[Journal Review] Attitude

We cannot control life, the joy and the sorrow of it, the achievement or otherwise, but one thing we ought to be able to control and that is our attitude to it. We can, I believe, make a work of art out of our lives, a song or a beautiful melody, even though that song may clutch at the throat and bring tears to the eyes. No one can deny us that artistry of living if we are ourselves capable of it - if we are capable . It is a big if! Not to reject life but to accept it in all its fullness, and yet to go throug it finely and with light steps and refusing to allow it to besmirth us. That is a worthwhile ideal, a difficult undertaking, and the very few who may have the good fortune to approach it can never regret the choice. Success if it comes, comes with no tinsel or vulgarity; failure itself approaches with noble and tragic mien. (An Excerpt from Jawaharlal Nehru's letter written to his sister from Naini Central Prison, Sep. 12, 1934.)

【Journal Review】The Wise Sherlock Holmes

I am a Holmes fan. I have taken some notes which are very insightful. Indeed, Holmesian.

You see, but you do not oberve.

Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories instead of theories to suit facts.

The interplay of ideas and the oblique uses of knowledge are often of extraordinary interest.

By what it has accomplished while still teething, one may forecast what marvels it will do in the strength of its maturity.

Nobody could infer the mastermind in the top of that ediice from the edifice itself.

Work is the best antidote to sorrow.

I cannot agree with those who rank modesty among the virtues. To the logician all things should be seen exactly as they are and to under-estimate oneself is as much a departure from truth as to exaggerate one's own powers.

Quality is not negotiable.

Virtue is its own reward.

It is a capital mistake to thoerise in advance of the facts.

No chain is stronger than its weakest link.

No rose without a thorn.

Belief is not proof.

Astonishing things can be done with the human memory if you will devote it faithfully to one particular line of business.

When you get into a dangerous place, don't turn coward. That isn't going to help matters any.

Constancy in love is a good thing; but it means nothing, and is nothing, without constancy in every kind of effort.

If you had the abilities of all the great men, past and present, you would do nothing well without sincerely meaning it, and setting about it.

[Journal Review] The IF's

Journal Review(continued):
I found a poem by Joseph Rudyard Kipling very instructive. He was mentoring his young man.

If---

If you can keep your head when all about you

Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;

If you can trust yourslef when all men doubt you,

But make allowance for their doubting too;

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,

Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,

Or, being hated, don't give way to hating,

And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise.

If you can dream-and not make dreams your master;

If you can think-and not make thoughts your aim;

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster

And treat those two imposters just the same;

If you can bear to heer the truth your've spoken

Twisted by knaves to make a trap for foos,

Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,

And stoop and build'tm up with wornout tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings

And risk it on oue turn of pitch-and-toss,

And lose, and start again at your beginnings

And never breathe a word about your loss;

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew

To serve your turn long after they are gone,

And so hold on when there is nothing in you

Except the Will which says to them:"Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,

Or walk with kings-nor lose the common touch:

If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;

If all men count with you, but none too much;

If you can fill the unforgiving minute

With sixty second's worth of distance run-

Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,

And -which is more-you'll be a man-my son!

"Life is a tough art." After reading this poem, what else one can say? Kipling's concept of "being a man" is realy demanding. Men with those characteristics will find life rewarding in itself, whatever efforts and effects it presents.

[Journal Review]Life

Journal Review:
When handling my diaries, I found a lot of inspirational stuff collected earlier but not visited recently. Here, I copy a peom written by Mother Teresa.

Life

Life is challenge, meet it.

Life is a duty, complete it.

Life is a game, play it.

Life is costly, care for it.

Life is wealty, keep it.

Life is mystery, know it.

Life is love, enjoy it.

Life is a promise, fulfil it.

Life is sorrow, overcome it.

Life is a song, sing it.

Life is a struggle, accept it.

Life is a tragedy, overcome it.

Life is an opportunity, benefit from it.

Life is beauty, admire it.

Life is bliss, taste it.

Life is a dream, realize it.

Life is an adventure, dare it.

Life is luck, make it.

Life is too precious, do not destroy it.

Life is life, fight for it.

Mother Teresa was a great person. She showed to the world how a humble individual works incredible miracle. But Mother Teresa had her own problems. She loved life and served it well. But she was believed to be troubled spiritually.

Where is my faith? Even deep down … there is nothing but emptiness and darkness … If there be God—please forgive me. When I try to raise my thoughts to Heaven, there is such convicting emptiness that those very thoughts return like sharp knives and hurt my very soul … How painful is this unknown pain—I have no Faith. Repulsed, empty, no faith, no love, no zeal, … What do I labor for? If there be no God, there can be no soul. If there be no soul then, Jesus, You also are not true. (Mother Teresa: Come Be My Light)

Her lack of faith in God only attests to her faith in life itself. "Life is life, fight for it." Faith in God, according to those religious, has tremendous supportive power but the world is too real for one to rely on the ultimate surreal.

There was a parable saying that when one was was almost drowned in the flood he prayed and asked God to save him. A log floated by. He didn't grasped it. A boat floated by and people on it asked him to climb into it. He didn't comply. And when he finally drowned and stood before God, he accused that God hadn't come to save him. God smiled and said, "I sent a log and a boat to save you. But you didn't use them." This story is created by God's lamb not God himself/herself, I believe. The lecture delived here, possibly, is "God help those who help themselves." Really smart. But I see that the one in the flood tried to save himself by praying. He thought, innocently or stupidly, that God would personally come to save him and the critical situation was a perfect chance to test his belief in God. He was betrayed.

My point here is: "Life is life, fight for it." If you rely on others including God completely, you are dupe. When it comes death or life, it's up to you to choose. Never give up, because you are your own God. Mother Teresa didn't rely God to help the poverty-stricken. She relied on herself. She understood that only her own actions count.