Keep the boundaries in the face of traffic (people's livelihood view)
Enthusiasm without boundaries, no matter how sincere, will become sour; care without proper care will become an unbearable burden for others.
Recently, "Grandpa Calabash" has become popular.
Things started out tenderly. In Shaoxing, Zhejiang, 75-year-old Chen Jinao, who lost his only child, and his wife Shen Hualing live alone in their small courtyard all year round and rarely interact with others. Grandpa Chen accidentally planted a gourd on the balcony of his small courtyard. Because it reminded him of the gourd brothers in the classic animation, he was accidentally photographed by netizens and uploaded to the Internet, which moved countless people. People came from all over to watch the gourd and "Grandpa Calabash Baby", and their warm greetings and warmth dispelled the loneliness of the old man.
But the warmth quickly changed. After Grandpa Chen became popular, tourists flocked to the place to check in, take pictures at close range, and stay for long periods of time to make noise, which disrupted the old man's daily life. On the evening of September 5th, Grandpa Chen and his wife cut the gourds together, waved goodbye to the tourists and said "good night".
The development of this matter makes people think about one word - boundary.
What are the boundaries? It is the invisible wall between people that should exist - it distinguishes "you" from "me", "public" from "private", "enthusiasm" from "distraction".
When traffic comes, the boundaries of private life can easily be broken. It only took a few days from seeing each other across the river to swarming us. At first, the kindness was so genuine that people dropped their greetings and quietly walked away. But as the goodwill gathered more and more, he gradually lost his sense of proportion: the camera moved step by step from the other side to the window, the shouts changed from occasional to frequent, the old man had to interact with tourists dozens or even hundreds of times a day, and even having a stable dinner became a luxury.
This is reminiscent of what happened after the "lonely tree" became popular in Xi'an, Shaanxi Province. Tourists flooded into wheat fields and destroyed crops. Villagers had no choice but to cut down the tree crowns to protect their crops. There is also "Grandpa Sugar Water" Xie Yong'an, who has been selling sugar water for 17 years in Wuhan, Hubei Province. A glass of sugar water costs two yuan, and the elderly and children are free. After becoming popular, he was questioned about the hygiene of the stall and was harassed online. He had no choice but to put away the stall and return to his hometown. The openings of these stories are heart-warming, but the endings are helpless - a tree and a person "fall" on the crossed border.
There should be a boundary between kindness and intrusion. When tourists call "Grandpa" across the river, it is a collective nostalgia for childhood and a warm interaction with the elderly. But people come in droves to check in and live broadcast, which becomes a kind of emotional solicitation. Some people want to interact with the elderly and get some material for posting on social media, but they pretend not to see that this kind of behavior is intruding and even consuming the daily life of the elderly. This kind of boundless enthusiasm will become sour no matter how sincere it is; caring without proper care will become an unbearable burden for others.
If you like a flower, you don't have to pick it; to appreciate a beauty, you don't have to break its peace. In the face of traffic, we should guard that boundary, because what we guard is not only the peace of life of the two elderly people, but also the society's understanding of goodwill.
(He Yuche People’s Daily)
