All the people in the world can be divided into three kinds from the height of soul: one is those who are crushed by life, who are desperate, failed and depressed, although they are still alive; The other is people who are increasingly numb by life. They are indifferent and heartless, lose their response to beauty and ugliness, and don't know whether to be good or to be jealous of evil. Life has faded for them, just waiting for death to end for them; Although the third kind of people have experienced hardships, they have overcome them by relying on the will of superman, so that they can keep making progress in a difficult environment and get the pleasure of life. This is the kind of person who lives firmly on the earth, but his soul is flying freely. Undoubtedly, Dong Taoping, a first-class paraplegic artist, is such a person lying in a wheelchair and flying.
Data Map
Approaching Dong Taoping
In the south of Caiyun, Fuyuan County, which is famous for its rich resources and is known as the "hometown of eight treasures", konjac is everywhere, black pigs are famous, and how many little-known stories are hidden in the homes of ordinary people? On the one hand, the soil and water nurture the people on the other, and on the other hand, the land also carries the splendid civilization on the other.
On May 13th, 213, my friend Dong Kun and I, accompanied by Song Laicai, a teacher from the Disabled Persons' Federation, crossed a deeply winding alley and came to the home of Dong Taoping, a first-class paraplegic painter, for the first time.
I was shocked by what I saw. This is a low and cramped two-story asbestos tile house, which is less than 3 meters high and covers an area of about 16 square meters. It is built with all kinds of old bricks. Strictly speaking, it can't be regarded as a house, and even the barn in rural areas is more exquisite than it.
Head down the door, go down the next step, and walk into the room. It's very narrow, dark and damp. Indoor appliances and furnishings are extremely old, with a shabby three-seat sofa, a small cupboard, an old table, a 14-inch TV set on the table, and no other decent furniture. When two or three people enter the room, they find it difficult to turn around and the air is not smooth. A wooden ladder can bow to the attic, which is the top floor, where his parents and two teenage brothers live.
The house is simple, primitive and poor. Only the red couplets posted on the door show a little warm color. Even such a house was given by Dong Taoping's uncle. Dong Taoping was lying on a wooden bed at the end of the room, surrounded by paintings, books, and pen and ink.
In shock, I sighed in my heart: Life could have been so simple-just a few pieces of drawing paper and a brush. Life can be so rich, just a few pieces of drawing paper and a brush, and your lips can be full of smiles and satisfaction. Who can imagine? It is in such a dark and humble hut that a person who has no consciousness and action ability from the chest down has created countless excellent works in bed.
Dong Taoping's father goes out to run an electric motorcycle during the day, soliciting customers to earn money to support his family, and his mother takes care of him at home every day, basically never leaving for a long time, such as water for daily life, washing face with water and painting. His mother is an ordinary middle-aged woman with a kind face. Her face is full of vicissitudes of life and she wears simple clothes. She gave us water and tea enthusiastically, and said happily that Taoping began to enjoy the national minimum living guarantee fee for rural areas in 6 yuan every month last year, and her tone was full of gratitude to the government.
Dong Taoping (data map)
Unbearable weight of life
Before the age of sixteen, Taoping was also a lively and cheerful teenager, jumping between green grass and streams with his schoolbag on his back, often wandering under the blue sky, imagining his distant future: I hope to be a poet who travels all over the mountains and rivers, or a man who wears green clothes and holds steel in his hands. However, at the age of sixteen, an unexpected change shattered all his dreams.
It was in 21 that Dong Taoping, who was still in the third grade of Qingxi Middle School, just turned sixteen and went to Kunming to work during the winter vacation, hoping to earn some tuition fees to reduce the burden on his parents. But just a few days after he arrived, he accidentally fell into a pile well on the construction site at work.
that physical fall, in his feeling, seemed to fall into the abyss of life. After falling out of time and space in an instant, the sharp sting of his body made him unconscious. When he woke up, he was already in another world: there were snow-white walls in front of him, infusion bottles hung high on his head, and there was a ticking sound of liquid falling in the infusion tube.
In the hospital bed of Kunming Red Cross Hospital, the unbearable pain in his back never stops. His father's suddenly old and melancholy face, his mother's helpless and infinitely cherished tears and huge medical expenses were unimaginable at the age of 16.
However, in his vague pain, he vaguely heard his parents' discussion. The seventh and eighth spinal nerves were punctured by bones. After consultation, the doctors in the hospital thought that it was impossible to operate, and with the infection of the wound, they might lose their lives at any time. They had given him critical notices many times, and even the most famous surgeon in the hospital said that it was impossible to cure them. Let's leave the hospital.
A desperate patient who can't be treated in a hospital was taken back to a poor farmhouse in Fuyuan County by his parents. However, he spent more than 8, yuan in cash borrowed by his parents in the hospital for only a few tens of days.
In a small and humble farmhouse, apart from supporting Dong Taoping's other three brothers, how do parents feel when faced with such a patient with pus and ulcers on his back and legs? However, children are the pride and treasure of their parents, and ten fingers are connected with their hearts. Parents did not abandon the disabled child because of the hardship of life, but asked around for medicine, continued to give Dong Taoping Chinese herbal medicine, and cleaned his wounds day and night.
Maybe God is merciful and moved by the sincerity of the parents, or maybe the age of sixteen is too young and full of vitality. As the days passed, the man who was dragged by death miraculously began to get better.
After careful care by his parents, Taoping's life was finally saved, but when he had a clear consciousness and wanted to move his legs, his legs were unresponsive, and he no longer obeyed his consciousness. What was most embarrassing to him was that he was completely unable to exercise from the chest down and was incontinent.
When he saw his parents helping him clean up the toilet, his heart was filled with contempt for life. My parents gave me life and brought me up one by one. After sixteen years, do you want to clean my shit and urine again every day? He has an unavoidable aversion to life. What's the point of living if it only increases the burden on his parents? In particular, he couldn't bear to see his parents' faces aging prematurely because of fatigue and anxiety, and the growing financial constraints at home.
One day, he tearfully begged his mother, "Don't make me a burden to this family, just let me go!" The heartbroken mother cried bitterly with her son in her arms: "Son, you must live well. Your father and I will support you when the sky falls!"
At this time, it will be his happiness if there are drugs around him that can make him die. However, without the help of others, he can't move, and I'm afraid it's hard to raise money for sleeping pills at home.
In despair, he began to refuse to eat, staring at the mottled and dim furniture in the room with dementia. However, just when he was close to collapse, a clear idea suddenly jumped out of his mind: a person must have a conscience, so I died. If nothing else, can I live up to my parents who take care of themselves day and night and look forward to getting better? The parents, who are prematurely old and thin, are heavily in debt for themselves. While taking care of themselves, their father is still doing farm work in the field. Can I stab them again? ..... I can't die! I want to live! To die, you have to repay your parents' kindness before you have the right to die. So, he began to eat greedily. Although it was simple food, he felt extremely sweet, just to give his hard-working and poor parents a little spiritual comfort.
Where there is a will, there is a way.
Since then, despite physical pain, there is always a satisfied smile on his face. He thought to himself that my body could not move and my mind was still free. Thinking of the success stories of Paul and Zhang Haidi in school textbooks, why can't I do something in bed like them? First of all, he thought of writing, so he begged his parents to contact him with a literature correspondence class. When his parents saw that their children no longer wanted to die, a stone fell from their hearts and a smile appeared on their faces. Although bitter and tired, but the children are so sensible and full of love, the dilapidated and difficult home is full of family happiness.
after one year, although he didn't make any achievements in writing, he felt full and happy in the process of hard work because he had a goal.
One day while reading a publication, a painting and calligraphy exhibition column attracted him, and his eyes were fixed on the traditional Chinese painting of the publication, and he couldn't move away any more. The works seem to be alive, telling him different languages, and his soul suddenly entered a magical world. Through one work after another, he felt vivid hearts, some telling him the beauty of the world that is difficult to express in words, some suggesting the happiness of living and struggling in the world, and some expressing the wonderful tranquility of heaven. What a strange world! He was completely fascinated.
From then on, whenever there was a painting program on TV, he watched and listened intently, and asked his parents to borrow books about painting and calligraphy and study them eagerly. "I want to be a painter and express all my infinite nostalgia and love for the world!" At the age of nineteen, he secretly swore in his heart. After a long period of study and experience, he has mastered enough knowledge of calligraphy and painting for more than a year, so he asked his parents to buy painting paper and brushes and began to create.
However, creation is not so easy. From how to hold the pen to how to draw a decent work without shaking it in his hand, he has experienced unimaginable difficulties, but he has been practicing persistently. Busy and monotonous life, witness is a hill of paintings around him. So he began to contribute hopefully, one, two, ten, one hundred ... How many times he waited hopefully, but nothing happened. Repeated disappointments have made him doubt his own way and life, but a more frustrated and courageous fighting spirit and indomitable toughness have made him never give up.
After numerous submissions, his works entered the exhibition for the first time in 27 at the "Welcome the Olympics and Love China" painting and calligraphy art exhibition sponsored by China Artists Association. In 28, he won the Excellence Award for the first time in the 4th China Youth Calligraphy Art Competition hosted by the Youth League Central Committee. He was very excited when he received the award certificate.
"I am no longer a cripple, and I can make achievements in bed." His hands danced with joy, as if a wheelchair were floating above the sky, accompanied by clouds. This is not only the success of his painting, but also the breakthrough of his life. He found his own reason for survival, which no healthy person can understand.
"I'm not a cripple anymore! I am no longer a cripple! " How many times did he wake up with a loud cry of joy in his dream? The joy of success inspired the young man to go forward in high spirits. He determined the direction of going forward and found his own coordinates. He galloped across the world with a brush, letting youth and life draw the most beautiful trajectory. After that, learning, creating, winning prizes, certificates and awards with red bronzing, and snowflakes flew in, and he finally succeeded.
There is a famous saying by the western philosopher Haber: "Life is a school. There, it is better to say that a good teacher is unfortunate than a good teacher is happy. " Misfortune can make people lose a certain function or even life, but it can also give people new life.
Love and donation, good deeds are like the sun and the moon.
Although the room is simple now, facing his thin body, bright eyes, young, satisfied and happy expression, standing in a low and dark hut full of awards and certificates, what I feel is the boundless joy and self-confidence emanating from his tenacious vitality.
Now, his achievements are obvious to all, and his selfless contributions are well known. At the charity donation ceremony of "Chinese Soul, Art and Olympic Companion" held by CCTV in 21, his work "Yun Qi Thousand Peaks Show" was successfully auctioned at a price of 1, yuan, and all of it was selflessly donated to the Daai Dust Clearing Fund of the China Social Assistance Foundation to help the sick miners. In the face of his achievements, his heart was calm. When he was sitting in a wheelchair facing the CCTV microphone, he slowly and clearly spit out golden words: "Although my feet have lost the ability to move, my heart is moving and my hands are moving. Although I am also a person in need of help, I hope to help more people with my own efforts ... "Sincerity and strength touched the whole venue, and I was hired as a distinguished painter by China XuBeihong Painting Academy of the Ministry of Culture on the spot. Dong Taoping often said: "It is our responsibility and mission to do something for the society, and it will also make my life meaningful."
in January, 211, Dong Taoping learned that two works were donated to the charity exhibition of "Love Inheritance, Calligraphy and Painting", which was hosted by China Calligraphy and Painting Research Institute and Beijing Zhongyi Yanjing Painting and Calligraphy Institute.
In April, 211, Jiangsu Hope Project Office and Jiangsu Youth Development Foundation launched the "Dream Realization" campaign for the purpose of helping outstanding poor college students overcome temporary difficulties and realize their college dreams. Dong Taoping selflessly donated three paintings and calligraphy works.
In August, 211, Hebei Hongdao Culture Communication Co., Ltd., School of Art and Design of Nanjing Institute of Technology, Great Wall Network Celebrity Enterprise Network and Daoxing Tianxia Public Welfare Network hosted the "Daoxing Tianxia" national painting and calligraphy exhibition charity sale. Dong Taoping donated seven paintings and calligraphy works, and the first calligraphy work was auctioned in 9 yuan. The money raised by the charity sale will be used for the purchase of livestock, farm tools and books in Huaigeda Village, Zanhuang County, the old revolutionary base area.
In April, 213, Chinese Calligrapher magazine and CCTV Digital TV Calligraphy and Painting Channel jointly launched an initiative to donate calligraphy and painting works to help Ya 'an disaster-stricken compatriots tide over the difficulties and rebuild their homes with practical actions. Dong Taoping donated two works.
At the same time, the "Lushan Peace and Quiet Years" sponsored by Art Newspaper donated paintings and calligraphy to schools in the disaster area, and Dong Taoping donated two paintings and calligraphy works.
Since 22, the epidemic situation in COVID-19 has been as fierce as a tiger, and it has also touched his heart. He donated two of his beloved works, The Sound of the Countryside and A New Touch of Green in Spring, online, and all the proceeds were donated to charitable foundations for prevention and control in Covid-19.
He thinks that a valuable person should actively put into action when the society needs it. Through contact with the society, his thoughts jumped out of the scope of his family. What he wanted was not only to repay his parents, but also to respond.