（D)

    Many people havegreat difficulty in saying goodbye. But from goodbye moments, we canalways learn something.

    Once, I overheard (无意中听到)a father and daughter in their goodbye moment. The father said, “I love you, Iwish you enough.” The daughter answered, “Daddy, our life together has beenmore than enough. Your lover is all that I need. I wish you enough, too, Daddy.”

    They kissed and she left …

    The fatherwalked over towards me. I could see he wanted and needed a cry. He came over tome and asked, “Did you ever say a forever goodbye to someone?” Before I couldanswer, he went on, “I am old and she lives much too far away. I know her nexttrip back would be for my funeral (葬礼).”

“When youwere saying goodbye I heard you say, ‘I wish you enough.' May I ask whatthat means?”

    He began tosmile, “It's a wish that has come down from my great-great-grandparents.And my parents used to say it to me.”

    He stoppedfor a moment and looked up as if trying to remember it. He smiled evenmore.

“When wesaid ‘I wish you enough,' we were wanting the other person to have alife full of enough good things.”

    Then, turningtowards me, he shared (分享)the following “wish” from his heart.

    I wish you enough sun to keep youbright.

    I wish you enough rain to appreciatethe sun more.

    I wish you enough happiness to keep you alive.

    I wish you enough pain so that thesmallest joys in life appear much bigger.

    I wish enough hellos to get you through thefinal goodbye.

    My friends, I wish you enough.

C

    When my wife and I went to live in an Arab country, my friends told us to be prepared for a culture shock. Later, we realized that the advice given to us by our friends was correct.

    The culture shock started with the weather. Here, the burning sun can cook an egg in a minute! The hot weather made us feel so tired that we were falling asleep at mid-day!

    Another culture shock was the working week. We worked from Saturdays to Wednesdays, including Sundays. It was also strange to see people praying in a certain direction! They have strict rules for women. They do not let people see their faces in public. They do not let women drive cars, either. All dresses worn by women have to cover the body completely. They believe that women cannot be seen in public.

    At the weekends, we went camping in the desert. I will never forget watching the sun setting over the desert. We also enjoyed riding on the camels. In the end, we enjoyed living there, but their culture is very different from the American culture.

    Once upon a time, there lived a rich man. He had a servant (仆人). He and the servant(仆人) loved wine and good food very much. Each time the rich man left his home, the servant would drink the wine and eat up all the nice food in the house. The rich man knew what his servant did, but he had never caught his servant doing that.

    One morning, when he left home, he said to the servant, “Here are two bottles of poison (毒药) and some nice food in the house. You must take care of them.” With these words, he went out.

    But the servant knew that the rich man had said was untrue. After the rich man was away from his home, he enjoyed a nice meal. Because he drank too much, he was drunk and fell to the ground. When the rich man came back, he couldn't find his food and his wine. He became very angry. He woke the servant up. But the servant told his story very well. He said a cat had eaten up everything. He was afraid to be punished, so he drank the poison to kill himself.

    I travel a lot in my work, and what I dislike about my job is eating alone. It always makes me feel lonely to see others laughing and talking. So, eating in the room is a better choice for me.

    After eating alone in my room for three nights in Houston, I needed to get out of my room. Although the restaurant opened at 6: 30, I arrived at 6: 25. The waiter at the front desk made a comment (评论) about my "being there really early" in surprise. I explained that I hated eating alone in restaurants. He then took me to a lovely table near the window and asked me whether I would mind if he sat down with me for a while.

    I was glad! He sat and talked with me about his career goals (职业目标) and the difficulty of being at work on nights, weekends and holidays. He said he hadn't enough time to be with his family. After 15 minutes, he saw some customers at the front desk and excused himself. I noticed that before he went to the front desk, he stopped in the kitchen for a moment.

    Then another waiter came out of the kitchen and had a wonderful chat with me. Before I left that night, some other waiters, even the cook, came out of the kitchen and sat with me!

    When I asked for my bill about one hour later, all the people who had sat down with me came over in a big group to my table, and gave me a red rose. And I cried! What a beautiful experience!