καρδιά: Essays

Justice

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 09:03:56 GMT

Another EL holiday assignment.

Eleven boys were playing joyfully near a railway. They chased each other, raced down all the way with excitement and laughed with jubilation. Among them, a small little boy named Tommy was strangely quite. He seemed unbothered by his cheerful mates and his indifferent behavior finally disappointed them. They asked him with curiosity, “Tommy, why didn’t you play with us?”

“Because this is very improper,” he said, frowning slightly, “to play at a railway where the train may come at any moment.” Then he suggested that they played at another railway which was deserted long time ago so that they would not be life-threatened by the incoming train. “What a coward!” They fleered at him and quickly went back to continue their exciting games.

Tommy was dejected. He let out an audible sigh, sagged his shoulders in defeat, apparently not pleased with the idea that his mates disbelieved his words. Nevertheless, his minds told him that he would better move to the deserted railway to avoid any kinds of inconvenient accident. With a bitter smile lingered on his face, he slowly walked towards the deserted railway, alone.

A gentleman saw the whole thing and decided to persuade the other ten boys to move to a safer place. However, at this very moment, the train arrived. The safety of the children was starting to worry the gentleman and now he had a tough decision to make. He could either shift the rail so that the train went to the deserted railway and killed the little boy or he could just wait there watching the other ten boys being bumped by the train, losing their precious lives in no time. Either way, somebody has to die. He hesitated. Tommy, the little boy was definitely innocent. He had made the right choice of playing at a safe place. However, sacrificing him could save ten other lives. Anyone, the gentleman thought, anyone who understood mathematics would choose ten lives over one. So he extended out his arms, managing to shift the rail.

“Stop this,” Themis, the goddess of justice, blindfolded and holding a set of scales, demanded in enunciated words. “stop this stupid action of your, human-being.” The gentleman looked up at her in surprise. “Why? Ten lives are more precious than one, aren’t they?”

“No,” she corrected him, “not at all. Justice favors not the majority. It is actually the nature law of fairness which states that everybody deserves what he deserves. In this case, the little boy made his decision which saved himself from the god of death. He should thus keep his life. On the other hand, the ten boys ignored good suggestions and chose to act against rules. It was a grave mistake and therefore, they had to die.” She concluded dryly.

Leaving no time for the gentleman to react, she allowed the train to pass over her, and, with a huge ‘bang’ sound, ten beautiful lives were taken, forever.

My Earthquake Experience

Sat, 24 May 2008 08:35:12 GMT

Title: A time when you received an unexpected piece of news

Note: This essay is purely fictive.

Nobody had expected the earthquake to happen so suddenly. The last time Sichuan had had an earthquake was about nine years ago and at that time it was definitely not as abrupt and massive as it was now. Several seconds ago we were still having our torturing English lesson. Miss Lim, as usual, was haranguing us on the dropping English results when a crevice, all of a sudden, appeared strangely on the wall. Before we could realize what had happened, the entire classroom started shaking.

Our desks moved from one side of the classroom to another, hitting the undefended students with their keen edges. The wall of our humbly furnished classroom shook vigorously and my heart skipped a bit at the sound of the ceiling light swaying back and forth. Seconds later, the headmaster’s desperate voice rushed out from the loudspeaker, making it very clear to us that the largest-ever earthquake in the history of China was taking place, now.

Before long, all lights died. Trapped in the gloomy classroom, I had to admit that I was actually extremely terrified. I fidgeted restlessly, looking this way and that, hoping to find a comforting company. In the eerie darkness, however, only Miss Lim’s dark silhouette was visible. She, too, was acting like a deer in headlights, stunned. I cleared my throat, opened my mouth, wanted to console her but only managed a muffled cry. Silence reigned for several minutes and abruptly, the aftershock took place.

I was sure the entire world started swiveling around. Trying hard to balance myself, I felt the content in my stomach jolted slightly. The thought of the building was about to fall down at any moment came across my mind and I was panicky at the thought of ending up right in this devastated classroom. How could this happen, I asked myself. I had not told mum and dad how much I loved them, nor had I confessed my love to the boy next door. Never had I thought about doing these things before because I always believed that the time had not come yet. But they suddenly became so important and urgent now. I was despondent at the thought of never letting my parents know how much I loved them.

We all hid ourselves under the desks, not daring to move even an inch. Some of my classmates huddled together, whimpering, praying piously for Buddha’s mercy. It took what like an eternity for the disastrous earthquake to end. Jing was the first one who was daring enough to step out and check for casualties. After about five minutes, with uncertainty, she announced, “Well, I think it is probably over now.” Staring at each other, we looked rather puzzled, not sure whether we should move or not. Finally, we moved out of our shelters cautiously. “I’m glad it’s over.” Wong was the only one who managed to give a complete sentence. The rest of us were absolutely too petrified to response.

Looking back, I could only describe this earthquake experience as one of the most bizarre one I had ever experienced in my life. I had never felt so close to death and so fortunate to be alive. I saw the fragility of life and was determined to no to waste any time to tell my beloveds before it became too late.

Responsibility

Tue, 28 Aug 2007 15:11:56 GMT

Several weeks earlier, I read a story in <Chicken Soup>, which inspired me a lot.

One frigid night, ten schoolboys played at the railway track, where the train might come at any time. The youngest among them, by the name of Jack, foresaw their potential danger and he turned to his friends, claiming that the train was on its way and they should shift to another deserted railway track as soon as possible. It was a fabulous idea actually, but no one listened to him. They thought he was too circumspect and dubbed him Coward. Jack was pretty downcast, and he went to the deserted railway himself. To everyone’s surprise, the train came sever minutes later.

The railway where the group of schoolboys was was too far way from where Jack was. So it is impossible to get them out of there before the train came. Nether can other methods be used to save the children’s lives. Nonetheless, one method can still be used, that is, you sacrifice Jack by sending signals to the train-driver so that the train would ran at the deserted railway track instead of the one where nine boys were playing. By doing so, you would save nine lives. However, Jack will definitely die as there was no way he could escape. So, my question is, would you do it? What you save the nine children by sacrificing one?

The answer, for good or for bad, should be “No”. Jack oversaw the possible danger and had already warned the others not to play at the railway track. Whilst it was the boys who did not listen to advices and eventually resulted in their tragedy. They ought to pay their bills, although it was really an expensive one. They are responsible for their silly decisions. This introduces you our topic of today – responsibility.

Life is full of choices. Being responsible means being in charge of our choices and, thus, our lives. It means being accountable for what we do and who we are. It also means recognizing that our actions matter and we are morally on the hook for the consequences. Our capacity to reason and our freedom to choose make us morally autonomous and, therefore, answerable for whether we honor or degrade the ethical principles that give life meaning and purpose.

Therefore, we must exercise self-control, restraining passions and appetites such as lust, hatred, gluttony, greed and fear, for the sake of longer-team vision and better judgment. Only by doing so, we will be able to realize that we are as we choose to be, every day.