Viewing the photo series "To Live" evokes not just shock, but deep pain. The harsh realities shown through the lens are heart-wrenching, and confronting that suffering feels like a knife cutting the heart.
A 60-year-old man unloads 300 tons of goods every day, earning only 6 mao per ton, doing this solely to survive.
Yet, the comments section is filled with reckless voices:
"300 tons, 6 mao each, that's 180 yuan a day. In 30 days, wow, that's a high salary."
"Who told them not to study hard when they were young? Now they're old and can only sell their labor. They deserve it!"
"Why don't they do something else? This must be a stunt to gain sympathy."
...
Gossip is terrifying, and the world is bleak.
Perhaps in his youth, he simply did not have the conditions to change his destiny. There is a poverty passed down from generation to generation, and breaking through this fixed barrier is incredibly difficult. If he has exhausted all his strength, working until he is powerless, just to barely maintain such a life, how helpless must that be.
But as a human being, he is trying hard to live, at least he has not given up.
Should we not have more reverence for life and less unwarranted judgment?
Suffering is common to all. When a young person does not offer their seat to an elder, they are accused of not respecting the old; when they lack understanding toward children, they are said to not love the young. All judgments are based on personal standards and secular definitions, without ever sincerely or wholeheartedly standing in another's shoes, listening to or observing the true thoughts of the person involved.
Tragic and lamentable. When we make wild guesses about everything we see, do you realize that such conjectures are entirely meaningless?
