The Woman God Put On Earth To….

Many years ago John Denver introduced Tina Turner at the Grammys this way:

“She’s the woman God put on earth to show other women how to dance in high heels.”

This has nothing to do with high heels, dancing, Tina Turner, or John Denver, but I thought about his line last night when I learned about the death of Nien Cheng. In my mind, she is one of the people God put on earth to show us how to live with strength, dignity, and grace when life is hard.

If you’ve heard my song “Stand Like Mountain, Move Like Water,” you know a bit of her story. She was living in Shanghai in the ’60s during Mao’s Cultural Revolution. She was dragged out of her home and thrown into prison, for being an educated woman. She endured extreme hardship, deprivation, and solitary confinement for nearly seven years until the political climate changed and she was released. Eventually she made her way to this country, wrote a best seller, and was a frequent guest at The White House.

Her book is a riveting account of her life, how she survived the brutality of prison, and emerged from all of the torment in some ways even stronger than before.

I got to know Nien Cheng and even visit her a few times, courtesy of my friend Brian Luke Seaward. She became one of my heroes. Of course there are other such people, and we all have ones we look up to. When we read about their creativity, intelligence, dignity, strength, and grace surviving difficult times, it makes us stronger. It gives us hope.

I’m not one of the people who buys into the notion that life is supposed to be easy, that life should be glorious and wonderful all the time. I prefer the M. Scott Peck philosophy, expressed in The Road Less Traveled: if you start from the premise that life isn’t supposed to be easy, everything makes more sense.

Challenges are what make us stronger. They inspire and stimulate our innate abilities and resources. If we want to build up our bodies, we have to stress our muscles in order for them to grow stronger. We can’t do it by lifting air. We have to put some weight on the bar.

Our life muscles work the same way. A bit of stress (hopefully) kick starts our creativity, strength, resourcefulness, intelligence. Even our grace and dignity. In responding to challenges with determination and creativity, we become stronger in every way. This is how we evolve, both as a person and as a soul.

Nien Cheng was 94 years old. Her story is riveting, empowering, and in the end, hopeful. If you’re experiencing any difficulty in your life at the moment, I humbly suggest to pay attention to what stories you are paying attention to.

If you haven’t already, I sincerely encourage you to read her book, Life And Death In Shanghai.

* You can read a bit more about Nien Cheng and the unlikely series of events that led to writing the song about her (as well as many other empowering and funny true stories), in my book Atilla The Gate Agent: Travel Tales and Life Lessons From A Musical Laf-ologist.

* The song “Stand Like Mountain, Move Like Water” was nominated for a Posi Award, It’s on my CD Art From The Heart. You can listen to part of it here.

© 2009 Greg Tamblyn