Saw this interesting view Killing our dreams


The first symptom of the process of our killing our dreams is the lack of time. The busiest people I have known in my life always have time enough to do everything. Those who do nothing are always tired and pay no attention to the little amount of work they are required to do. They complain constantly that the day is too short. The truth is, they are afraid to fight the Good Fight.

The second symptom of the death of our dreams lies in our certainties. Because we don’t want to see life as a grand adventure, we begin to think of ourselves as wise and fair and correct in asking so little of life. We look beyond the walls of our day-to-day existence, and we hear the sound of lances breaking, we smell the dust and the sweat, and we see the great defeats and the fire in the eyes of the warriors. But we never see the delight, the immense delight in the hearts of those who are engaged in the battle. For them, neither victory nor defeat is important; what’s important is only that they are fighting the Good Fight.

And, finally, the third symptom of the passing of our dreams is peace. Life becomes a Sunday afternoon; we ask for nothing grand, and we cease to demand anything more than we are willing to give. In that state, we think of ourselves as being mature; we put aside the fantasies of our youth, and we seek personal and professional achievement. We are surprised when people our age say that they still want this or that out of life. But really, deep in our hearts, we know that what has happened is that we have renounced the battle for our dreams – we have refused to fight the Good Fight.

When we renounce our dreams and find peace, we go through a short period of tranquility. But the dead dreams begin to rot within us and to infect our entire being.
We become cruel to those around us, and then we begin to direct this cruelty against ourselves. That’s when illnesses and psychoses arise. What we sought to avoid in combat – disappointment and defeat – come upon us because of our cowardice.

And one day, the dead, spoiled dreams make it difficult to breathe, and we actually seek death. It’s death that frees us from our certainties, from our work, and from that terrible peace of our Sunday afternoons


I used to love reading Paulo Coelho's works, sort of self-help books that was told by story ... very intersting first, but boring after I read more than 3 of his works ^.^


just wanna share
maria

Scandals and culture evolution

Hi Angela and James,

I somehow am intrigued with the evolution of human culture, and I found these 2 articles:
Here, Kitty, Kitty, Kitty, Is it legal to eat your cat?
Scandals,Why We Can't Live Without Them

And if you are intersted at Arabian Female clothing, you can folow this Women in Arab societies

Though I can't join you at Aug 28, do feel free to use this topic.


cheers,
maria

Article for discussion on 8/21

Dear all,


I plan to spend some time on discussing the issue of Afghan women, which I read it on the newspaper recently and found it worthy to explore.

1. The Plight of Afghan Women: A Disturbing Picture
2. related comments. (optional)

See you this Saturday.....

James

Remove the World Clock Gadget

FYI. It seems to me that the world clock gadget contains some virus. Therefore I remove it from this blog.

Best,
Angela

Article for Discussion on August 14th

Hi Maria & James,

Hope the weather in Taiwan finds you well! As the discussion last time (Aug. 7th) did not take place, I think we can still use the Little Shenyang article. Here it goes:

The Dirtiest Man in China: The success of cross-dressing comedian Little Shenyang shows that sexual humor is coming out of the closet. Is China ready for raunch? 

I was planning to touch both soft and hard issues related to this article, from sharing what is the funniest performance (e.g., talk show, drama, tv program, movies, novels, you name it) you ever watched, to some differences in culture and ideology and how to interpret them.

That's pretty much it so far. Hope to talk to you soon!

Best,
Angela

message

Hi there,

I've posted to apply for absence for 8/7 discussion, but I don't see any responses from any of you. Just in case you don't notice my previous post, I leave a new message here. Hope you all enjoy this weekend's discussion.

James