Ambitions

It may sound incoherent, but I would like to dedicate this short comics to all politicians present and future.
The story in this strip (I drew it for a cartoons/comics competition when I was in the second year in U) was inspired by a beautiful poem, 雨丝 (rain), by famous Taiwanese poet, 郑愁予.

For my story, I borrowed three lines from the poem, to create a certain nostalgic mood for the first pane (by the way, read from right to left, starting from the top-right corner and ending in the bottom-left pane). The poem is too beautiful to be faithfully translated, but let me try to give you an idea of what the three verses say:

we used to play in the huge transparent forest
we used to bathe our feet in the waterless stream
it was a riverbed filled with lotus-leave lanterns

***

The conversation between the boy and the girl goes like this:

Boy: "When I grow up, I want to be a soldier and conquer the whole world!"

(a long pause)

Girl: "After you conquered the whole world, will you still accompany me here to pick pebbles?"

(an even longer pause)

Boy: "When I grow up, I want to be a fisherman."

***

To me, this story is about the choice between pursuing our wildest ambition and maintaining our humanity.

I will not say, "curb all your ambitions"; after all, a man without any ambition is not a man. However, we must never forget to stop and consider what we are sacrificing to pursue that ambition.

If it means giving up being a person who is capable of love, tenderness, and compassion towards fellow human beings, it is never worth it.

***

Having said that, I'm not trying to say, "don't become a politician". Politicians are necessary; in fact, some are called to be politicians.

But it is my sincere wish that all politicians of this world will rediscover in their hearts that tender little boy who is wise enough to know where to draw the line on personal ambition, so that they remain capable of feeling for the needs of those they started out to serve.