【推荐2】After spending almost a year and a half in near-total isolation some 230 feet underground, Beatriz Flamini emerged from a cave in southern Spain and asked: Who’s buying the beer?

The climber and mountaineer had entered the cave in Granada on Nov. 21, 2021, determined to spend 500 days alone-monitored from afar by a group of scientists-to explore the effects of isolation on the human body and mind.

Flamini was 48 years old when she went down, and 50 when she officially completed the challenge on Friday.

After resurfacig, Flamini embraced supporters, met with her doctors and spent nearly an hour talking to the reporters who had gathered outside. She told them she was ready for a drink and a shower but could have stayed in the cave longer.

Flamini’s team says she spent her days reading, drawing, exercising, knitting wooly hats and recording herself with two GoPros. Spanish production company Dokumalia plans to turn her experience into a documentary, NBC reports.

Flamini said she’d lost track of time after about two months in the cave, and thought she had only been in there for some 160 or 170 days. She described the experience as “superb, matchless”, telling reporters that she never even considered hitting the panic button. “In fact, I didn’t want to come out,” she said.

Flamini’s months in the cave were spent in silence and solitude but not without remote supervision. Before going underground, she told her team not to contact her under any circumstances, even a family member’s death.

“If it’s no communication, it’s no communication regardless of the circumstances,” she said according to NBC News. “The people who know me knew and respected that.”

A technical problem forced Flamini to briefly pause the challenge around Day 300, the Associated Press reports. She spent eight days in a tent, without making contact with anyone, before returning to the cave.

【推荐1】Having decided to join Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade (游行) with our five-year-old daughter, Kerry, we caught the dawn train to Grand Central along with hundreds of excited celebrants. Like many other families, we packed a small backpack with sliced turkey sandwiches and juice boxes—eating in New York City is expensive. Kerry was wide-eyed and a little overwhelmed.

As the train pulled into the terminal (终点站) , everyone rose and anxiously waited to head toward the parade route along Fifth Avenue. We waited until everyone stepped off onto the platform. As we walked up to the entrance to the terminal, Kerry spotted a homeless woman sitting in the shadows, invisible to all except my curious daughter. “What’s that?” she asked in confusion. Linda and I looked at each other. We gave a simple and honest explanation.

The following year, we decided to attend the parade again. So the night before Thanksgiving we went shopping for sliced turkey for sandwiches. Again, Kerry caught us off guard. “Can we bring some sandwiches for those people?” she asked. We knew immediately whom she meant. This was a golden opportunity to honor Kerry’s sense of charity. That night we prepared two dozen sandwiches into our overstuffed backpack.

The next morning we took the train into Manhatan again but there was a different excitement in our little family. We were still inside the terminal when Kerry spotted the first homeless man siting motionless in a dark corner. She extracted a sandwich and took it over to him. Neither spoke a word. Then we were off to the parade, stopping along the way to distribute the rest of the sandwiches, except one for each of us. Somehow, no giant Thanksgiving sit-down feast ever tasted as good as those sandwiches.

Decades later, Kerry still fulfills her sense of kindness and generosity on this day, and passes on her good example with her daughters. There’s nothing like sharing a turkey sandwich with new friends.

【推荐2】Eight hours and 48 miles into what was supposed to be a 24-hour run, Dan Frank entered his Columbia, MD, home at 2 a.m. last Saturday and sat on the sofa in the living room.

Frank, a 36-year-old who teaches math at Paint Branch High in Burtonsville, runs as a hobby, and about two weeks earlier he set a plan of running for 24 straight hours in support of the Howard County Food Bank during the COVID-19 outbreak. But he hit a wall.

Frank didn’t stay long. He got back up, had a lot to eat and drink, and returned to running Howard County’s roads. “It was like: ‘All right, well, you can’t imagine getting up, but it doesn’t really matter. Other people are depending on this, so get up and go,’” said Frank, who posted updates (最新消息) of his run on Facebook.

Late last month, David Kilgore, a 28-year-old who has made a career out of running, ran 100 miles in about 17 hours 47 minutes in Florida to help provide medical workers with supportive footwear. Frank brainstormed his idea and ran for about two weeks while he prepared for the online classes he is now teaching.

Frank began running about five years ago, and he has always felt road races were too serious for him. Still, he was encouraged to provide for those in need. His children attend Phelps Luck Elementary, where every month a mobile food pantry (储藏柜) is stationed. “Over the past month, fewer donations have been made to the food bank,” he said. “In good times, about 40 families show up every time we have that mobile food pantry, and I can’t imagine what it might be like now, with so many people losing their jobs.”

On Sunday night Frank had raised nearly $12, 000 for the Howard County Food Bank. “The coolest part besides raising the money is watching a community do a common cause in these times,” Frank said. “People are looking for things like that right now. They’re at home on Facebook anyway; they want to cheer something on that has some good meaning behind it.”

【推荐1】Have you kept the secrets in your heart? Have you tried to hide anything from others? Is it all right if you don’t tell the truth? You’ll find the answer after reading the following passage.

Marie was Joey’s mother. There was something wrong with her son’s feet. The doctor told her that Joey would be able to walk like others, but would never run very fast. At the age of eight, Joey ran around with the children in his neighborhood. His mother never told him that he wouldn’t be able to run as fast as the other children. So he didn’t know.

In the seventh grade, he decided to try out for a runner on his school team. He ran more than any of the others in order to be chosen. Joey practiced running four to five miles a day--even one day when he had a high fever. Although Marie was worried about him, she never told him he couldn’t run with such a high fever. So he didn’t know.

Two weeks later, Joey made the team. Marie never told him he couldn’t do it. So he didn’t know. He just did it.

Although sometimes we don’t tell others the truth, it can make them optimistic and meet the challenge of their lives bravely. Why not go for it?