Thursday, February 28, 2008

China's Great Wall of Silence: Mr. Wang Standing Before the Painting of Him and Bian

I had seen photos of this event previously,

but I had not seen this one until last night,

on the China Information Center website

(http://www.cicus.org/). I immediately copied it and

posted it here, and then I began to compose

an accompanying text.


After trying out different approaches I realized

that nothing I could write would do it justice,

not even a post title. So I let it stand alone.


We all have pathos in our personal lives, and

there is more that we see all around us. We get

an extra dose of it in our day jobs and we just

deal with it.


And most of us, now matter how much pathos

we experience, still maintain a deep reserve of

empathy and passion. We are still capable of

being moved.


I am sure that I have been moved more deeply,

or as deeply, as I was when I saw this photograph

last night. But I don't remember when. This is

Benjamin Harris.