4 . Martha Stewart was charged, tried and convicted of a crime in 2014. As she neared the end of her prison sentence, a well-known columnist wrote that she was “paying her dues,” and that “there is simply no reason for anyone to attempt to deny her right to start anew. ”

    1     Unfortunately, many federal and state laws impose post-conviction restrictions on a shockingly large number of Americans, who are prevented from ever fully paying their debt to society.

At least 65 million people in the United States have a criminal record. This can result in severe penalties (惩罚) that continue long after punishment is completed.

Many of these penalties are imposed regardless of the seriousness of the offense or the person’s individual circumstances.       2     They can affect a person’s ability to get a job and qualification for benefits.

In all, more than 45,000 laws and rules serve to exclude vast numbers of people from fully participating in American life. Some laws make senses. No one advocates letting someone convicted of pedophilia (恋童癖) work in a school.       3     Should a woman who possessed a small amount of drugs years ago be permanently unable to be licensed as a nurse?

These laws are also counterproductive (适得其反), since they make it harder for people with criminal records to find housing or a job, two key factors that reduce backsliding. A recent report makes several recommendations, including the abolition of most post-conviction penalties, except for those specifically needed to protect public safety.       4    

The point isn’t to excuse or forget the crime. Rather, it is to recognize that in America’s vast criminal justice system, and second chances are crucial. It is in no one's interest to keep a large segment of the population on the margins of society.

5 . THE GLOBAL WASTE TRADE IS ESSENTIALLY BROKEN

Cut into hillside in northern Malaysia stands a large, open-air warehouse. This is a recycling factory, which opened last November. On a very hot afternoon in January, Shahid Ali was working his very first week on the job. He stood knee-deep in soggy, white bits of plastic. Around him, more bits floated of the conveyor belt and fell to the ground like snowflakes.

Hour after hour, Ali sorts through the plastic jumble moving down the belt, picking out pieces that look off-color or soiled-rejects (废品) in the recycling process. Though it looks like backbreaking work, Ali says it is a great improvement over his previous job, folding bed-sheets in a nearby textile factory, for much lower pay. Now, if he eats simply, he can save money from his wages of just over $l an hour and send $250 a month to his parents and six brothers and sisters in Peshawar, Pakistan, 2,700 miles away, “As soon as I heard about this work, I asked for a job,” says Ali, 24, a bearded man with glasses and an easy smile. Still, he’s working 12 hours a day, seven days a week. “If I take a day off, I lose a day’s wages,” he says.

In the warehouse, hundreds of bags are stacked more than 60 feet high-each stuffed with plastic wrappers and bags thrown away weeks earlier by their original users in California. The fact that the waste has traveled to this distant corner of the planet in the first place shows how badly the global recycling economy has failed to keep pace with humanity’s plastics addiction. This is an ecosystem that is deeply dysfunctional, if not on the point of collapse: About 90% of the millions of tons of plastic the world produces every year will eventually end up not recycled, but burned, buried, or dumped.

Plastic recycling enjoys ever-wider support among consumers: Putting yogurt containers and juice bottles in a blue bin is an eco-friendly act of faith in millions of households. But faith goes only so far. The tidal wave of plastic items that enters the recycling stream each year is increasingly likely to fall right back out again, casualties of a broken market. Many products that consumers believe (and industries claim) are “recyclable" are in reality not, because of hard economics. With oil and gas prices near 20-year lows, so-called virgin plastic, a product of petroleum feed-stocks, is now far cheaper and easier to obtain than recycled material. That unforeseen shift has yanked the financial rug out from under what was until recently a practical recycling industry. “The global waste trade is essentially broken,” says the head of the global plastics campaign at Greenpeace. “We are sitting on vast amounts of plastic with nowhere to send it and nothing to do with it.”

“Dealing with money is a basic life skill”

Why financial transactions are about relationships and why the

quality of the relationship is more important than the transaction itself.

British psychologist, William Bloom, has long argued that society would benefit if money flowed more freely-if, for example, people regularly give part of their salaries or profits to charity.

When you say, “Money should flow more freely,” what do you mean?

“There are two metaphors that I like to use for money. One is the energy of the environment and human nature. Money represents a(n)     1     of these energies; it’s a materialized form of energy. The other metaphor is water. If you look at water, it can be still and polluted or, once the dams are opened, it has the ability to     2     itself. Healthy energy flows in the way rich people should allow their money to flow. If they are good, they will know how to give.”

Money still isn’t flowing freely.

A lot of it is dammed up in banks and in the hands of a small percentage of extremely wealthy individuals. “We have to build a society in which we are not threatened by each other. The gap between the rich and the poor     3     social connection and harmony. The Baby Boomers (婴儿潮一代) are too comfortable for too long. Now they have to ask themselves what their politics are, because life is political. This is the time for all of us to     4     politically.”

How can we deal with money in a healthier way?

“When it comes to money, there is a lot of naiveté. Children need to be taught in school that dealing with money is a basic life skill. They need to be able to read a bank statement in a(n)     5     way. When a transaction takes place, this means     6     pausing to say, ‘This exchange affects me in this and this way.’ We are often in too much of a hurry to realize that. We also forget that transactions are first and foremost about relationships. The quality of that relationship is more important than the transaction itself. That’s why Bedouins (游牧民族贝都因人)   always share a cup of tea when they do business together. They understand the need to     7     their relationship with others.”

Another form of flow is giving. Can that be a kind of spiritual practice?

“Humans are paradoxical beings. It is possible to have pure     8     and to get satisfaction as a by-product from your actions. There is the classic idea that giving away money brings a sense of safety and satisfaction. And it does. Being alive in this universe comes from the     9     that you’re part of a flow in the universe. People think highly of altruism (舍己为人), giving away money to someone who cannot see you. Donating money to charity is not just about the material effect but it also allows you to pay attention to what causes you’re supporting. It’s healthy to give without thinking of the material     10    . Money is neutral, like language. It’s all about the way in which it is used.”

7 . The members of the group saw each other regularly, because they all had serious health problems. Twelve-year-old Marc was autistic (自闭症). But here, in the group circle, they could talk about what they felt. Here they could listen to the others and provide each other with some of the human attention they often so terribly missed.

But that evening, they didn’t know how to talk about what had just happened: Paul had died. The group would never again enjoy his animated laughter. Everyone stared straight ahead. Only sadness and a sense of impotence rose to the surface. No matter what she tried, Jackie, the nurse facilitating the group, couldn’t get a conversation going.

Then Jackie described how people in some cultures, when they were sad and wanted to share their feelings but could not find the words to express their sorrow, would sit in a circle and make rhythmic music together. Then everyone picked up one of the djembe drums in the room. Jackie began softly beating hers and the others joined in. Boom-boom-ta, boom-boom-ta. Slowly, they let the rhythm carry them away. Marc had trouble keeping time with the others and gave Jackie a frightened look. She smiled her encouragement, and he focused as well as he could. Jackie began to play slowly, and the others followed. At her sign, a few began to drum out of time with the beat.

Suddenly, the rhythm of the music changed. Everyone was playing his or her own melody: no one was leading the park. Everyone was carried by the music. Gradually, the sadness found its way out. Karin, in a wheelchair, was the first to think of how much Paul had enjoyed making music with the rest of the group. Then the others told their own stories. Their faces were wet with tears-as were the instruments-but still the rhythm carried them. They felt as one, with each other and with Paul. These were tears of sorrow and mourning, but also of solidarity and connection.

Henri began to smile, and the rest soon joined him. The rhythm quickened. Their combined music held power and energy. Marc felt relieved. A broad smile lit up his face, and the others were happy to see him this way. Then the situation had changed completely. Sorrow had made way for hope.

People have been making rhythmic music in groups, using drums. It is a tradition, wherein healing takes place through the spirit and the emotions, through contact with the body and its subtle powers of self-healing. In a recent study, physician Barry Bittman showed that making rhythmic music in a group affects our physical condition. Immune cells in particular are stimulated to greater activity.

Bob’s problems began during his formative years. His parents got divorced when he was young, and neither of his parents wanted to raise him or his brother and sister, so he     1     (bring) up by a foster family chosen by a social worker in the community.

Unfortunately, his foster father was a strict authoritarian and often beat him. Bob rebelled against this strict upbringing, and by the time he was eight years old, he     2     (run) wild, stealing from shops and playing truant. When he reached adolescence, sometime around his thirteenth birthday, he had already appeared in court several times, charged     3     juvenile crimes. The judge blamed his foster parents,     4     (explain) that children needed responsible parents and guardians who would look after them properly. The foster father didn’t agree with the judge and objected to this, pointing out that Bob’s two brothers and sister were well-adjusted children who behaved at home and worked well at school.

This has raised some interesting questions about the modern family system.     5     it is true that parents should not be too lenient with children by letting them do     6     they want,     7     too over-protective by sheltering them from the realities of life, it is also true that they should not be too strict. It has also highlighted the disadvantages of the modern nuclear family     8     the child has only its mother and father to rely on or the single-parent family, in which the mother or father has to struggle particularly hard     9     (support) their dependents.     

In fact, many people believe that we     10     return to traditional family values and the extended family: extensive research has shown that children from these families are generally better behaved and have a better chance of success in later life.