The Watchmaker Choplogic

The watchmaker analogy consists of the comparison of some natural phenomenon to a watch.  Typically, the analogy is presented as a prelude to the teleological argument and improbability.  This is generally presented like this:

• The complex inner workings of a watch necessitate an intelligent designer.  No one could expect by putting all the components of a watch in a sealed black box and shake it for even a very long period of time, a workable watch could be developed.
• As with a watch, the complexity of X (a particular organ or organism, the structure of the solar system, life, the entire universe) necessitates a designer because it is very improbable that complex structures could be developed just by some simple physics in our universe.

But this argument of improbability and teleological is very often deviated from the fact.  It is similar to what most people would expect the chance should be less than 10% in a group of randomly selected students, say 30, with 2 of them were born on the same day of the year.  Perhaps, in human brains, there are some kind of misfired mechanisms always make us underestimate the probability of something that could be happened without our interference.

Here is a simple analogy trying to show people who still believe in the Watchmaker argument, how wrong they could be.  The analogue card game is like this:

In one shot of cards (52) , each time send 1 out to the table until it get to 13.  Then whenever 1 card is sent to the table, 1 card should be taken away at random from the cards on the table.  The question is:  What is the probability (after the 52 cards are all sent out to the table and 39 cards are taken away randomly) to get a full house (13 cards with the same suit) on the table eventually?

The calculation should be somewhat as below:

or

 
Both equations give out the same result.  The chance of the result (i.e. after sending out the 52 cards, the remained 13 cards are all in the same suit) is pretty small, around 6.3 E-12 (that is less than 0.000000001%).   If this has to be happened by random, it could be said very very improbable. 

Nonetheless, if a very simple selection rule is applied (no need of a designer to design this rule, no need a guardian to monitor the process throughout or to change the rule to achieve the result) the chance of getting this result (i.e. after sending out the 52 cards, the remained 13 cards are all in the same suit) could be increased tremendously.  And perhaps, "tremendously" is even not the right word to describe this.

The simple rule is: preserve the card with the same suit and reject cards with different suits whenever a new card is sent out to the table. 

With this simple rule in place, the chance of achieving a full house after finishing all the 52 cards becomes 100%.  That is to say,  this is for certain there will be a full house on the table before or when the 52 cards finished.  The improvement of the chance is from 0.000000001% to 100% certainty this will be achieved.  That is why the adjective "tremendously" seems a bit weak in this case to describe the betterment.

This calculation answers the Watchmaker choplogic is in fact a fallacy.  No matter how improbable it may seem that a watch could be developed with all the components in place by shaking it in a black box even for million of years, just with a little simple rule of selection, the situation turns 180 degree.  And this is how natural selection works.  The selection criterion (only cards with the same suit remain) could be a very good analogy to kin selection or species with similar characteristics which have the best survival rate in a particular environment. 

Back to the question about birthday mentioned in the beginning of this article.  Many things appear to be very improbable in the first sight and are found that the probability is in fact very high either by mathematical modeling or by experiments.  The answer may surprise for those who did not meet the question before.  Because the answer is over 50% chance, in fact it is over 70% chance there will be 2 people have birthdays on the same day of the year in a group of 30 randomly selected person.  The calculation is as below:

After all, the watch analogy does not function as a premise to an argument — rather it functions as a rhetorical device and a preamble. Its purpose is to establish the plausibility of the general premise: you can tell, simply by looking at something, whether or not it was the product of intelligent design.

In most formulations of the argument, the characteristic that indicates intelligent design is left implicit. In some formulations, the characteristic is orderliness or complexity (which is a form of order). In other cases it is clearly being designed for a purpose, where "clearly" is usually left undefined.

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Ten Commandments

The New 10 Commandments:

1. In all things, strive to cause no harm and suffering.
2. Do not do to others what you would not want them to do to you.
3. Treat your fellow human beings, your fellow living things, and the world in general with love, honesty, faithfulness and respect.
4. Do not overlook evil or shrink from administering justice, but always be ready to forgive wrongdoing freely admitted and honestly regretted.
5. Live life with a sense of joy and wonder.
6. Always seek to be learning something new.
7. Test all things; always check your ideas against the facts, and be ready to discard even a cherished belief if it does not conform to them.
8. Never seek to censor or cut yourself off from dissent; always respect the right of others to disagree with you.
9. Form independent opinions on the basis of your own reason and experience; do not allow yourself to be led blindly by others.
10. Question everything.

No matter how nicely the original 10 Commandments be put, such as this nice little song above, the commandments are nothing more than a cruel and naive tribal rules.  They are also addressed to a group that has been promised the land and flocks of other people: the Amalekites and Midianites and others whom God orders them to kill, rape, enslave, or exterminate.

If we still believe these are the most important rules of human society and blindly following them, this is certainly a disgrace of the human race. 

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Wine and Sewage Law

Conventional wisdom says groups are powerful. Group dynamics are powerful. And so groups dominate individuals, not the other way around. There was tons of research, going back decades, demonstrating that people conform to group values and norms.

A recent episode of This American Life interviewed Will Felps, a professor who conducted a sociological experiment demonstrating the surprisingly powerful effect of bad apples.  Seems peer effect only has the power towards the dark side.  The experiment is as below:

Groups of four college students were organized into teams and given a task to complete some basic management decisions in 45 minutes. To motivate the teams, they're told that whichever team performs best will be awarded $100 per person. What they don't know, however, is that in some of the groups, the fourth member of their team isn't a student. He's an actor hired to play a bad apple, one of these personality types:

1. The Depressive Pessimist will complain that the task that they're doing isn't enjoyable, and make statements doubting the group's ability to succeed.
2. The Jerk will say that other people's ideas are not adequate, but will offer no alternatives himself. He'll say "you guys need to listen to the expert: me."
3. The Slacker will say "whatever", and "I really don't care."

And Will found something different.

Invariably, groups that had the bad apple would perform worse. And this despite the fact that were people in some groups that were very talented, very smart, very likeable. Felps found that the bad apple's behavior had a profound effect -- groups with bad apples performed 30 to 40 percent worse than other groups. On teams with the bad apple, people would argue and fight, they didn't share relevant information, they communicated less.

Even worse, other team members began to take on the bad apple's characteristics. When the bad apple was a jerk, other team members would begin acting like a jerk. When he was a slacker, they began to slack, too. And they wouldn't act this way just in response to the bad apple. They would act this way to each other, in sort of a spillover effect.

What they found, in short, is that the worst team member is the best predictor of how any team performs. It doesn't seem to matter how great the best member is, or what the average member of the group is like. It all comes down to what your worst team member is like. The teams with the worst person performed the poorest.

While it's depressing to learn that a group can be so powerfully affected by the worst tendencies of a single member, it's heartening to know that a skilled leader, if you're lucky enough to have one, can intervene and potentially control the situation.

Still, the obvious solution is to address the problem at its source: get rid of the bad apple.  Or perhaps the other way around:

Wine and Sewage Law:  

Dropping a piece of drink into dirty water, you would get a bottle of dirty water; while dropping a spoonful of dirty water into a bottle of wine, you still would get a bottle of dirty water.

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How to dance …..

Dancing ...... is a vertical expression of a horizontal wish. 

You have to hold her like the skin on her thigh.
And she is your reason for living. 
Let her go like your heart is being ripped from your chest. 
Pull her back like you are gonna have your way with her,
right here on the dance floor. 
And then finish ......

Like she has ruined you for life.

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Śniło mi się marzenie

Les Miserables is a story of redemption, forgiveness, charity, salvation and moral obligation. The main character, Jean Valjean, enters the novel as a thief for only a loaf of bread, having spent nineteen years in prison.  After he received his "second life" from M. Myriel, a prominent bishop, he, alone on earth, rebels against the tyranny of his fate.  He always takes the side in sacrificing his own well-being for other people's welfare.  Through Jean Valjean's life, he tries to answer one question: "how we could be decent men in an indecent time?"

However, is Les Miserables (The Miserable Ones) really with a happy ending that Cosette (the miserable little girl) married Marius finally?   There are doubts.  For Jean Valjean, his whole life is a quest for redemption, and he ultimately forsaking his only love to Cosette on his deathbed.

Cosette is the daughter of Fantine.  Fantine leads a life of suffering because of her wrong trusts on people.  She has dreams that never match with the reality.  In order to fulfill the greed of Cosette's guardians, not only is she involve in prostitution, she sells her beautiful hair and her prized prettiest feature - the non-decayed teeth.

In the contrary, Jean Valjean always faces the cruel reality, yet still he takes the side in sacrificing his own well-being for common goods.  He reveals his hidden identity as a fugitive in saving an old man's life under the wheel.  He gives up all he built for years only because he does not want an innocent man who would be convicted as him mistakenly.  He rescues Fantine from the hand of Javert in prison and promises to take care of her daughter Cosette.  He redeems Cosette from the hand of Thenardies - the guardian that treated Cosette as a slave.  And he raises Cosette from childhood to adult in a peaceful life.   He loves Cosette despite that their age difference should be over 30 years.  Cosette and Jean Valjean, they have the love of lovers, but in a completely pure way. Jean Valjean loves Cosette with all the love that he has and is truly keeping it up until his death. In first receiving Cosette, Valjean had never really experienced love.  At night ... "He would approach the bed where she slept, and would tremble there with delight.  He felt inward yearnings, like a mother, and knew not what they were.  For it is something very incomprehensible and very sweet, this grand and strange emotion of a heart in its first love."

Jean Valjean loves Cosette with a "desert of love, "unconditional that never stopped".  When Jean Valjean finds out about Cosette's love affair with Marius, he hates him. Yet because of the love he has for Cosette he spares Marius' life and brings him to her.  In the end when Jean Valjean does not get to see Cosette he literally wastes away of sadness, but then gets the chance that her mother Fantine did not, to see Cosette before his death.  Then ......

"He sleeps, although so much he was denied, he lived; and when he lost his angel, he died.  It happened calmly on its own.  The way night comes when day is done."

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Requiem For An Invention

An idea of a product really required decades to flourish.  PenPhone™, NotePen© were invented not in the right moment.  Nonetheless, with all the good memories that friends worked nights and days together to develop, to manufacture, to sell a state of art product at time.  As recalled, this was like a war and the brotherhood feelings resembled ……

And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remembered-
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother.

William Shakespeare's Henry V

Requiem For A Soldier

You never lived to see
What you gave to me
One shining dream of hope and love
Life and liberty

With a host of brave unknown soldiers
For your company, you will live forever
Here in our memory

In fields of sacrifice
Heroes paid the price
Young men who died for old men's wars
Gone to paradise

We are all one great band of brothers
And one day you'll see we can live together
When all the world is free

I wish you'd lived to see
All you gave to me
Your shining dream of hope and love
Life and liberty

We are all one great band of brothers
And one day you'll see - we can live together
When all the world is free

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Fioletowy Lilak

Mówiłeś, że kochasz liliowy najbardziej,
   bo tego kwiatu jest twoja imię 
Cóż za smutny kwiat, co osoby sentymentalny
Gdy kwiaty więdną, gdy zamrożenie ekranu
Co delikatny kwiat, ale nie jesteś w stanie ukryć się
   przed wiatrem i deszczem
Wędrując przez całe twoja życie,
   jesteś była tkania wiele piękne marzeń
W takim pośpiechu idziesz,
   pozostawiając tylko zmartwień się na resztę mojego życia

W przed twoja grób, teraz jest całe pokryte kwiatami.
   To jest piękno, chciałeś ją skwapliwie
Widzisz teraz kwiaty są na całym wzgórza i doliny.
   Czy nadal czuje się samotny?
Słyszysz teraz ktoś śpiewa tę piosenkę,
   które Jesteś najbardziej kochał
Od tego czasu, co na ziemi tobie nie potrzebują do obaw

Na dziedzińcu jest obsadzone wszystkie Lilak.
   Piękne fioletowe kwiaty kwiat w całej stoczni.
Jestem tutaj z nią, i spędzić całe moje życie
   w celu ochrony fioletowe Lilak.

A Lane in the Rain

Alone holding an oil-paper umbrella, I wander along a long, solitary lane in the rain.  I am hoping to encounter a girl with the notion of lilacs, gnawed by anxiety and resentment.  A girl who is with the color of lilacs, the fragrance of lilacs, the worries of lilacs.  And in the rain she is melancholic, sad and anxious.  Holding an oil-paper umbrella, She hovers around this solitary lane in the rain like I do.   Similar to me, she wanders along quietly, indifferently, desolately, and melanchotically.

Silently she comes closer, and closer.  She gives me a glance seems like a sigh.  Then she floats past by, like in a dream.   Dreary and confused like a dream.  Same as a single lilac, floating by as a dream, this lass sways past through me.  Silently she goes further and further, to the crumbling wall, out of the lane in the rain.

In the mournful melody of the rain, her color faded, her fragrance disappeared and vanished into the void, even together with her sigh like glance,  lilacs like melancholy.  Alone holding an oil-paper umbrella, I wander along a long, solitary lane in the rain.  I am hoping to encounter a girl with the notion of lilacs, gnawed by anxiety and resentment.

Dai Wang-shu

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Comptine d'un autre été

The music and the pictures subtly show an old man's retentiveness.
Those who know how to remember, know how to treasure memories.
Is that we could only learn what to cherish when we lost them?
Is that we could only find the tenderness when we don't have it any more?
Perhaps …… perhaps ……
We could only be considered complete when live with regrets.

A person who knows how to play piano has felicity.
With the lips closed, he could still tell everything,
happy, anger, sadness and joy.

Let tears and laughter flow between the fingers,
scene after scene, time after time,
like the rhyme of another summer ……

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The Daemon Lover

Also known as "James Harris" or "The House Carpenter" is a popular ballad from Britain.  It tells the story of a man (usually the Devil), who returns to a former lover after a very long absence, and finds her with a husband (usually a carpenter) and a baby.  He entices her to leave both behind and come with him, luring her with many ships laden with treasure.  Together they board one of his ships, and she is surprised to find that the ship does not have a crew, and put to sea.

She soon begins to lament leaving behind her child, but is heartened by spying a bright hill in the distance.  Her lover informs her that the hill is heaven, where they are not bound.  Instead he indicates a much darker coast, which he tells her is hell, their destination.  And then  the ship is wrecked by a storm at sea, drowning them both.

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Lonely Sail ...

當時心事每相關，雨散雲飛一餉間，
便是孤帆從此去，不堪重過望夫山。

當青春的光彩漸漸消逝，永不衰老的內在個性，卻在一個人的臉上和眼睛上，更加明顯地表露出來，好像是在同一地方久住了的結果。

那些曾經以為念念不忘的事情，就在念念不忘的過程裡，被我們遺忘了 ……

雁字回首早過，忘卻撫琴人淚滿衫；
蕭蕭揚花，落滿肩、落滿肩；
笛聲寒窗，影殘煙波槳聲裡，何處是江南 ……

一些哀傷，只有時光可以衝澈；
一些任性，總以分別作為結果。

請不要失望啊，
那過往只是過眼流砂，它注定翻飛至繁華。
請不要失望啊，
那過往似美眷如花，他輕輕走過了似水年華。
請不要失望啊，
那過往若是有一天泛了黃吶，只是永恆遇見了剎那。
我們，在蒼老前萬劫不復
在萬劫不復前，我們一起蒼老。

願你記得來過，記得我們一起度過的短短歲月。
願你記得痛過，記得分別時我的不捨和無奈。
願你記得聽過，記得一個從我到你，愛的軌跡畫下的故事。

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Selfish Gene

The point I am making now is that, even if we look on the dark side and assume that individual man is fundamentally selfish, our conscious foresight - our capacity to simulate the future in imagination - could save us from the worst selfish excesses of the blind replicators.  We have at least the mental equipment to foster our long-term selfish interests rather than merely our short-term selfish interests.

We are built as gene machines and cultured as meme machines, but we have the power to turn against our creators.  We, alone on earth, can rebel against the tyranny of the selfish replicators.

Selfish Gene●Richard Dawkins

Survival of the Fittest

Applying the Game Theory for the brutal competition of survival, perhaps the below is a nice reflect of the concept:

Two guys were hiking through the jungle when they spotted a tiger who looked both hungry and fast.   One of the guys reached into his pack and pulled out a pair of sport shoes. His friend looked at him.

"Do you really think those shoes are going to make you run faster than that tiger?"

"I don't have to run faster than that tiger," his friend replied. "I just have to run faster than you."

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Kahlil Gibran: On Love

Love gives naught but itself and takes naught but from itself,
Love possesses not nor would it be possessed:
For love is sufficient unto love.

When you love you should not say,
"God is in my heart," but rather,
"I am in the heart of God."
And think not you can direct the course
of love, for love, if it finds you worthy,
directs your course.

Love has no other desire but to fulfill itself.
But if you love and must needs have desires, let these be your desires:
To melt and be like a running brook that sings its melody to the night.
To know the pain of too much tenderness.
To be wounded by your own understanding of love;
And to bleed willingly and joyfully.
To wake at dawn with a winged heart
and give thanks for another day of loving:
To rest at the noon hour and meditate love's ecstasy:
And then to sleep with a prayer for the beloved in you heart
and a song of praise upon you lips.

Kahlil Gibran

Waiting, you are out in nowhere.

A frozen episode, without a goodbye, we were already parted.  What remains was only infinite melancholy.  Lightly your eyes are closed.   And a cool breeze slowly guide through you.  You indulge in those sour and bitter of the past ….

At some point of life you were with me, smiling to each other.  But the beloved moment was gone and the oaths blurred with only sorrow left.  Destined to be a mixture of pain and happiness that were unable to be described.

Today, at this time, what language could truly write the nostalgic feeling of your heart.  If time could go back, you hope you could be back to those days that were deep and shallow, winding and lingering ……

But where am I?  Is there anyone become the only one of my life?  And does this make me refuse to give up?  Or am I in pain because of her joys and sorrows?

Gibran is right.  "Love gives naught but itself and takes naught but from itself.  Love possesses not nor would it be possessed:  For love is sufficient unto love."

Now, I sit here alone, and sense the loneliness out from nowhere.  "Those happenings, those days, like already past for hundred years."  Who is singing to the bottom of my heart?  Same as those memories that make you going.  We both cannot wait to pursuit the so-called glory and glamor.  But in fact, everything around us is only a distanced emptiness.

However, there is one thing I still have to say, "Waiting, I am here".  Until I am no longer sad.

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Life is a storm ...

Life is a storm. You will bask in the sunlight one moment, be shattered on the rocks the next.  What makes you a man is what you do when that storm comes. You must look into that storm and shout "Do your worst, for I will do mine!"  Then the fates will know you as people know you as a man.

And then, one day you found that was simply a struggle to sovereignty, and believe me it brought you no joy.  But now your tasks accomplished.  You will have no particular place in the world, no strong desire in life... but to make amends where you have hurt the innocent.  But never... never you will find that perfect love which two young people lost... irretrievably lost so many, many years ago. 

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Res ipsa loquitur ...

There is a face beneath this mask.  This is no more that face than the muscles beneath it or the bones beneath them.  Beneath the mask there is an idea, Mr. Zeto, Mr. Ho, Ms. Lau, and ideas are bulletproof.

To the so called "Democratic Party (Hong Kong)", you chickened out from the stand point of the democracy that Hong Kong people are entitled.  What you did makes you no difference to the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong who are always the betrayers of Hong Kong.  You betrayed your own belief.  Shame on you.  And you are wrong. 

There should be a reason why you did it. This is because you were afraid. Who wouldn't be?  Confrontation, threats from the government, losing leading position, afraid of no achievement before your cancer kills you, losing the vested interest, all kinds of selfish reasons, etc.  Conciliatory and betrayal are certainly an easy way out.  There were a myriad of problems which conspired to corrupt your reason and rob you of your common sense.  Fear got the best of you, and in your panic you turned to the Communist party of China.  They promised you order, they promised you peace, and all they demanded in return was your silent, obedient consent. 

Hong Kong people, please be reminded that fairness, justice, and freedom are more than words, they are perspectives.  To cruelty and injustice, intolerance and oppression, where once you had the opportunities for the freedom to object, to think and speak as you saw fit, you now have censors and systems of surveillance coercing your conformity and soliciting your submission.  How did this happen?  Who's to blame?  Well, certainly there are those more responsible than others, and they will be held accountable, but again truth be told, if you are looking for the guilty, you need only look into a mirror.  Because it is you, it is you, yourself give up your vote that is able to change yours and your descendants' lives.  And you must understand that :

"People should not be afraid of their governments.

Governments should be afraid of their people."

There are of course those who do not want us to speak.  I suspect even now, orders are being shouted into telephones, and men with guns will be always on their way.  Why?  Because while the truncheon may be used in lieu of conversation, words will always retain their power.  Words offer the means to meaning, and for those who will listen, the enunciation of truth.  And the truth is, there is something terribly wrong with this place, isn't there?

Vi Veri Veniversum Vivus Vici.

(By the power of truth, I, while living, have conquered the universe.)

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Snake and Frog

A pretty but innocent girl Snake meets a boy Frog one day.  The Frog has smooth skin with beautiful patterns.  The Snake loves the Frog at the first sight.

So the Snake asks the Frog "Could I hang out with you?"
The Frog answers "Yes, why not?"
The Snake and the Frog live together.

One night, when they are sleeping, the Snake involuntarily wraps the Frog around with her slim body tighter and tighter during a dream.  The Frog feels he is choking to death and strives his way out from the body of the Snake with all his strength.   During the struggle, the Frog's strong legs stamp on the Snake's stomach heavily and springs himself out from the Snake's tie.  The Frog flees away and never comes back.

The Snake is hurt physically and mentally.  After a long while, the Snake eventually recovered from her physical wound but is not able to heal emotionally.  Since then, the Snake is frightened by all handsome frogs and conceives all good looking frogs will hurt her.  So she would rather choose to remain single.

Then the other day, an ugly Toad encounters with the Snake and finds she is very enchanting.  The Toad can't help but falls in love with the beautiful Snake.

So the Toad asks the Snake "Could we hang out?"
The Snake looks into the repellent eyes of the Toad and finds that they are very sincere.  The Snake's lonely heart begins to sway.  The Snake then thinks deeply: as the Toad is so ugly, he should treasure her beauty more.  So the Snake answers the Toad: "Yes, why not?"
So the Snake and the Toad live together.

One night, when they are sleeping, the Snake again involuntarily wraps the Toad around with her slim body during a dream.  The Toad feels he is choking and strives his way out from the body of the Snake.   During the struggle, the Toad's back skin ejects a stream of poison secretion into the eyes of the Snake.  The Snake''s eyes are badly hurt with great pain and relax her body.  The Toad quickly flees away and never comes back ......

Moral of this story:

• Don't believe that only handsome guys will hurt girls or vice versa, ugly guys will also hurt girls.  So beautiful girls, there is no reason for you not to pick handsome guys in the first place.
• This story also told us that: appropriate lingering is alright.  However, if you are too demanding, asking too frequently, or pushing too hard on your guy, then you may frighten him away.

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Widow's Two Mites

 Just because someone doesn't love you the way you want them to, doesn't mean they don't love you with all they have. 

A sign of a bad relationship is that one or both partners expect either to make the other happy or for their partner to make them happy.  This is not only an unrealistic expectation to lay on yourself or on them — nobody can “make” you happy, except you — but it is an unrealistic expectation to lay on your relationship.  Relationships are not only about being happy, and there is lots of times when you will not and even should not be.  Being able to rely on someone even when you are upset, miserable, depressed, or grieving is a lot more important than being happy all the time.  If you expect your partner to make you happy — or worse, you are frustrated because you are not able to make your partner happy — your relationship is not going to fare well when it hits a rough spot.

“As He looked up, Jesus saw the rich putting their gifts into the temple treasury. He also saw a poor widow put in two very small copper coins. ‘I tell you the truth,’ He said, ‘this poor widow has put in more than all the others. All these people gave their gifts out of their wealth; but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on.”

Luke 21:1-3

 

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The Prodigal Son

Is one life weights heavier than the other two or more lives?  Is survival really worth that much?  Is it any better to extend life and suffering than to cherish precious moments? 

These are questions that come up after watching the movie "My Sister's Keeper".  The ending is different from the book or maybe even better.  From this, I got to think about the parable from the Bible.  I am sure you know the story: A father has two sons; one takes his inheritance and squanders it, living a dissolute life, while the other stays close to home; when the "prodigal son" returns, begging help and forgiveness from his father, his father is thrilled to have him home and throws a giant celebration. The other son, naturally, is indignant at this unfair treatment.

The father says to him, "My son, you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. But we have to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found."

Some traditional interpretations of the story seem to take the lesson to concern the importance of forgiveness.  But forgiveness is very puzzling from a moral point of view. The famous "paradox of forgiveness" points out that if the person deserves condemnation, then forgiveness is unjust, whereas if the person does not deserve condemnation, there is nothing to forgive.  And furthermore, we tend to think that morality is fair when it applies to everyone in the same way. But a lesson of forgiveness can't be a lesson to treat everyone the same way: if you forgave everyone all the time, forgiveness does not mean anything at all. In a way, forgiveness isn't even something you can plan for. If the father had planned to forgive the son from the beginning, the story wouldn't really be about forgiveness at all - it would be more about a father who doesn't mind that his son squanders his money and lives a bad life. But uncaring is different from forgiveness.

Other traditional interpretations seem to focus on compassion and love instead of forgiveness per se. The father is so patient and loving with his son that he cannot but rejoice to see the son returned to him.  This seems to be a little different from the forgiveness idea: it's not that there was a transgression that must be forgiven but more that any considerations of justice, punishment, and equality are just insignificant in the face of the power of the basic fact that this person, who was gone astray, has now returned.

They are not mutually exclusive, of course.  Interestingly, love and compassion, while certainly having moral aspects, don't fit tidily into the category of "secular morality" the way "fairness" and "equality" seem to.  But they are not unsecular emotions at all.  This seems a pretty universal experience: the joy at the return and well being of someone you love suddenly overwhelms you and overcomes any indignation you might have felt, or even would have been justified in feeling. This universality transcends the religious/secular distinction.

So maybe the "moral" point of view is too narrow for living a good life, and we need some richer concepts to talk about how to live in the secular way - concepts that go beyond just "morality," concepts that would include the importance of things like love, compassion, and even forgiveness.

.

Lost in Sobriety ...

It's true that we don't know what we've got until we lose it, but it's also true that we don't know what we've been missing until it arrives.

A priest offered a lift to a Nun in his car.  She got in and crossed her legs, forcing her gown to reveal a leg.  The priest nearly had an accident.  After controlling the car, he stealthily slid his hand up her leg.  The nun said, "Father, remember Luke 14:10?”

The priest removed his hand.  But, changing gears, he let his hand slide up her leg again.  The nun once again said, “Father, remember Luke 14:10?”

The priest apologized “Sorry sister, but the flesh is weak.” Arriving at the convent, the nun went on her way.  On his arrival at the church, the priest rushed to look up Luke 14:10 in the Bible of New American Standard Version.  It said:

"Friend, move up higher; then you will have honor ... "

Moral of the story: If you are not always well prepared, you might miss great opportunities.

.

Flame in my heart

我仍然聽到你的聲音，

輕輕呼喚著我的名字，

但我知道，我的應答，

都是徒然。

因為我無法與你同在，

沒在你最需要的時候，

多給援手，就讓黑夜，

如斯無情地把你帶走。

 

這事還有挽回的餘地嗎？

還是就讓故事如此終結，

留下無限痛楚在人間。

我仍然聽到你的聲音，

輕輕呼喚著我的名字。

盡管命運，注定分離，

你仍然像熊熊熊火焰般，

在我心中，永不熄滅。

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Women really want ...

In order to find out what women really want, come across the story below:

Young King Arthur was ambushed and imprisoned by the monarch of a neighboring kingdom. The monarch could have killed him but was moved by Arthur's youth and ideals. So, the monarch offered him his freedom, as long as he could answer a very difficult question. Arthur would have a year to figure out the answer and, if after a year, he still had no answer, he would be put to death.  And the question is:

What do women really want?

Such a question would perplex even the most knowledgeable man, and to young Arthur, it seemed an impossible query.  But, since it was better than death, he accepted the monarch's proposition to have an answer by year's end. 

He returned to his kingdom and began to poll everyone: the princess, the priests, the wise men and even the court jester. He spoke with everyone, but no one could give him a satisfactory answer.  Many people advised him to consult the old witch, for only she would have the answer.  But the price would be high; as the witch was famous throughout the kingdom for the exorbitant prices she charged.

The last day of the year arrived and Arthur had no choice but to talk to the witch.  She agreed to answer the question, but he would have to agree to her price first.  The old witch wanted to marry Sir Lancelot, the most noble of the Knights of the Round Table and Arthur's closest friend!

Young Arthur was horrified. She was hunchbacked and hideous, had only one tooth, smelled like sewage, made obscene noises, etc.  He had never encountered such a repugnant creature in all his life.  He refused to force his friend to marry her and endure such a terrible burden; but Lancelot, learning of the proposal, spoke with Arthur.  He said nothing was too big of a sacrifice compared to Arthur's life and the preservation of the Round Table.

Hence, a wedding was proclaimed and the witch answered Arthur's question thus:  What a woman really wants, she answered:

"Is to be in charge of her own life." 

Everyone in the kingdom instantly knew that the witch had uttered a great truth and that Arthur's life would be spared.  And so it was, the neighboring monarch granted Arthur his freedom and Lancelot and the witch had a wonderful wedding.  The honeymoon hour approached and Lancelot, steeling himself for a horrific experience, entered the bedroom. 

But, what a sight awaited him... The most beautiful woman he had ever seen lay before him on the bed. The astounded Lancelot asked what had happened.  The beauty replied that since he had been so kind to her when she appeared as a witch, she would henceforth, be her horrible deformed self only half the time and the beautiful maiden the other half.

Which would he prefer?  Beautiful during the day ... or … night?

Lancelot pondered the predicament. During the day, a beautiful woman to show off to his friends, but at night, in the privacy of his castle, an old witch?  Or, would he prefer having a hideous witch during the day, but by night, a beautiful woman for him to enjoy wondrous intimate moments?

Noble Lancelot said that he would allow HER to make the choice herself.  Upon hearing this, she announced that she would be beautiful all the time because he had respected her enough to let her be in charge of her own life.

So the final answer to the question "What do women really want?" is to let her in charge of her own life.   Um..... not quite right.  The true moral should be:  

If you don't let a woman have her own way .....

 Things are going to get ugly.

.

When I am dead ...

When I am dead, my dearest,

Sing no sad songs for me;
Plant thou no roses at my head,
Nor shady cypress tree:
Be the green grass above me
With showers and dewdrops wet;
And if thou wilt, remember,
And if you wilt, forget.

I shall not see the shadows,
I shall not feel the rain;
I shall not hear the nightingale
Sing on, as if in pain;
And dreaming though the twilight
That doth not rise nor set,
Haply I may remember,
And haply may forget.

Christina Rossetti

當我死去的時候，親愛
你別為我唱悲傷的歌
我墳上不必安插薔薇
也無需濃蔭的柏樹

讓蓋著我的，青青的草
淋著雨也沾著露珠
假如你願意，請記著我
要是你甘心安了我

我再見不到地面的青蔭
覺不到雨露的甜蜜
我再聽不到夜鶯的歌喉
在黑夜裡傾訴悲啼

在悠久的昏暮中迷惘
陽光不升起也不消翳
我也許、也許我還記得你
我也許把你忘記

徐志摩

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Unintended Consequences

The Law of Unintended Consequences is an adage or idiom that can be stated as follows:

'Any intervention in a complex system may or may not have the intended result, but will inevitably create unanticipated and often undesirable outcomes'. 

In common usage, it is a wry or humorous expression warning against the hubristic belief that humans can fully control the world around them.

Here is an example:  A dad would like to teach his little daughter and son to go to the toilet instead of using the diaper.  In order to encourage the elder daughter to go to toilet by herself, he gives her some chocolates as an incentive for doing it correctly and successfully.  And the result is:  Yes, the daughter quits the diaper but go to toilet much more often than she ever did.

Then, the dad would like to push a step further.  In order to encourage his daughter to support and help others, he gives both his daughter and son some chocolates whenever the daughter helps her younger brother to go to toilet correctly and successfully.  And the result is: the sister tries to force her brother to drink water all the time.

還有一例：非洲肯雅北部土地公有，牛隻方為私產。人們追逐私利，爭相飼養牛隻放牧，以致草原日漸消失，大片土地沙漠化，既打擊耕作復影響氣候。有見及此，挪威政府協助牧民轉業，成立合作社、斥資購置漁船、傳授捕魚之道。皇天不負有心人，轉業牧民收入大增。沙漠化有望扭轉乎？

沒有！反而變本加厲：轉業牧民富了起來，紛紛置業 (增購牛隻) 令草原加快消失。

做好事亦得從根本上做起乎？不土地私有化，讓牧民珍惜草原又何以扭轉沙漠化之勢？戴着有色眼鏡看私產，遺禍何其大也！
.

Council of Nicaea

 Why does the date for Easter change every year?

The New Testament of the Bible told that Jesus' death and resurrection happened around the time of the Jewish feast of Passover.  According to Matthew, Mark and Luke's Gospels, the last meal Jesus shared with his disciples was a Passover meal, while John's Gospel says that Jesus died on the feast of Passover itself.  In those days, the Jews celebrated Passover on the "14th day of the first month" in accordance with the Bible's commands (see Lev. 23:5, Num. 28:16, Josh. 5:11). The months of the Jewish calendar each began at new moon, so the 14th day would be the day of the full moon. The first month, Nisan, was the month that began from the spring new moon. In other words, the Passover was celebrated on the first full moon following the vernal equinox (the center of the Sun being in the same plane as the Earth's equator) and was therefore a movable feast.

Early sources tell us that this very soon led to Christians in different parts of the world celebrating Easter on different dates.  As early as the end of the 2nd century, some churches were celebrating Easter on the day of Passover itself, whether it was a Sunday or not, while others would celebrate it on the Sunday that followed it.  By the end of the 4th century there were four different methods of calculating the date of Easter. In the year 325, the Council of Nicaea attempted to bring in a unified solution that would retain the link with the date of Passover as celebrated in Jesus' time.  Eventually, therefore, Easter's date was established as movable.   It is deemed to occur on the Sunday immediately after the first full moon following the vernal equinox.

For this means of measurement it can be understood why the dates of future Easters will appear to be in such flux:

    * 2011: April 24
    * 2012: April 8
    * 2013: March 31
    * 2014: April 20
    * 2015: April 5
    * 2016: March 27

In addition, regarding for how many days Jesus was buried before he came to his resurrection, the four Gospels (selected by the Roman Catholic Church in the 4th Century while abandoning tens of other Gospels) did not agree to each other.  In Matthew 12:40, Jesus was buried for 3 days and 3 nights, while in Mark and John, he was only buried for 1 day and 2 nights.

Similar discrepancies also found about the birth of Jesus on December 25.  There is no evidence for this date.  The Bible itself tells us that December 25 is an unlikely date for his birth. Palestine is very cold in December.  It was much too cold to ask everyone to travel to the city of their fathers to register for taxes. Also the shepherds were in the fields (Luke 2:8-12).  Shepherds were not in the fields in the winter time.  They are in the fields early in March until early October.  This would place Jesus' birth in the spring or early fall.  It is also known that Jesus lived for 33.5 years and died at the feast of the Passover, which is at Easter time. He must therefore have been born six months the other side of Easter - making the date around the September/October time frames.

So then, who decided that Jesus' birth would be celebrated on that date? The early Christian church did not celebrate Jesus' birth. It wasn't until A.D. 440 that the church officially proclaimed December 25 as the birth of Christ. This was not based on any religious evidence but on a pagan feast.  Saturnalia was a tradition inherited by the Roman pagans from an earlier Babylonian priesthood.  December 25 was used as a celebration of the birthday of the sun god.  It was observed near the winter solstice.  Some scholars think the church chose the date of this pagan celebration to interest them in Christianity.  The pagans were already used to celebrating on this date.

All the important dates related to Jesus were just compromises between the Roman Emperor Constantine and the Christian Church during and after the First Council of Nicaea held in A.D. 325.  And there is nothing to do with the sacredness of Jesus.
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Never quite enough ...

As we grow up, we learn that even the one person that was not supposed to ever let you down probably will. You will have your heart broken probably more than once and it is harder every time. You will break hearts too, so remember how it felt when yours was broken.

You will fight with your best friend. You will blame a new love for things an old one did. You will cry because time is passing too fast, and you will eventually lose someone you love.

So take too many pictures, laugh too much, and love like you have never been hurt because every sixty seconds you spend upset is a minute of happiness you will never get back.

Everything is never quite enough

Moments take so very long: who has time to fear?
Trust to set no precedent; why should it be accomplice?
Giving you a little less is taking what I need
Everything is never quite enough

Let machinery fake my face: who has time to chase?
Digital is where it is; love can always be replaced
Welcome to my consciousness - welcome to our race
Everything is never quite enough

Can't see my face: what are you thinking?
Fill in the space, please - oh let me hear you

Sterilize behind these gates, locked behind the green
Even if I had you here, what we had was never clear
No more words to say to you; no more thoughts appear

Love was taking way too long: who had breath to waste?
Tired of disappointing you; bored with everything I do
Every day there's less of you. Me, I've been erased

Love in Snow

My love with you is like pure snow
It will never tarnish
Rumors are like nightmares
You must not be alarmed

When you see snow flakes drifting by
Where I am the snow fall even harder
Lonely love between two places
Please have faith and understand
My love hasn't changed

Plum blossoms in snow
You are better than the others
Please don't believe any rumors
Our love had been sealed long before

When I see snow flakes drifting by
My love for you is even deeper
One day I'll be back
and that will prove my love hasn't changed

舊遊　舊遊　今在否
花外樓　柳下舟

夢也　夢也　夢不到
寒水空流

漠漠黃雲
濕透木棉裘
都道無人愁似我

今夜雪　有梅花　似我愁

摘自『宋．蔣捷．梅花引』

　　

Love and marriage

One day, Plato asked his teacher, “What is love? How can I find it?”

His teacher answered, “There is a vast wheat field in front. Walk forward without turning back, and pick only one stalk. If you find the most magnificent stalk, then you have found love.”

Plato walked forward, and before long, he returned with empty hands, having picked nothing. His teacher asked, “Why did you not pick any stalk?” Plato answered, “Because I could only pick once, and yet I could not turn back. I did find the most magnificent stalk, but did not know if there were any better ones ahead, so I did not pick
it. As I walked further, the stalks that I saw were not as good as the earlier one, so I did not pick any in the end.”

His teacher then said, “And that is love.”

On another day, Plato asked his teacher, “What is marriage? How can I find it?”

His teacher answered, “There is a thriving forest in front. Walk forward without turning back, and chop down only one tree. If you find the tallest tree, then you have found marriage.” Plato walked forward, and before long, he returned with a tree. The tree was not thriving, and it was not tall either. It was an ordinary tree. His teacher asked, “Why did you chop down such an ordinary tree?”

Plato answered, “Because of my previous experience. I walked halfway through the forest, but returned with empty hands. This time, I saw this tree, and I felt that it was not bad, so I chopped it down and brought it back. I did not want to miss the opportunity.”

His teacher then said, “And that is marriage.”
　　



.

Trust (with people) ...

For those who trust, no explanation is necessary.
For those who do not trust, no explanation is possible.

Trust, but expect the unexpected: Having trust on people should not be punished. If, while building a house, a carpenter strikes a nail, it proved faulty by bending. Does the carpenter lose faith in all nails and stop building his house?

Deal with evil through strength. But affirm the good in man through trust. In this way, we are prepared for evil but we are encouraging good. And is good our great reward for trusting? In striving for an ideal, we do not seek rewards. Yet trust does sometimes bring with it a great reward. Even greater than good ...... that is love.
　　

Right Person for the Job

Put about 100 bricks in some particular order in a closed room with an open window. Then send 2 or 3 candidates in the room and close the door. Leave them alone and come back after 6 hours and then analyze the situation:

If they are counting the bricks. Put them in the accounts department.

If they are recounting them. Put them in auditing.

If they have messed up the whole place with the bricks. Put them in engineering.

If they are arranging the bricks in some strange order. Put them in planning.

If they are throwing the bricks at each other. Put them in operations.

If they are sleeping. Put them in security.

If they have broken the bricks into pieces. Put them in information technology.

If they are sitting idle. Put them in human resources.

If they say they have tried different combination, yet not a brick has been moved. Put them in sales.

If they have already left for the day. Put them in marketing.

If they are staring out of the window. Put them on strategic planning.

And then last but not least. If they are talking to each other and not a single brick has been moved. Congratulate them and put them in top management.
　　

Disregard how others see you ...

People who make a show are not wise.
Those who are self-righteous will not be respected.
Those who boast achieve very little and don't endure.
Behaving in this way will not bring happiness.
People are despised for their pride and admired for their humility.

Life is a journey of constant strife and endless changes. Sometimes we do not see the forest for the trees. Sometimes we seem to have lost our way. We need the recognition of others in order to find a direction.

Believing we all had tried to exhibit ourselves from time to time, one way or the other. It may seem pointless to be skillful or knowledgeable if it does not result in recognition. But why is the admiration of others so essential? Why do we feel worthless unless we have the praise of others?

Yet, most of us avoid people that we suspect have a narcissistic disposition. These people are often boasting of their achievements and importance in an effort to obtain admiration. They may also become emotionally volatile if the approval they seek is not forthcoming. Their ego is effectively enslaved by the opinions of others. Consequently their sense of self-worth varies wildly, often making any interactions with them very unpleasant.

Fools who wear their hearts proudly on their sleeves, who cannot control their emotions, who wallow in sad memories and allow themselves to be provoked this easily - weak people, in other words - they stand no chance against his powers.

Nonetheless, who really understands contentment can only come from within. Furthermore, living without either the desire for approval or the fear of rejection, one could be truly free. Then again, who really could live so consciously.

企者不立 He who stands on his tiptoes does not stand firm;
跨者不行 He who stretches his legs does not walk so easily;

自見者不明 He who displays himself does not shine;
自是者不彰 He who asserts his own views is not distinguished;
自伐者無功 He who vaunts himself does not find his merit acknowledged;
自矜者不長 He who is self-conceited has no superiority allowed to him.

道德經廿四章

　　

Tears ...

淚花

一篇純美的鋼琴樂章 ......

多年後，假若我們重逢，我將以何來面對妳，以沉默？以眼淚？ ⋯⋯ 憂傷的琴鍵中，我卻似為自己尋得安慰，淚珠在陽光下凝結，成了完美的櫻花形狀，縱然枯萎仍有暖意。

那一剎那，真的怕極了自己心裡，還會有任何怨恨與陰騖，一絲絲、一點點，都會讓自己無法與曲中的美麗邂逅。

多年後，沉默的我們，正如那些無法啟齒的往事，會凝成心裡的一滴淚嗎？抑或就這麼被現實的烈陽蒸發掉了，點滴不剩。

但至少我為妳哭泣過，安靜的、無聲的、傷心的，在歲月無法觸摸的角落裡，像那玫瑰的花心，漸漸的老去 ……
　　

Pareto principle

The Pareto principle (also known as the 80-20 rule, the law of the vital few, the principle of factor sparsity, and the power law) states that, for many events, roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes.

A power law 冪律 or Pareto principle is a special kind of mathematical relationship between two quantities. If one quantity is the frequency of an event, and the other is the size of the event, then the relationship has a power-law distribution when the frequency of the event decreases at a greater rate than the size increases. For instance, an earthquake twice as large is four times as rare. If this pattern holds for earthquakes of all sizes, then the distribution is said to "scale." Power laws also describe other kinds of relationships, such as the metabolic rate of a species and its body mass (called Kleiber's law), and the size of a city and the number of patents it produces. What this relationship means is that there is no typical size in the conventional sense. Power laws are found throughout the natural and man made worlds, and are an active area of scientific research.

有關 80-20 定理在經濟學的範籌已有很多應用，但利用冪律應用在其他地方卻有另一翻啟發。

冪律表明，大事件和小事件都是由相同的因素引起的，並沒有特別的『大』因素。地殼或沙堆處於自組織的臨界狀態 Critical state (自身逐漸形成的高度敏感的不穩定狀態)，在這種情況下任何規模的地震或坍塌都可能發生，大規模地震或坍塌的出現純屬偶然，並無其他的特殊因素，是不可預測的。

又以野火的發生為例，是否森林本身是處於自組織的臨界狀態？康奈爾大學的研究人員統計了發生在美國和澳大利亞的森林野火，沒有找到典型的野火規模，並且它們也遵循冪律。這一發現不僅不能用來預測野火的規模，反而表明大規模野火的發生是不可預測的。

不過，研究人員通過計算機模擬發現的另一個現象，卻對如何控制野火的規模很有啟發。他們用不同的點火頻率進行模擬。有的模擬每種 125 棵樹扔一根火柴，有的每種 500 棵樹扔一根火柴，有的則每種 2,000 棵樹才扔火柴。點火的頻率越低，發生大火的頻率就越高。在頻率低到每種 2,000 棵樹才扔火柴時，這時網格上已密密麻麻佈滿了樹，扔下的火柴通常點燃大量的樹木，在許多情況下甚至燒光了所有的樹。

他們把這稱為『黃石公園效應』。在 1972 年之前，黃石公園對野火採取零容忍政策，一旦發現野火就盡量將其撲滅。這就像是模擬程序中超低的點火頻率，也出現了類似的後果：1988 年黃石公園突發大火，燒掉了 32 萬公頃的森林，佔黃石公園面積的36％。

對任何野火都強行撲滅，這樣做讓森林不再處於臨界狀態，而是處於更不穩定的超臨界狀態：森林裡充滿了老樹、死樹、矮樹、野草，地面堆滿了樹枝、樹皮、枯葉，這些全都是上好的燃料，只要有了火源，就會熊熊燃燒起來，不可抑制地蔓延開去。野火是不可能完全制止的，只會推遲其爆發，推遲得越久，後果就可能越嚴重。

美國林業部門後來意識到了野火也是森林自然生態一個不可或缺的部分，對自然因素引起的野火不再撲滅，任其燃燒（除非威脅到生命、財產的安全）；林務員時不時地還在嚴格控制下有選擇地放火燒掉一部分森林。但是要讓森林恢復被破壞了近百年的自然平衡還需要時間。如果美國林業部門早一點放棄對野火零容忍的政策，也許 1988 年的黃石公園大火就可以避免，Angelis 國家森林所在的加州也不至於近年來連連爆發森林大火了。

這就有如中國人有句老話，『水太清養不活魚』意思雷同。
　　

An Education

I learned to suspect that anyone and everyone is capable of 'living a lie'.
I came to believe that other people -
even when you think you know them well -
are ultimately unknowable.

Lynn Barber

是否能夠識破他人的謊言，看透別人心思的人，就是個聰明人呢？

日本有一個威士忌的電視廣告，名為「成熟的男人」。廣告一開始便打出兩行字幕：「大街上有兩個人，一個是騙人的人，一個是被騙的人。」

劇情是這樣的：

一個男人和他的朋友相約在酒吧見面。他坐在窗邊等著朋友，剛好看見朋友從遠處走來，並在途中停下腳步，施拾一些零錢給路邊一個乞討的女人。當這個朋友走進酒吧時，他便取笑朋友：「你真笨！那個女人家裡，根本沒有生病急需就醫的小孩。」原來那個女人專門騙別人自己的小孩生病，以博取同情，而詐取他人的錢財為生。「你連她騙人都看不出來，真是笨透！」

然而這個被騙的男人並不是回答：「什麼！她是個騙子呀！」而是：「幸好！她的小孩不是真的生病。」

為什麼他的朋友可以看透別人在想什麼？因為朋友自己也會欺騙他人。「這個人真單純，連這種騙局也看不出來。我以前也曾經這麼單純過，從什麼時候開始，我已經變得這麼不單純了。」事情都有一體兩面，可以選擇用善意的出發點來思考；也可以選擇用惡意的出發點來思考。

不想以是非善惡來評定這些過程的對錯，人一開始思考，生命便有了重量，煩惱與壓力如影隨形而至，再難有簡單純粹的快樂，或者毫無陰影的樂觀。『聰明的人總喜歡猜心，猜對眾人的心，卻失去自己的心。』

證嚴法師說過的一句靜思語:『以佛心看人，人人皆佛；以鬼心看人，人人皆鬼。』
　　

當時只道是尋常

所有事情，是不是在行將失去或是已經失去的的時候，我們才會發現它的好，才會覺得萬般不捨？

那些一起走過的日子，那些甜蜜和酸澀的時光，那些笑聲和眼淚，那雙牽過的手，親吻和擁抱，耳鬢廝磨，兩個人之間絮絮叨叨的家常話與綿綿情話，一次又一次的吵嘴與事後的和好，當時只道是尋常，直到一天，無奈要割捨，或是知道必須要割捨，我們幡然醒悟，曾經以為的尋常往事，如許細碎，卻也不會重來。

於是，我們禁不住責備自己，當擁有的時候，為什麼不好好珍惜？

然而，所有事情，是不是只要珍惜便不會失去？抑或，曾經傾心付出，曾經珍惜，也就可以無所悔恨地抹一把眼淚，告訴自己，向前走吧，別再回頭了。

當我們緬懷逝去的愛情，恍然明白，那些尋常往事，是生命中最綺麗的波瀾。所有的深情，原來是由許多細碎的時光一一串成的，就像一串亮著迷濛微光的小燈泡，靜靜地俯伏在腳邊，照亮著我們彼此相依相伴的身影。當時只道是尋常，直到一天，燈火已闌珊，我們才發現，那些尋常日子是多麼美好的祝福。

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