由 Wayne » 週四 4月 06, 2006 4:52 pm
Not long ago, a video of the most breathtaking ten-second video was wanted for a lucrative reward offered by a German TV station. Videos by photo journalists flooded in, and the activity became the focus of the society at the time. Among the participating videos, the one with the title of “Hit the Ground” won the contest lopsidedly. The credit to this video went to an unknown, young photographer who just started his career. People just couldn't wait to see the video. A few weeks later, the winning video finally debuted on a primetime TV program. That night, many people were sitting in front of their TV watching the broadcast of this video. Before the show, there were moments of breathless waiting, quenchless curiosity, and pointless discussion by the audience. Ten seconds later, their eyes were full of tears.
After the ten seconds, the entire German audience were silenced for ten long minutes -- no exaggeration.
The story was told in the ten-second video like this. At a train station, a railway switchman was walking towards his work post to switch the tracks when a train from the far side was chugging its way towards him. At the other end of the tracks, another train was approaching the train station. Unless he switched the tracks for the train towards him, a clash of the trains would be expected. At this moment, he turned around and accidentally spotted his son playing at the other end of the tracks on which the train that was coming from the train station was rumbling. To save his own son, or to switch the tracks to avoid a disaster, he had merely split seconds to make a choice. At the instant, he yelled to his son, authoritatively, “Hit the ground!” Meanwhile, he dashed to the switch and shunted the train from the far side into another line. Within seconds, the train from the far side entered the designated line while the train from the other end was rolling past the switchman. The passengers on both trains did not realize that their lives were just hanging by a thread moments ago, nor did they know a young life was lying on the ground beside the tracks. The trains were roaring past by the boy, but he was left intact and unharmed.
The scenes were caught by the photographer who happened to pass by. They figured the switchman had to be a remarkable person, but later on he turned out to be just an ordinary man, who knew nothing but devote himself to his duty and never had a minute of delay at his job. Surprisingly enough, his son was a mentally challenged child. The switchman said to the journalists he told his son again and again: “You won't be able to do a lot of things when you grow up, but you've gotta be able to do something well.” The simpleminded son did not understand what his father told him; however, at the breath of life and death, he hit the ground. That's the only words he understood and could do best when he played the war game with his dad.
Knowledge is power -- when shared.
