1 post tagged “sichuan”

Being buried alive has been one of my greatest fears since I was a child, when I saw some television movie that showed a woman who had been buried alive. They showed her face in profile, absurdly backlit, and dirt was trickling into her mouth. Not really the sort of thing a young child should be watching (not that I'm blaming anyone; I can't even remember whose house I was in. I bounced around a lot). As to whether being buried alive is my greatest fear, I'm not sure; being burned alive is right up there, too. It's pretty much a toss-up. Being buried alive is probably less painful, but it's a relatively slow death, I suppose. Which means you have that much more time to think about the fact that you have been buried alive and you are unlikely to survive it. Being burned alive would be excruciating, but you would probably be so focused on extinguishing the flames that you wouldn't have time for things to sink in, and soon enough you'd pass out from smoke inhalation or pain. That's my guess, anyway. I don't think I want to understand it in much more detail.

So, needless to say, I don't envy Li Wanzhi and her husband, Wang Zhijun, the experience of having been buried alive for twenty-eight hours in the aftermath of the Sichuan earthquake on May 12. Not in the least. I do envy them, just a little, for their "new start." The knowledge of what their marriage is worth has hit them like the proverbial ton of bricks. Who knows if it will last? Maybe they'll be back to bickering in a month. Maybe Mr. Wang is a wastrel and a fool. Maybe Ms. Li, mourning the loss of her arm, will become an alcoholic and a shrew. I don't know. All I know is that these stories, as horrible as they are, make an otherwise banal partnership seem noble somehow.