Gao Huan

Had human beings no faith, they would have been a dead leaf that the mortality-orientated prevailing wind bears, a swift cloud to fly with the breezes of uncertainty, a wave to pant beneath the storm of instinct, a bonfire to be extinguished in the downpour of misery.

Faith is the magic that only human beings are able to use on themselves. Endowed with its amazing power, human beings have made themselves a history so significant in breath, though so insignificant in length, compared with that of the other beings on this planet.

People always have to believe in something innately and desperately. They need something to turn to; they never allow blank minds as Nature does not allow perfect vacuum.

At the dawn of civilization, people created various gods to incarnate the natural phenomena to explain the unexplainable. Thus they found their faith as well as their own identity, then they could go on with their earthly business.

Throughout the progress of the human race, conflicts of all kinds kept arising unendingly. People wondered for what they had to suffer like that. To fight off this bewilderment and helplessness, spiritual leaders and saviors of various religions descended to tell people why they suffered and what they should live for. Once an answer was given and a faith reestablished, people found it much easier to live. Narcotic as it might have been, this faith relieved the afflicted human beings of the pain temporarily.

The wagon of history rolled on, people got more enlightened with the discoveries in science, the focus on democracy and the contemplation of philosophies. Their accustomed faith unable to hold water. Some strived for another faith that they could depend upon without doubt. Copernicus was not the only one who sacrificed his life for what he believed to be truth. The brand new faith in knowledge and progress speed up the wagon of history unprecedentedly .

However, the world of today still remains a most miscellaneous one. Different people have different faiths. So many isms have led to collision, conciliation and compassion on economic, political, cultural, ethnical, social and personal levels. Some believe in religion, some believe in atheism. Some believe in pacifism and negotiation, some believe terrorism and bombs. Some believe in the beauty of generosity and altruism, some believe in the ugliness of selfishness and egoism. Some believe in love, some believe in hate. Some believe in law, some believe in self-control and some believe in instinct. But everyone has something to believe in. Even those nihilists��they believe in nothingness.

It is for this faith rooted in everyone��s heart, whether right or wrong, that people carry on energetically. I am no exception. My faith lies in the improvement of future. Every tomorrow is becoming a today. So I seize the day and do my best because I am a part of the future as well as the present. Every time I feel like a toy in the hands of capricious worldly events, every time I get bruised or even bleed upon the thorns of life where paradoxes abound, it is my faith that braces me up and keeps me so hopeful. It tells me, when you have misinterpreted the world, you really can��t blame it for having cheated you. Put in an extremely cool light, this fact is disheartening enough: Things we have done will be undone by Death one day. Why didn��t I just shuffle off this mortal coil, since to die is to sleep? But with my steadfast faith in my heart, my fire for life is burning bright. Quite a few of my efforts have been recognized. Things ARE getting better. That��s the power of faith, the magic confidence in a future that I haven��t seen yet, but I believe in time.

If you ask me what is the art of faith, my answer is faithfulness and artlessness.

Faith is in everyone��s heart. This extraordinary force has been pushing the mankind forward and leading them astray sometimes. The point is to find a faith and make sure it deserves your life. Then strive for it heart and soul, free of any wile and guile. And that is the art of faith.

Written on March 23, 1998, won me a prize in Professor Anna Lincoln English Writing Contest.

Copyright © Gao Huan All Rights Reserved