When I was a child, I had to go to church and obey many other rules, though these rules at times caused resentment (怨恨). Perhaps the most extreme parenting decision my parents made for my four brothers and sisters and me was to create a home environment without a television.

    We hated this decision at that time, because there was seemingly no way to keep this embarrassing fact a secret at school. Naturally, simple pleasures like cartoons, football games, and movies became huge novelties (新奇事物). I would go over to friends' or relatives' houses for that access alone.

    When I reached high school, my parents bought a television, though it had no cable. However, I did spend most of my childhood in a home without a television. In fact not having a television did contribute a great deal to my skills, and it also forced me to develop other valuable interests. We grew up in a small town, so my brothers and sisters and I spent time exploring streets, fields and woods. And of course I read and wrote and studied, which pushed me toward a career path.

    So would I give a similar situation to my own children if I had them? I doubt it, at least not in the most extreme sense. I'm too much of a football fan, not to mention the TV serials (连续剧) like The Wire. But television or almost anything for that matter is unhealthy for kids. It can prevent them from living a full life. So maybe a reasonable answer is no cable or no video-game systems or simply setting the time limit, but I haven't exactly worked out how to confine it yet. Although some people are against my idea, we do need limits after all.

    I was at my parent's dinner table. Before me was a worn journal of thin and discolored pages. It was my grandfather's journal and now belonged to my father. My grandfather had passed away in the months leading up to my birth. I never got to visit the places he had frequently and people who had been a part of his life's journey.

    I was now about to enter his world, through the words he had left behind. Within minutes, I was attracted by the power of the written words. In the magical script before me, I was transported to another age when food was an everyday art, planned, prepared and enjoyed in the company of others, and a time when people had the heart to pause，their own lives to embrace (拥抱）each other's struggles. All this was conveyed to me in the beauty of the words that flowed together to connect with the writer's mind and understand the world they lived in.

    That kind of writing seems to be lost on us today. We have gotten used to writing in bite-sized pieces for a public looking for entertainment, and hungry for information. No wonder, there are nearly 200 million bloggers on the Internet and a new blog is created somewhere in the world every half a second. Instead of adding to our collective wisdom, most of these writings reflect the superficiality (肤浅)and impatience of our day and age.

    This not only robs us of the skill of writing impressive essays, it also prevents us from exploring what is truly important. Writing humbles us in a way that is vital for our character growth, by reminding us about the limits of the self and our appropriate place in the vast flow of life. Writing frees us by helping us explore the unknown so that we truly open up to the magic of the world around us. I saw all of this in the writing s of my grandfather. And I've seen it again and again in the writings of the greatest thinkers of humanity. Their writings reflect deep thought on issues of human importance.

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    I was selfish as a teenager. I usually spent my time thinking about myself and taking care of my own needs. I let my older brother do most of the work around the house until he left for college. I let my mom and dad worry about our bills and problems while I read books, played, and lost myself in my own imagination. This didn't change even when I went to college either. I studied hard but only to make my own life better. Even when I started to explore my faith, it was only to increase my own happiness.

    I married after graduation and decided to start a family. Of course, I had no idea what hard knocks reality had in store for my selfish soul. Soon I found myself unemployed, deeply in debt, and with a new baby on the way. l found out that life has little sympathy for spoiled people. In fact, all of the struggles I was going through were beating the selfishness slowly out of me.

    Still, I didn't give up on happiness. I knew that there must be a way to find it. I finally realized, however, that it had to include more than just my own needs, wants, and desires. The answer began to make itself clear one night shortly after my baby boy was born. I got a bottle and held him in my arms. As I was feeding him I looked down and saw his big, innocent, trusting eyes. I smiled and talked to him. Then he smiled and I could feel my heart growing, expanding with love. I felt such peace and joy. At that moment I had a hint of the truth: it is by growing our hearts with love that we find our happiness.

    Carolyn Arends wrote: "The more people you let into your heart, the bigger your heart gets. The more love you get, the more love you have to give. It just keeps growing." So, keep loving, keep living and keep caring. Keep growing your heart today, tomorrow, and always.

    We all have some people whom we respect very much, like our family members, our friends or our teachers.

    Respect often means different things to different people. There are several aspects that many people can agree on, though. For example, at its most basic level, respect means being kind and considerate to others.

    Respect can take many forms. Don't make fun of others. Put yourself in other people's shoes and think about how they feel. Remember the Golden Rule: treat others the same way you'd want to be treated.

    Respect is important because it sets the proper stage for all our human interactions. Friendship, love, and even basic communication must all start with respect.

    Everyone wants to be respected. To get respect, though, you must also show respect for others. It's always a two-way street. You can't be impolite to others and expect respect in return.

    It's easy to show respect. Be polite. Look for the best in people rather than concentrating on their mistakes. Show compassion to others and try to put their interests before your own. Make others comfortable when they're uneasy. Help out whenever you can. When you pay it forward, amazing things can happen.

    And be respectful to everyone. The world is an unbelievably huge place filled with billions of people, each one of whom is unique and special. And they all deserve your respect!

    Be careful, though. Not everyone will show you respect all the time. In fact, you'll probably see examples of impolite behaviour each and every day. How you respond to impolite behaviour, though, can make a huge difference.

    If you choose to respond to impolite behaviour by acting rudely yourself, you've gained nothing. You've only continued the pattern of impolite behaviour and set a bad example. Instead, act respectfully and set a good example. Consistently acting respectfully might just help others learn from your example!

    Babies born in summer are more likely to become short-sighted in late life, a study has shown.

    As many as a quarter of all cases of short-sightedness are caused by too great an exposure to sunlight in the first weeks of life, say eye experts.

    They are advising all parents to put sunglasses on their babies during the first weeks.

    Scientists had already established that over-exposure to sunlight caused shortsightedness in animals.

    Researchers who compared the months in which babies were born with whether they needed glasses later on say the principle also applies to humans.

    A study of almost 300, 000 young adults-the largest of its kind-showed that those born in June and July had a 25 per cent greater chance of becoming severely short-sighted than those born in December or January.

    Research leader Professor Michael Belkin, of Tel Aviv University, said it was because prolonged illumination(光照) causes the eyeball to lengthen-causing short-sightedness.

    Hence the more light a newborn is exposed to, the more the eyeball lengthens and the worse the short-sightedness will be.

    The mechanism which lengthens the eyeball is associated with levels of melatonin(褪黑激素), a pigment (色素) which protects the skin against harmful rays of the sun.

    In young babies not enough melatonin is released as protection, meaning they are more vulnerable to sunburn and changes to eyeball shape.

    Sight expert Professor Daniel O'Leary, of Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge, said "At the moment we don't know the precise cause of why light exposure affects sight, but the evidence seems to prove that it is one of the reasons for people becoming shortsighted."