1 . When I was a kid, my family farmed 200 acres with mules (骡子), and the most naughty one was Tobe. It’d frequently jump out and run around. But when asked why he liked it, Dad would say, “When it comes to farm work, Tobe comes up to standard.”

Dad died when I was 11, and we had to sell the farm. Those were hard years, but Mom managed to give me my first music lesson. Before long our neighbors liked my songs so much that I decided to make a career in singing.

At 17 I left home for a radio station in Jackson and this job made me discover how inexperienced I was. I made up my mind that I would practice until I came up to standard. I took a job as a driver. With 8 hours spent in the car, I could spend the rest of the time practicing. Finally, when I was good enough, I began playing for audiences nationwide.

By now, I had two kids and I knew what a family was without a dad, so I quit the performances and entered the most depressing (令人消沉的) years of my life with all the clothing, homework, and duties around the house. That was when I thought about Tobe. It was self-willed, but in the field, where it mattered, Tobe came up to standard. So I started listening and made a discovery. My kids’ lifestyle may be different. But where standards are concerned (涉及) — for things like honesty and courage — they often do better than some of us.

Not long ago my son Dick told me he was going to apply for a job at a TV station. “ I know the general manager. I’ll put in a good word for you,” I said. “I’d rather go alone,” he replied. “If I’m not good enough yet to do the job, I shouldn’t get it.” Then I realized he wanted to be up to standard. I felt proud the minute he came home shouting, “ Dad, I got the job!”

3 . My wife, Hannah, and I don’t usually keep houseplants. Anything in pots gets either over-watered or under-watered. But after my diagnosis with glioblastoma, a terminal brain cancer, with no more than a year to live, I loved the idea of having something new and green around.

My friend Mitch gave me what he said was a lucky bamboo plant in a deep-green pottery bowl with three pencil-sized stalks (茎；杆) tied together. We placed the plant in the living room window across from the couch where I spent much of the day. I smiled when I looked at it over the rim of the mug of coffee Hannah brought me each morning.

I told Hannah I wanted to care for the plant myself. Tending to the plant gave me a sense of accomplishment at a time when I sometimes felt useless. Glioblastoma limited my ability to walk, and the treatment left me exhausted, making it hard for me to accomplish everyday tasks. As a family physician, I was used to being the one who provided care, not the one who received it. Since my diagnosis, I had to rely on help from other people. The enormous change left me feeling purposeless and unsettled. Watering the plant, as small an act as it was, connected me to a core part of my old identity and taught me that plants and people could still depend on me.

Over the next few months, I recovered from surgery and completed radiation and chemotherapy. Even after I returned to work, I continued to care for the plant. Soon, it had nearly doubled in height and its leaves were shiny and lush. Both the tree and I were thriving (茁壮成长).

4 . After a Blockbuster store in Australia closes on March 31, the American city of Bend, Oregon will have the only one left on Earth.

For years, Blockbuster was a big name in the video rental business. The company had thousands of stores in the United States and around the world. But Blockbuster began to lose money during the 2000s. By 2014, all company-owned stores had closed. Since then, locally owned Blockbusters have closed, one by one.

Operating the last Blockbuster Video on Earth is not easy. The computer system uses old disks that only the store’s general manager knows how to use. The video rentals are recorded on a kind of aging tape. The tape cannot be replaced because Radio Shack, another once famous store, went out of business.

Sandi Harding has worked at the Blockbuster in Bend for over 15 years and is the store’s general manager. She says “stubbornness” is part of the reason the store is still open. “We did everything we could to cut costs and keep ourselves relevant,” she said.

Zeke Kamm lives in Bend. He is making a documentary about the store with his friend. He notes that many people who rented videos over the years want to share memories of their experiences Kamm explained how Blockbuste were once an important part of small town in America. The Blockbuster was the only place that was open past nine at night, and a lot of them stayed open much later.

Recently, Harding has noticed that more children are coming to the store, brought in by their parents who like remembering the past. Jerry Gilless and his wife, Elizabeth, on a trip to Oregon, recently brought their two children, aged 3 and 5, to the store in Bend. They watched with a smile as their children walked from row to row, looking at movies. “How could we not stop? It’s the last one,” said Gilless. “They need to see that not everything’s on the iPad.”