Thoughts Under the Banyan Tree

Author: Li Changjun
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-08-01
Features: Love, when a friend took his child to the park, they passed by a street corner and saw a middle-aged man in ragged clothes sitting by the roadside, playing the erhu. The music he played could be considered quite poor. In front of him was an old bowl, and it seemed few people gave him money. The friend stopped, stood there listening for a while, then said to the child, "We heard him play music. Shouldn’t we give him some money? You can take it to him." The child took a coin and walked over, throwing it into the old bowl. The middle-aged man quickly said, "Thank you." The child ran to his father’s side, waiting for his father’s praise. The friend knelt down and asked his child, "How did you give him the money?" The child replied, "I threw it into the bowl." The friend said, "Throwing is disrespectful. You can’t just throw it." The child said, "But Dad, he’s a beggar." The friend patted the child’s head: "First, he’s a person just like us. Look, he didn’t ask anyone for money—he’s earning a living with his music. Either we don’t give him money, or if we do, we must do it politely. Do you understand?" The child took another coin from his father and walked to the bowl, bent down, and placed the coin inside. Then he came back, holding his father’s hand, walking away with something on his mind. I also remember a story. A CEO of an American company always walked home after work. Every time, he would encounter a war veteran. The veteran had lost both his legs in the war and was living by selling pencils on the roadside. The CEO often threw some spare change to the veteran. One day, when the CEO was leaving work, he saw the veteran and threw a few coins, then continued walking. But he didn’t go far before turning back to the veteran, bending down, picking up a few pencils, and saying, "I’m sorry. You’re a pencil seller, I shouldn’t have treated you like that." Love is not charity. Love is not pity. Love requires you to give with an equal attitude. Only in that moment when you bend down does love truly come into play. (Written by Zhuang Feng)