VIS Demonstration Artwork [Heritage Quilt]

Crossing [吊橋的故事]

About choosing courage, from a recording of my mom telling her earliest childhood memory:

我要講一個關於吊橋的故事。
當我大概五六歲時（大約是 1972 或 73 ），我經常和父親一起去山腰和溪流進行測量。他曾在國家政府擔任土木工程師。有一天，我和他與他的一些同事一起去調查。東花蓮山真的很高，當時公共交通很不方便。懸索橋是居民在山上四處移動的唯一方式。此外，花蓮颱風多，橋樑經常被吹倒。我爸爸必須和一群工程師一起做勘測工作來建造一座新的懸索橋。有一次在山裡，他們都走在前面，我不敢過橋，因為那老東西看起來太可怕了。其他工程師自願背著我過河，但我父親不允許。
“這個女孩需要鼓起勇氣自己越過它，”他堅持的說。 “她需要克服恐懼，才能克服她生活中的任何目標。她需要能夠接受它們。”
現在，每當我在生活中遇到障礙時，我總是聽到爸爸告訴我，我必須有勇氣去克服它。如果沒有勇氣，我將無法到達任何地方。

I’m going to tell a story about a suspension bridge.
When I was about five or six (roughly 1972 or 73), I would often go surveying with my dad on the mountainside and along the streams. He worked for the country government as a civil engineer.

One day, I went surveying with him and some of his coworkers. Eastern Hualien has really high mountains and public transpiration was really inconvenient back then. Suspension bridges were the only way residents could get around in the mountains. In addition, Hualien got a lot of typhoons so the bridges would often get blown down. My dad would have to go with a group of engineers to do survey work to build a new suspension bridge.

One time in the mountains with them, they all walked ahead across the bridge but I didn’t dare cross it because that old thing looked too terrifying. The other engineers volunteered to take me on their backs to help me cross but my father wouldn’t allow it.

“This girl needs to find the courage to cross it herself,” he insisted. “She needs to overcome her fear in order to overcome any future goals in her life. She needs to be able to take them on.”

Now, whenever I encounter obstacles in my life, I always hear my dad telling me I have to have the courage to overcome it. I wouldn’t be able to get anywhere without the courage.

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At the far end of the bridge in the artwork, my grandfather and his colleagues are barely visible.