【推荐1】Everyone needs friends. We all like to feel close to someone. It is nice to have a friend to talk, laugh, and do things with. Surely, there are times when we need to be alone. We don't always want people around. But we would feel lonely if we never had a friend.

No two people are just the same. Sometimes friends don't get along well. That doesn't mean that they no longer like each other. Most of the time they will make_up and go on being friends.

Sometimes friends move away. Then we feel very sad. We miss them very much. But we can call and write to them. It could be that we would never see them again. And we can make new friends. It is surprising to find out how much we like new people when we get to know them.

Families sometimes name their children after a close friend. Many places are named after men and women who have been friendly to people in a town. Some libraries are named this way. So are some schools. We think of these people when we go to these places.

There's more good news for people who have friends. They live longer than people who don't. Why? It could be that they are happier. Being happy helps you stay well. Or it could be just knowing that someone cares. If someone cares about you, you take better care of yourself.

【推荐1】My wife and I were at a crowded grocery store not long ago. It was a weekday evening, cold and wet-and tense. People were carelessly blocking aisles, complaining and cutting one another off with their carts.

Things got worse at the checkout line. The cashier scanned a man’s discount card, but he misread the savings on her screen as an additional charge. He decided she was acting deliberately and began to argue.

“She is being spiteful (恶意的) !” he yelled. “This is unbelievable.”

Other customers looked away as the cashier tried to reason with him. She called a manager, who accompanied him to customer service. Shaken, she moved to the next customer in line.

We’ve all witnessed uncomfortable scenes like this in public places. The grocery scene was another example of how our trust in others has eroded. But it was also a teachable moment on how we can rebuild our faith-starting with just one person.

Back at the grocery store, my wife and I reached our uneasy cashier. I grabbed a bottle of water from a nearby cooler and handed it to her. “We felt bad about how that man treated you and wanted to buy this for you.” I said. Her face lit up, and we talked as she scanned our items. She told us she had been working that evening through severe foot pain and would be having surgery later that week. We wished her well in her recovery, and she thanked us as we left.

Those are the balancing acts, the moments of responding social and emotional pain with healing, which will add up to restore trust among people. You can start that pattern in someone else’s life, even in a place as ordinary as the neighborhood grocery store.

【推荐3】A clever technologist took steamboat inventions and turned them into the first commercial steamboat service.

Although Robert Fulton did not invent the steamboat, as is commonly believed, he played an important role in making steamboat travel a reality. He was born in Pennsylvania in 1765. As a young man, he set out to make his name as a portrait painter. His career took him to Europe and into the orbit of people with the power to support him politically and financially.

Fulton entered London society after he painted Benjamin Franklin’s portrait. While abroad, Fulton left the arts for a career in shipbuilding. He was interested in the recently-invented steam engine, and thought it could be used to power ships. Fulton’s vision was not original; many others had entered the field, and the unfortunate inventor John Fitch had built a working steamship already. But like Henry Ford, Fulton’s talent lay not in the invention but in the product’s application in the marketplace.

Fulton didn’t focus entirely on the steamboat. In 1804, he tested the first submarine successfully, which he had built for the British Royal Navy. His invention would make him a celebrity upon his return to the United States two years later. Fulton’s partner Robert Livingston obtained an exclusive license for steamboat services on New York’s Hudson River. It was time for Fulton to deliver.

To build an efficient, reliable steamboat, Fulton used a special English steam engine. The ship’s bottom was flat and its stern was square. The steamboat Clermont made its debut (首次亮相) on August 17, 1807, steaming up the river from New York to Albany, and it soon entered commercial services. The hilly terrain of New York made water transport faster than land transport, and Fulton’s boat - formerly known as the “North River Steamboat” - was a hit. Within five years, Fulton would be running services on six major rivers plus the Chesapeake Bay, and bring in great profits.