A Commitment to Life

    The snow was falling and the roads had become dangerous. The schools were dismissed early, but much to my surprise, my1wasn't canceled. So I went, feeling especially heroic. As far as I could see, I was risking my life to keep my2. Snow or no snow, I would be on time for my scheduled donation at the local 3 center.

    When I got there, I discovered I wasn't4. Four more “hero-types” were already lying back in donor chairs with lines5to their veins, and machines quietly pumping away to6their lifesaving gifts.

    Seeing my fellow donors honoring their own commitments, I realized why I was there. I lay back in my donor chair, ready to make a difference in the life of someone I would never7.

    To be honest, I'd never really thought about why I donate. I just do it. But a few months ago, during one of my8donations I learned that my blood was specifically for a cancer patient and for a newborn baby—both patients needed what I would give in order to live. I've viewed my visits to the blood center9 ever since.

    My wife Karen is a 10  too. And more importantly, she has been on the bone marrow (骨髄) list for fifteen years, ever since she signed up to provide bone marrow to a kindergartner with leukemia (白血病). That little girl died before Karen's bone marrow could help her, 11Karen was called again recently. Her test results were still on file, and it turned out she was a potential 12 for someone else. The caller asked Karen if she would still be willing to become a bone marrow donor. “Yes,” she said and then immediately began answering questions on the pages of paperwork for further testing. It was a race13time.

    I wish I could say that this 14was won. It wasn't. The caller later thanked Karen for her participation and asked a few more questions—including whether or not she'd15 on the donor list. “Of course,” Karen answered.

    Last week Karen gave blood and next week I'll make my usual donation. I'll16an afternoon from my schedule and make an appointment. I don't know whose life my donation may 17 .Most likely it will be a 18  but on any day the person needing a blood product could be you or me or maybe a loved one. It is worthwhile to 19our time to donate.

    I really do feel 20 every time I donate. And I like the feeling.

Eating the Cookie

    One of my patients, a successful businessman, tells me that before his cancer he would become depressed unless things went a certain way1was “having the cookie”. If you had the cookie, things were good. If you didn't have the cookie, life was 2.

    Unfortunately, the cookie kept3.Some of the time it was money, and sometimes power. At4time, it was the new car, the biggest contract. A year and a half after his diagnosis(诊断) of prostate cancer, he sits5his head regretfully. “It seems that I stopped learning how to6 after I was a kid. When I give my son a cookie, he is happy. If I take the cookie away or it7he is unhappy. But he is two and a half and I am forty three. It's taken me this long to understand that the8 will never make me happy for long.

    The9you have the cookie it starts to fall to pieces or you start to 10about it crumbling (弄碎) or about someone trying to take it away from you. You know, you have to11a lot of things to take care of the cookie, to keep it from crumbling and be12that no one takes it away from you. You may not even get a chance to eat it13 you are so busy just trying not to lose it14 the cookie is not what life is about.”

    My patient laughs and says15has changed him. For the first time he is16.No matter if his17is doing well or not, no matter if he wins or loses at golf. “Two years ago, cancer18me, 'What is really important?' Well, life is important. Live any way you can have it, life with the cookie, life without the cookie. Happiness does not have anything to19with the cookie: it has to do with being 20.

    One month ago, my daughter started kindergarten. As usual, I wished her success. I was telling a lie. What I actually wish for her is 1. I believe in the power of failure.

    Success is 2 in a sense. Success is proving that you can do something that you already know you can do, or doing something correctly the first time, which can 3 be a problematic victory. First-time success is usually a fluke (侥幸). First-time failure, 4, is expected; it is the natural order of things.

    Failure is how we learn. I have been told of an African phrase 5 a good cook as “she who has broken many pots”. If you have spent enough time in the 6to have broken a lot of pots, probably you know a fair amount about 7. I once had a late dinner with a group of chefs, and they spent time 8 knife wounds and burn scars. They knew how much credibility (可信度) their 9 gave them.

    I earn my 10 by writing a daily newspaper column. Each week I am 11 that one column is going to be the worst column of the week. I don't just set out to write it; I try my best every day. 12, every week, one column is inferior (较差的) to the others, sometimes extremely so.

    I have learned to 13 that column. A successful column usually means that I am treading (踏) on14 ground, going with tricks that work, or dressing up popular ideas in fancy words. Often in my inferior columns, I am trying to 15 something I've never done before, something that I'm not even sure can be done.

    My daughter is a perfectionist. She will feel her failures, and I will want to 16 her. But I will also, I hope, 17 her of what she learned, and how she can do 18 next time. I probably won't tell her that failure is a good thing, because that's not a(n)19 you can learn when you're five. I hope I can tell her, though, that it's not the end of the world. Indeed, with luck, it is the 20.

    Takamizawa, aged 91, was one of the more than 200,000 people who requested to volunteer for Tokyo's 2020 Games. English is not required for service, but it is a helpful1 for volunteers to have. But Takamizawa had not been able to learn the language when she was young. She was in high school when World War Two 2. She said, "In my second year there, English was banned(禁止) because it was the 3 language."

    Takamizawa said that her grandchildren helped 4 her she was not too old to learn.

    "When I talked to my grandchildren about my5, they said, 'it's not too late. We will teach you one word a day. It's going to be a good 6 for you."

    Natsuko is Takamizawa's 7 and main English teacher. Natsuko 8 a new English word to her grandmother's phone every day. They also often work together 9 on phrases that Takamizawa will need for the Olympics.

    "Welcome to Tokyo, this is the Olympic stadium, how can I help you?" Takamizawa answers when 10 to say an English phrase she has learned.

Natsuko 11 that she wanted to give her grandmother something to 12. "I can clearly see her English is getting better. It's my joy now."

    For the level of English spoken in a country, Japan ranks (排列)49th among countries where English is not the 13 language. This situation is slowly changing as younger generations 14English. Japanese students often learn English at a much 15 age than they did in the past.

    However, Takamizawa believes real change will not happen 16 Japanese people become more open to the rest of the world. She says that people in Japan should act not only as Japanese citizens, but also as "17 members" of the Earth.

    With around 500 days to go until the Games begin, the whole Takamizawa family is ready to welcome the world to Tokyo. When Japan last held the Summer Olympics in 1964, Takamizawa was too busy 18 a family to go to any events.

    Takamizawa said she never thought the Olympics would happen in Tokyo 19 in her lifetime. "It's good," she said, "to 20 long."

    Chris is a columnist (专栏作家) at citypages.com whose life turned upside down in 2017. Chris was willing to share his story but his own print deadlines made it a(n) 1  task for this time. In 2017 Chris found out his 2  condition left much to be desired and that he needed a kidney transplant (移植). Any person would have been lost in such a situation but Chris tuned to the place where he felt most comfortable——Twitter.

    The whole operation thing takes lots of efforts on a donor's (捐赠者) side and Chris continued 3  all the details on his blog and Facebook account. In the meantime, he was 4  a tiresome process of hemodialysis (血液透析) 5 waste and water removal from his blood and it generally takes 4 hours.

    6 , 19 people replied to Chris's tweet (推特信息)! They were his lawyers or just people he met at some party months ago and even complete 7 . None of them was his family, relative or Just a 8  friend. Just imagine all these people accepting medical checks, 9  their blood types and stuff of the kind to make a great 10 to a person they hardly knew! One person 11  ideally­­­Scott. Strangely enough Scott and Chris never met in person before the 12 and really saw each other for the first time on a thanksgiving evening. Both men felt that it was somewhat easier for them to let their communication flow on Social Media 13 a certain point of time. Scott sent Chris a 14 tweet even after the successful operation. When seeing Scott for the first time on a family dinner Chris couldn't say all he wanted at first and his writing talent 15 at one time.

    Social Media 16 worked! Chris has a healthy kidney now thanks to Scott, Twitter, Facebook, and the inventor of the web. For some people, 17 networks are pure evil or just time consuming black holes, but Social Media was once a 18  for Chris. It isn't just a place where people 19 their time on lonely evenings. For some of us it is also one of few paths that can lead to a certain kind of 20 .

    Since finishing my studies at Harvard and Oxford, I've watched one friend after another land high-ranking, high-paying Wall Street jobs. As executives (高级管理人员) with banks, consulting firms, established law firms, and major corporations, many are now 1 on their way to impressive careers. By society's 2, they seem to have it made.

    On the surface, these people seem to be very lucky in life. As they left student life behind, many had a 3 drink at their cheap but friendly local bar, shook hands with longtime roommates, and 4 out of small apartments into high buildings. They made reservations at restaurants where the cost of a bottle of wine 5 a college year's monthly rent. They replaced their beloved old cars with expensive new sports cars.

    The thing is, a number of them have 6 that despite their success, they aren't happy. Some 7 of unfriendly coworkers and feel sad for eight-hour workweeks devoted to tasks they 8. Some do not respect the companies they work for and talk of feeling tired and 9. However, instead of devoting themselves to their work, they find themselves working to support the 10 to which they have so quickly become 11.

    People often speak of trying a more satisfying path, and 12 in the end the idea of leaving their jobs to work for something they 13 or finding a position that would give them more time with their families almost always leads them to the same conclusion: it's 14. They have loans, bills, a mortgage (抵押贷款) to 15, retirement to save for. They recognize there's something 16 in their lives, but it's 17 to step off the track.

    In a society that tends to 18 everything in terms of dollars and cents, we learn from a young age to consider the costs of our 19 in financial terms. But what about the personal and social costs 20 in pursuing money over meaning? These are exactly the kinds of costs many of us tend to ignore — and the very ones we need to consider most.