THE GLORIOUS HEROISM OF PENG SHUILIN

THE GLORIOUS HEROISM OF PENG SHUILIN

V.SUNDARAM I.A.S.

"It is a waste of time to be angry about my disability. One has to get on with life and I haven't done badly. People won't have time for you if you are always angry or complaining." - Stephen Hawking

"I discovered early that the hardest thing to overcome is not a physical disability but the mental condition which it induces. The world, I found, has a way of taking a man pretty much at his own rating. If he permits his loss to make him embarrassed and apologetic, he will draw embarrassment from others. But if he gains his own respect, the respect of those around him comes easily." - Alexander de Seversky

THE PHENOMENON OF PENG SHUILIN

I am presenting below the inspiring saga of courage and supreme conquest of fear by a Chinese citizen called PENG SHUILIN whose body was sliced into two halves when he was run over by a freight truck in 1995. I have accessed the following information through the internet

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1575854/Half-man-learns-to-walk-in-China.html which speaks for itself.

HALF MAN - HALF PRICE STORE ~ THE STORY OF PENG SHUILIN

In life we keep complaining about what is or why we don't have. Half the time we seem dissatisfied, though full-bodied and free to choose. Fat people say, “I want to be slim."
Skinny people say, “I want to be fatter." Poor people want to be rich and rich are never satisfied with what they have.

Peng Shuilin’s severed body after the accident in 1995

PENG Shuilin is 78cms high. He was born in Hunan Province, China....In 1995, in Shenzhen, a freight truck sliced his body in half. His lower body and legs were beyond repair.

Surgeons sewed up his torso. Peng Shuilin, 37, spent nearly two years in hospital in Shenzhen, southern China. Undergoing a series of operations to re-route nearly every major organ or system inside his body. Peng kept exercising his arms, building up strength, washing his face and brushing his teeth. He survived against all odds. 

Now Peng Shulin has astounded doctors by learning to walk again after a decade.

Considering Peng's plight, doctors at the China Rehabilitation Research Centre in Beijing devised an ingenious way to allow him to walk on his own, creating a sophisticated egg cup-like casing to hold his body, with two bionic legs attached. It took careful consideration, skilled measurement and technical expertise. Peng has been walking the corridors of Beijing Rehabilitation Centre with the aid of his specially adapted legs and a re-sized walking frame.

RGO is a recipicating gait orthosis, attached to a prosthetic socket bucket.
There is a cable attached to both legs so when one goes forward, the other goes backwards. Rock to the side, add a bit of a twist and the leg without the weight on it advances, while the other one stays still, giving a highly inefficient way of ambulation.

Oh so satisfying to 'walk' again after ten years with half a body! Exclaimed PENG SHUILIN

Hospital vice-president Lin Liu said: "We've just given him a checkup; he is fitter than most men of his age." Peng Shuilin has opened his own bargain supermarket, Called the Half Man-Half Price Store.

The inspirational 37-year-old has become a businessman And is used as a role model for other amputees. At just 2ft 7ins tall, he moves around in a wheelchair giving lectures on recovery from disability. His attitude is amazing, he doesn't complain. "He had good care, but his secret is cheerfulness. Nothing ever gets him down." You have a whole body. You have feet. Now you have met a man who has no feet. His life is a feat of endurance, a triumph of the human spirit in overcoming extreme adversity. Next time you want to complain about something trivial, don't. Remember Peng Shulin instead. 

What is strikingly unique and astonishing about Peng Shuilin is that he always endeavours to be joyous and happy, blissful and cheerful, despite the dark and grim tragedy that overtook him in 1995 when a freight truck cut his body into two parts. He seems to declare with an unshakeable resolve and unbending determination all the time that "I am neither an optimist nor pessimist, but a possibilist. Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced."

In this context, the following beautiful words of Helen Keller (1880-1968) are very relevant and worth quoting:

"If I regarded my life from the point of view of the pessimist, I should be undone. I should seek in vain for the light that does not visit my eyes and the music that does not ring in my ears. I should beg night and day and never be satisfied. I should sit apart in awful solitude, a prey to fear and despair. But since I consider it a duty to myself and to others to be happy, I escape a misery worse than any physical deprivation."

We cannot expect to live always on a smooth and even plane. We all face insurmountable problems, unabating worries and monstrous fears. We get tortured by setbacks, sorrows and misfortunes. There are deep rivers and deeper valleys to be crossed along the stormy path of life. They are a challenge to human endurance. But indomitable courage conquers all these hurdles. Down through the ages poets and philosophers in both East and West have been telling us so in a variety of ways.

“The things courage can do”

Long ago an Eastern Monarch, plagued by many worries harassed on every side, called his wise men together. He asked them to invent a motto, a few magic words that would help him in time of trial or disaster or distress. It must be brief enough to be engraved on a ring, he said, so that he could have it always before his eyes. It must be appropriate to every situation, as useful in prosperity as in adversity. It must be a motto wise and true and endlessely enduring, words by which a man could be guided all his life, in every circumstance, no matter what happened.

The wise men thought and thought, and finally came to the monarch with their magic words. They were words for every change or chance of fortune, declared the wise men…..words to fit every situation, good or bad…..words to ease the heart and mind in every circumstance. And the words they gave the monarch to engrave on his ring were:

“This, too, shall pass away”

Century after century, from the beginning of time, this old legend has survived to this day. They have survived because these words are wise and true and endlessly enduring. They have proved their power over and over again through the centuries, to uncounted number men and children, in every land in every age and every conceivable situation. Thy have given comfort to the afflicted, courage to the frightened, hope to the worried and distressed. “This, too, shall pass away”. Poets and philosophers have stressed these five (5) magic words over and over again, each in his own fashion but always with the same inspiring influence.

Paul Hamilton Hayne (1830-1886)

One day, about a 100 years ago, an American editor came across the above legend and was impressed by this ancient wisdom. He was Paul Hamilton Hayne, distinguished also as a writer of light verse. He was so enchanted by the legend that he published a brief story about it, and was astonished by the tremendous and lively interest it created. So he decided---as many had before, and many have since---to write some verses about the famous phrase . By some strange and mysterious alchemy, his simple lines of verse made an enormous appeal to the public. For many many years “This, too, shall pass away”, by Paul Hamilton Hayne, were carried around in purse and pocket by thousands and thousands of common people in America and England---getting enshrined in the hearts of people as their most favourite inspirational poem. I am giving below the full text of Paul Hamilton Hayne’s poem

        'Art thou in misery, brother? Then I pray

        Be comforted. Thy grief shall pass away.

        Art thou elated? Ah, be not too gay;

        Temper thy joy, this, too, shall pass away.

        Art thou in danger? Still let reason sway,

        And cling to hope: this, too, shall pass away.

        Tempted art thou? In all thine anguish lay

        One truth to heart: this, too, shall pass away.

        Do rays of loftier glory round these play?

        Kinglike art thou? This, too, shall pass away!

        Where'er thou art, where'er thy footsteps stray,

        Heed these words: This too shall pass away!

As I have already stated Paul Hayne’s poem won wide popularity in his own day; and it has kept circulating ever since, continuing to have its influence on the afflicted, the distraught, the discouraged. Every now and then it makes a tour of the newspapers or feature din magazines. Sometimes it appears with a different title, or with lines changed to suit the times, or with new verses added or subtracted.

Many other poets have also used the same theme and title, before and since. But the philosophy is always the same, and always helpful to the troubled or the despairing. I came across another poem which is as inspiring as Paul Hamilton Hayne’s poem cited above. I am presenting below this poem

This, Too, Shall Pass Away
 by: Lanta Wilson Smith, Source Unknown

When some great sorrow, like a mighty river,
Flows through your life with peace-destroying power
And dearest things are swept from sight forever,
Say to your heart each trying hour:
"This, too, shall pass away."

When ceaseless toil has hushed your song of gladness,
And you have grown almost too tired to pray,
Let this truth banish from your heat its sadness,
And ease the burdens of each tring day:
"This, too, shall pass away."

When fortune smiles, and, full of mirth and pleasure,
The days are flitting by without a care,
Lest you should rest with only earthly treasure,
Let these few words their fullest import bear:
"This, too, shall pass away."

When earnest labour brings you fame and glory,
And all earth's noblest ones upon you smile,
Remember that life's longest, grandest story
Fills but a moment in earth's little while:
"This, too, shall pass away."

Very much like the soothing and comforting inspirational poems of Paul Hamilton Hayne and Lanta Wilson Smith, is another poem by Grace Noll Crowell.

Grace Noll Crowell (1877-1969)

Grace Noll Crowell was an American poet and the author of 36 books of inspirational verse and 5,000 poems. Her work has appeared in hundreds of magazines and newspapers. Given an opportunity, I would very much love to chant the following poem sitting by the side of PENG SHUILIN.

This, too, will pass. O heart, say it over and over,

Out of your deepest sorrow, out of your deepest grief,

No hurt can last forever—perhaps tomorrow

Will bring relief.

This, too, will pass. It will spend itself—its fury

Will die as the wind dies down with the setting sun;

Assuaged and calm, you will rest again, forgetting

A thing that is done.

Repeat it again and again, O heart, for your comfort;

This, too, will pass as surely as passed before

The old forgotten pain, and the other sorrows

That once you bore.

As certain as stars at night, or dawn after darkness,

Inherent as the lift of the blowing grass,

Whatever your despair or your frustration—

This, too, will pass.

WILLIAM ERNEST HENLEY (1849-19O3)

Seeing the unflinching, unswerving, indomitable, inflexible and irrepressible spirit of PENG SHUILIN, I am reminded of another heroic character called WILLIAM ERNEST HENLEY who fought against a fell bodily disease for over 3 decades, undergoing a series of operations one after the other in almost interminable succession. Once when he was recovering from a dreadful surgical operation done by the pioneering English surgeon Dr. Joseph Lister(1827-1912), he wrote one of the most moving, inspiring and sublime poems in the English language called INVICTUS.

Invictus

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll.
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

Out of the pain and suffering of his own personal life, out of the courage, and faith, and fortitude with which he accepted the cruel blows of fate one after the other, came “INVICTUS”—one of the most emotionally powerful and uplifting poems ever written. Today in English speaking schools all over the world, children learn to memorise and recite this inspiring poem. Though they may not entirely understand the meaning of its words, they feel the unmistakable impact of its force and power. And to countless thousands of men and women faced with sorrow, pain or fear, it has brought the courage to accept the blows of fate, to triumph over physical handicaps, and carry on with head unbowed.

William Henley wrote many poems in his lifetime, but on the strength of “INVICTUS” alone he has won immortality. ‘Invictus’ has brought new hope and the will to live to many who nearly lost their way, many who werer on the point of giving up. ‘Invictus’ belongs to mankind, now and for all the ages to come. Of all the poems ever written, this one perhaps typifies man’s rich inspirational heritage. If ‘Invictus’ has attained immortality and belongs to all mankind, so is the heroic example of PENG SHUILIN, THE SAGA OF WHOSE LIFE ALSO BELONGS TO THE AGES.

The best tribute I can pay to PENG SHUILIN for the spectacular victory of his indomitable spirit over his flesh can only be in the soaring words of WALT WHITMAN.

WALT WHITMAN (1819-1892).

O joy of suffering!

To struggle against great odds! to meet enemies undaunted!

To be entirely alone with them! to find how much one can stand!

To look strife, torture, prison, popular odium, death, face to face!

To mount the scaffold! to advance to the muzzles of guns with perfect

nonchalance!

TO BE INDEED A GOD!