【推荐1】My youngest son jack has begun to learn the cello (大提琴). Every night, he carefully gets his cello out of its case and begins practising. I won’t lie; It’s not pretty. While he’s getting better every day, he has a long way from becoming the next Yo-Yo Ma.

This led me to wonder what Yo-Yo Ma was like the first time he played the cello. Of course, we now know him as one of the most excellent artists in the world, but I’m sure that when he first tried, he wasn’t much better than my son. I’m not suggesting that Jack is going to take the classical music world by storm one day. But he’s got to start somewhere.

Michael Jordan wasn’t born playing basketball, but I’m sure that he had to start somewhere. Warren Buffett wasn’t born making great investment choices, but he had to start somewhere. J. K. Rowling wasn’t born a writer, but he had to start somewhere. Bruce Springsteen wasn’t born a songwriter and performer, but he had to start somewhere. Each of these individuals is now famous as being at the top of their occupation. But when they first started, their skills would have been disappointing and their potential unrealized. It has taken years of hard work to realize their undoubted talents. But they had to start somewhere.

I don’t know what my kids are going to do with their lives, but they have a great opportunity to explore a wide range of experiences before focusing on one or two things that they can be crazy about and good at. It’s my job as dad to encourage them not to be put off by their bad first efforts. Because everyone has to start somewhere.

【推荐2】Life can bring us down from time to time. At some point, you may find yourself in what you will consider as your darkest hour. As you try to find your way out of that bad situation, you should try to remind yourself that there will always be a reason to be grateful.

If you look at your situation now and compare it with someone else who is in much deeper trouble than you, I am sure that you’ll find something to be thankful for. We all have our share of problems, but complaining about them so much only makes us blind to the fact that there are the miracles (奇迹) which happen around us each day.

When all your needs are provided, then you should be content and happy. If you have a roof over your head, some proper clothes to wear, enough food on the table, a comfortable place to sleeping, clean water to drink and you are free to make your own choices, then you should be happy and grateful. Many people all around the world especially those who are at war or those in very poor countries, would give anything to be in your shoes.

Even if you lose all your money or possessions and your heart is broken for some reason, as long as you are still alive, then everything you have lost can be regained. If you have a few good friends who will be there to support or help you, then you will be glad because true friends are hard to find. As long as you have someone to love and someone to love you back, then you are a very fortunate person. Remember to be patient and trust that things will get better.

【推荐3】Parents often say that they don't mind what their children do in life just as long as they are happy. Happiness and pleasure are almost universally seen as among the most precious human goods.    1    

Philosopher Jeremy Bentham believed that all sources of pleasure are of equal quality, but John Stuart Mill disagreed. Mill argued for a difference between higher and lower pleasure.    2    Lower pleasure, in contrast, requires mere (仅仅的；纯粹的) senses.

The entire debate assumes a clear divide between the physical and the mental.    3    What will it mean for our ideas about pleasure?

    4    Food is usually considered to be the lower pleasure. All animals eat, using the senses of smell and taste. It doesn't require any complex cognition (认知) to conclude that something is delicious. However, these people failed to appreciate something that the French food writer Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin captured. That is, "Animals feed; man eats; only the man of intellect(才智) knows how to eat."

Eating shows that the difference between higher pleasure and lower pleasure is not what you enjoy but how you enjoy it.    5    Preparing it using the powers of reflection and attention turns it into a higher pleasure.

【推荐2】Kyle is my big brother. For eighteen years, I felt that Kyle was my enemy. In fact, I found it ridiculous that people thought older brothers looked out for their sisters, protected them and fought off their sisters' bullies. Huh? My brother was the bully (持强凌弱者).

When we were little, his fights with others caused my only black eye, cuts in my lips and even a nosebleed or two. I often wished I were an only child!

Time flew. We ended up attending colleges two thousand miles apart. Yet, strangely, that was when we began communicating. Through e-mail, we kept in constant touch. Mostly I complained about serious homesickness, impossible roommates, difficult classes, and…dating. I felt I lost myself. At a particularly low time, I cried to Kyle about my injured confidence, my broken heart, and the particular jerk (蠢人) who broke it.

And that was when the package arrived.

“What’s this?” I thought as I tore into it. The box revealed a sweatshirt. “Phi Delta Theta? That’s Kyle’s frat (兄弟会).” Kyle was the president of the frat house. Why would he send this? I put it aside and dug deeper. A pile of letters. And they were all addressed to me. I opened the one on top.

“Katrina,” it said, “your brother showed me your picture and I think you're awesome and beautiful.” I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, sure.” I opened another letter. And another. Eighteen in all.

Each one was from a different guy. They complimented (恭维) me. They invited me on dates. And they tried to convince me to make a trip out to Knox College and meet them.

I loved it. I didn’t care about the motive. And mostly, I loved the idea that my big brother had pulled off. I picked up the phone

“Kyle, the box came and I can’t believe what you did.” But Kyle wasn’t accepting compliments. “Oh,” he said, “I was just tired of reading your complaints.”

Big brothers, I decided, really did protect their sisters. And mine fought off the biggest bully I’d ever met. Now I return to my true self, full of confidence.

【推荐3】Papa, as a son of a dirt-poor farmer, left school early and went to work in a factory,for education was for the rich then.So, the world became his school.With great interest, he read everything he could lay his hands on, listened to the town elders and learned about the world beyond his tiny hometown."There's so much to learn," he'd say.“Though we're born stupid, only the stupid remain that way.”He was determined that none of his children would be denied(拒绝)an education.

Thus, Papa insisted that we learn at least one new thing each day.And dinner time seemed perfect for sharing what we had learned.We would talk about the news of the day;no matter how insignificant, it was never taken lightly.Papa would listen carefully and was ready with some comment,always to the point.

Then came the moment-the time to share the day's new learning.

Papa, at the head of the table, would push back his chair and pour a glass of red wine,ready to listen.

Felice, “he'd say,”tell me what you learned today.“learned that the population of Nepal is...”

Silence.

Papa was thinking about what was said, as if the salvation(拯救)of the world would depend upon it.“The population of Nepal.Hmm.Well...”he'd say.“Get the map; let's see where Nepal is.” And the whole family went on a search for Nepal.

This same experience was repeated until each family member had a turn.Dinner ended only after we had a clear understanding of at least half a dozen such facts.

As children, we thought very.little about these educational wonders.Our family,however,was growing together,sharing experiences and participating in one another’s education And by looking at us,listening to us, respecting our input, affirming(肯定)our value; giving us a sense of dignity, Papa -was unquestionably our most influential teacher.

Later during my training as a future teacher studied with some of the most famous educators.They were imparting(传授)what Papa had known all along-the value of continual learning.His technique has served me well all my life.Not a single day has been wasted, though I can never tell when knowing the population,of Nepal might prove useful.

【推荐2】Jacob hated finishing things almost as much as he loved starting them. As a result, he had gotten into a million hobbies and activities, but he never stuck with any of them long enough to get any good.

He begged his mother for months for a guitar so that he could play songs to Angie, a girl he liked, but after he finally got one for Christmas, he found out that guitars didn’t play themselves. He took a few lessons, but the strings hurt his fingers, so now the five-hundred dollar guitar lives under his bed.

After reading an ad in the back of one of his comic books, Jacob decided that he wanted a metal detector (探测器), so that he could find buried treasure. By the time spring came he had saved $200 and purchased the metal detector. He beeped it around the park for a while, but soon found out that no one had ever left any treasure in his neighborhood. He buried the metal detector in his closest.

Given Jacob’s history with hobbies, it was no surprise that Jacob’s father was unwilling to buy him a magician’s kit (魔术包) for his birthday. “Dad, this time I’ll stick with it for real. I promise!” Jacob begged. Jacob’s father sighed. But he was reminded of his own youth long ago, when he quit football and started boxing practice before hardly getting his equipment dirty. So when Jacob’s birthday came around, he was both surprised and pleased to find the magician’s kit that he had desired so badly. As Jacob continued pulling plastic thumbs and giant playing cards out of the kit, an ad on the TV caught his attention.

“Hey kids! Have you ever wanted to go to space? For only $195 you can go to space camp and live life like an astronaut for a whole weekend!” As the ad continued playing, Jacob walked away from the magic kit and stared at the TV screen eagerly. Jacob’s cry rang throughout the house as he yelled, “MOM!” He now knew what his true purpose in life was.