24/2010)