The “New Year” has really past, everything returns to normal. I know this upcoming year will have many new challenges, all sorts of different problems and issues, some of them predictable, some of them not. But no matter what happens, there's at least one thing we can have full control-that is the attitude we choose to face the problems.

Usually when nothing happens, life is just like the train riding on the railroad, speeding forward. Times like these we feel bored, and want to look at the sceneries outside. But looking out for too long get tiring too… so take up a book or a magazine and just flip through them… and all of a sudden you have already arrived at the destination. Maybe, we can be like a writer or a philosopher, closely observing everything around them, people's gestures, expressions, and guessing at their thoughts, their personal lives. At such times, the “I” has disappeared, detached, “I” become merely a recorder, or some playwright. Maybe I'll also begin to think about things related to myself, about my life. What will happen in my life? How useful is it that I work so hard everyday? What is it to others? Will I be successful? Sometimes I'll dream toward the direction of idealism, but sometimes, I expect the worst and imagine myself to be a total failure. But it's not totally hopeless. At least I can be a better person and not make others uncomfortable. That is to say, people won't need to talk behind my back, at best they can even say “this person works hard everyday and wants to live purposefully, even if in the end there's no purpose at all.” Yes, I do want to live with a purpose, that's enough. What I think I ought to do, I just try my best to accomplish, including writing books and letters, talking and teaching, reading and finding my flaws, improving and elevating myself. This is what a 55-year-old man, under all situations, can fulfill within his range.

If I were still in that 17-year-old state, what I'm thinking is probably just how to do well in school and get into an ideal college, to meet friends I can get along with, and let others understand me more, let myself less criticized by others, or yelled at. To sum it up, it's probably just to make the days happier… in general. Other things too far into the future, it's useless to think too much about it anyway. In the immediate future if I can fulfill enough to let myself and others be satisfied, I should be grateful enough.

In the process of growing up, over half of the time we're being tested. In school there are academic tests. At home, on the surface it seems like we're free, but adults are incessantly observing our every actions-how long you're on the phone, what kind of friends you're making, what you're doing “hiding” in your room. Even the way you sleep, the clothing your wear-they're all under the objectivism of those adults, under the control of their emotions and preferences. Really, sometimes, you really don't what you need to do to satisfy them.

Furthermore these experiences only come naturally, there's not director purposely planning everything. When it's time, things appear in all sorts of ways. For some it's the physical illness, for others it's the conflicts in dealing with people. Arguments over political stands, becoming enemies with friends… etc. In my life, everyone that I've met each has their own problems. There's not one who's only happy and never not. Because they're all human, not cartoon characters, nor some actors in a comedy movie.

“Comedies” in our times indicate something “unreal” and “shallow.” After you finish the movie, you return to the reality (especially home) and feel a serious disappointment and emptiness. Life is not acting, it's real. But because it's SO real that it ironically seems like an act. It's like I write you letters because I'm playing the role of your father. There are always the ones that need to be directed, and the ones that play the role of directors. Even if I decide not to act in any particular role, I still cannot escape the role of simply being “me.” There's nothing glorious or pathetic, I give up on the traditional image of a “father,” and instead I'm just a “person.” Let things happen as they may. If good, then that's fine. If bad, that's fine, too.

In life we continuously face the “important” and the “urgent” things to do. Which one is the priority? Unconsciously we often fall into the “urgent” trap. Because there's no time, so we do the emergent things first. But, urgent thing is not necessarily important, and the important thing isn't always urgent. Thus it becomes “tomorrow I'll do the important thing, but right now I need to do the urgent one.” Like this, when tomorrow comes you again have to take care of the urgent things first, and the important ones are always relegated until later. In the end, everything becomes “important and urgent,” and as a result, it's like SARS, you panic because you're unprepared to deal with such measure of things.

Open the newspaper, the news can generally be categorized into-politics, economics, movies, music, entertainment, and sports. Behind all these topics are rank, greed, power, fame and other sorts of lust and desires. Or else it's the unfortunate things that happen in our world (murder, accidents, etc), showing life as something ugly.

But of all our lives, the most important things are not so much emphasized, because everyone has an original soul from birth, its existence often taken for granted. You can say that our shapeless mind and soul have their own unpublished newspaper (inexistent). Every soul is busy searching for 3 most important things-