Little Wall Catcher
Meet Li. She’s a local in Jinshanling, China, who stands at approximately 4’11 and motors around at 65 wearing an old, old red Nike hat, trousers, and her favourite pair of hand-me-up sneaks she inherited from her grandchild. She shuffled alongside our tour group on The Great Wall, fulfilling her duties as a Wall Catcher. She carried the doctor’s medical backpack that hung almost to her bum, offered a tiny, surprisingly strong hand to yank us up the steepest of steps, and yelled in her limited second language, “slow, slow!” and, “careful!” all day. Her laughter was a deep belly burst, the kind you’d only expect to escape from the throat of a large, middle-aged man named Bruce… or Hoyt. Her smile was a permanent fixture on her face the same as her nose, her physical state barely revealed a hint of her unmatched Great Wall mileage and the history in her eyes rivalled that of the Great Wonder itself.
At the end of our day’s climb, she suddenly turned and sprinted back toward the wall, shouting in her native tongue and waving her hands in the air like a mad woman. We all looked at each other in confusion as she disappeared, her hollers still lingering in the dust behind her. We stood and waited, unsure of her dilemma. When she finally came back down the hill, we saw in her right hand the source of her panic. She carried with her a plastic bag; one she had kept at her side the entire day, repeatedly counting its contents. Inside that bag were our empty bottles we would have tossed aside had she not asked to keep them all. The plastic stretched to its limits, threatening to tear with every bounce as she ran toward us, waving and smiling and pointing at the bag. She laughed and shook her head at herself, did the old face-palm and breathed a sigh of relief that would’ve put out every candle on a 99-year-old’s birthday cake.
I thought of her today as I continued my never-ending job hunt and felt the wrinkles of worry on my forehead caused by unemployment. I imagine Little Li the Wall Catcher is somewhere collecting bottles and aiding Westerners on their climb, and I am here using advanced technology to apply for jobs I am qualified for because of an opportunity for higher education.
Perspective. One of our basic needs Maslow mighta missed.