He was 50 years old when I was born, and a "Mr. Mom" long before anyone had a name for it. I didn't know why he was home instead of Mom, but I was young and the only one of my friends who had their dad around. I considered myself very lucky.

Dad did so many things for me during my grade-school years. He asked the school bus driver to pick me up at my house instead of the usual bus stop that was six blocks away. He always had my lunch ready for me when I came home—usually a peanut butter and sandwich that was shaped for the season. My favorite was at Christmas. The sandwiches would be covered with green sugar and cut in the shape of a tree.

As I got a little older and tried to gain my independence, I wanted to move away from those "childish" signs of his love. But he wasn't going to give up. In high school and no longer able to go home for lunch, I began taking my own. Dad would get up a little earlier and make it for me. I never knew what to expect. The outside of the bag might be covered with his way of a mountain scene (it became his trademark or a heart with the word "Dad-n-Angel" in its center. Inside there would be a note with that same heart or an "I love you". Many times he would write a joke or a riddle. He always had some silly saying to make me smile and let me know that he loved me.

    I used to hide my lunch so no one would see the bag or read the note, but that didn't last long. One of my friends saw the note one day, grabbed it, and passed it around the lunch room. My face burned. To my astonishment, the next day all my friends were waiting to see the note. From the way they acted, I think they all wished they had someone who showed them that kind of love. I was so proud to have him as my father. Throughout the rest of my high school years, I received those notes, and still have a majority of them.

    And still it didn't end. When I left home for college (the last one to leave), I thought the messages would stop. But my friends and I were glad that his action continued.

I began getting letters almost every Friday. The front-desk worker always knew who the letters were from—the return address said, "The Hunk." Many times the envelopes were addressed in crayon and along with the enclosed letters were usually drawings of our cat and dog, stick figures of him and mom and if I had been home the weekend before, of me racing around town with friends and using the house as a pit stop. He also had his mountain scene and the hearten-cased inscription, "Dad-n-Angle".

    We talk a lot in the U.S. about success. Success is the dream and the end point. And not by coincidence the idea that hard work leads to personal success is as American as apple pie.

    But the reality is that sometimes we fail. And sometimes things, through no fault of our own, don't go our way. We're faced with a life-changing diagnosis(诊断), the passing of a loved one or job loss. We don't, as a society, have as much to say here.

    I think uncertainty does us all harm. We'd feel better equipped to deal with uncertainty if we talked about it more. I had so fully bought into the belief that with enough effort, I could control what happened in my life. I actually caught myself thinking I could "work my way out" of my cancer. As it turns out, cancer doesn't really care about one's work.

    We might also make wiser decisions--this isn't just a feel-good exercise. For example, technology and medicine have progressed to the point that many patients are living longer than they would have even a decade ago. These are achievements worth celebrating. And yet I wonder if the focus on success is sometimes misguided here as well. If it is one reason why we tend to pursue expensive end-of-life treatments, they often accomplish little other than to make a patient's final days painful and frightening. The fact is that, when asked, many patients would rather focus on living meaningfully in their final days.

    My hope here is to make a case for thinking about meaning, in the same way we think about pursuing success. In that spirit, I've asked several people, each of whom has met misfortune, how they find meaning in their lives. The diversity in their responses reflects the fact that there are no right or wrong answers here. We each can find meaning in different things.

    Blue Note Jazz Festival 2018

    Jul 1-30, 2018

    Location:

    Several locations in New York

    The Blue Note Jazz Festival in New York City is the city's most popular jazz festival and focuses on bringing big-name artists to small crowds and up-and-coming acts to the public. The event takes over 15 places across the city and includes 150 world-class performers. Past artists include Questlove, Michael Bolton and Aretha Franklin.

    Grant Park Music Festival 2018

    Jun 14-Aug 19, 2018

    Location:

    Jay Pritzker Pavilion, South Shore Cultural Center, & Harris Theater for Music and Dance | 201 East Randolph Street, Chicago, Illinois

    Listening to classical music is said to improve your intelligence. Whether that's true or not, the Grant Park Music Festival will provide you with free, classical music, and you'd be smart to attend. The music at these concerts will leave you begging for more. It's free to attend, so come and enjoy some great music with your family and friends.

    Lake Park Friends Wonderful Wednesdays 2018

    Jun 21 – Jun 26, 2018

    Location:

    Lake Park | Milwaukee, Wisconsin

    Energy is way too contained(被抑制的)in an indoor music venue(场所). Let that energy go where it wants through a series of outdoor concerts with Lake Park Friends Wonderful Wednesdays. Wednesday is no longer the most boring day of the week. This time, there's something fun to do. A list of live music acts has made the middle of the week something too look forward to.

    YouthCUE Festival of Youth Choirs(合唱队)2018

    Aug 10- Aug 22 2018

    Location:

    Washing to National Cathedral | 3101 Wisconsin Ave NW Washing ton, DC

    YouthCUE Festival of Youth Choirs in Washington gives students the rare opportunity to perform in the Washington National Cathedral, a famous historic place. The festival is a showcase of student choirs from all over the country, accompanied(伴奏)by musicians from the local professional orchestra(管弦乐队).

    Monty Hempel is a professor of environmental sciences at Redlands University in California. He studies ecological literacy­or eco-literacy, for short. Eco-literacy is the ability to think about and understand the natural processes that make life possible.

    Monty Hempel says eco-literacy gives people knowledge about environmental problems. But he says it does not always work on getting them to change their behavior.

    Mr. Hempel wrote part of the Worldwatch Institute's latest State of the World report. He says in his article, "Some people think that eco-literacy is just a green form of science literacy. And what I have tried to ask is whether that's enough. In other words, what an ecologically-literate person needs to know might include things like the effect of environmental pollution on ecosystem, the energy systems, and all of those kinds of things that we would call the science of ecology."

    "That doesn't seem to lead to action to protect our environment ­ to protect our life-support system to the level that we need to. Just knowing a lot about the environment doesn't mean that we actually act to save it. After all, actions speak louder than knowledge."

    He adds that people may not be very worried about environmental problems if they seem far away. "Some people call it psychological distance. A lot of climate issues are worse in the Arctic and most of us don't spend time in the Arctic. And so, there's a certain distance. But there's also a distance that's happening in the world as it urbanizes ­ people spending more time in front of screens and less time out in nature. We become, if you will, disconnected from the natural systems that used to be the key to success for a human being."

    To help children discover the wonders of nature, he adds that children should learn about nature in school. But he also points out we have a high mountain for people to climb from knowledge to action.

    It started during a yoga class. She felt a strange pull on her neck, a feeling completely foreign to her. Her friend suggested she rush to the emergency room. It turned out that she was having a heart attack.

    She didn't share similar symptoms with someone who was likely to have a heart attack. She exercised, watched her plate and did not smoke. But on reviewing her medical history, I found that her cholesterol (胆固醇) level was sky-high. She had been prescribed a cholesterol-lowering statin (他汀) medication, but she never picked up the prescription because of the scary things she had read about statins on the Internet. She was the victim of fake medical news.

    While misinformation has been the object of great attention in politics, medical misinformation might lead to an increase in deaths. As is true with fake news in general, medical lies tend to spread further than truths on the Internet—and they have very real bad consequences.

    False medical information can also lead to patients experiencing greater side effects through the "nocebo effect (反安慰剂效应) ". Sometimes patients benefit from an intervention (干预) simply because they believe they will—that's the placebo effect (安慰剂效应). The nocebo effect is the opposite. Patients can experience harmful effects because they anticipate them. This is very true of statins. In blinded trials, patients who get statins are no more likely to report feeling muscle aches than patients who get a placebo. Yet, in clinical practice, according to one study, almost a fifth of patients taking statins report side effects, leading many to discontinue the drugs.

    What else is on the fake news hit list? As always, vaccines (疫苗) . False concerns that the vaccine may cause side effects have greatly reduced coverage rates.

    Cancer is another big target for pushers of medical misinformation—many of whom refuse alternative therapies. "Though most people think cancer tumors are bad, they're actually the way your body attempts to contain the harmful cells," one fake news story reads. It warns that prescription medications lead to the uncontrolled cell mutations (变异) .

    Silicon Valley needs to face this problem. I am not a free-speech lawyer, but when human health is at risk, perhaps search engines, social media platforms and websites should be held responsible for promoting or hosting fake information. Meanwhile, journalists should do a better job of spreading accurate information.