篇 26
Face and Fortune
Recently, at the instigation of my publisher, I had some photographs taken. I do not enjoy the process of being photographed. However, after I netpared the new photograph with one taken twenty-five years ago, my feminine vanity suffered. My first instinct was to have the prints “touched up”. As I thoughtfully considered the photographs, I knew that a still more important principle was involved.
A quarter century of living should put a great deal into a woman’s face besides a few wrinkles and some unwelnete folds around the chin. In that length of time she has benete intimately acquainted with pain and pleasure, joy and sorrow, life and death. She has struggled and survived, failed and succeeded. She has lost and regained faith. And, as a result, she would be wiser, gentler, more patient and more tolerant than she was when she was young. Her sense of humor should have mellowed, her outlook should have widened, and her sympathies should have deepened. And all this should show. If she tries to erase the imprint of age, she runs the risk of destroying, at the same time, the imprint of experience and character.
I know I am more experienced than I was a quarter century ago and I hope I have more character. I released the pictures as they were.
篇 27
Readers Reveal Stuff of Dreams
Psychologists have confirmed what writers have always believed: that books are literally the stuff of dreams. A survey has confirmed that readers of Iris Murdoch or JK Rowling are more likely to have bizarre dreams than people deep into a history of the crusades. People with a taste for fiction experienced dreams that contained more improbable events, and their dreams were more emotionally intense. The survey also found that people who read thrillers were no more likely to have nightmares. But those with a weakness for science fiction were rather more likely to wake up suddenly with a cold sweat. According to Mark Blagrove of the University of Wales, the study is perhaps the first experiment to determine a link between the waking world and dreams. Dr. Blagrove and colleagues distributed 100,000 questionnaires about sleep patterns and literary tastes, and got more than 10,000 replies. They found that 58% of all adults had experienced at least one dream in which they were aware they were dreaming — and that women could recall more dreams than men. Older people seemed to dream less and have fewer nightmares. About 44% of children said their dreams were affected by the books they had been reading. Children who report reading scary books have three times the number of nightmares as children who don’t.
篇 28
Andrew Carnegie
Andrew Carnegie, known, as the king of steel, built the steel industry in the United States, and, in the process, became one of the wealthiest men in America. His success resulted in part from his ability to sell the product and in part from his policy of expanding during periods of economic decline, when most of his netpetitors were reducing their investments.
Carnegie believed that individuals should progress through hard work, but he also felt strongly that the wealthy should use their fortunes for the benefit of society. He opposed charity, preferring instead to provide educational opportunities that would allow others to help themselves. “He who dies rich, dies disgraced, ” he often said.
Among his more noteworthy contributions to society are those that bear his name, including the Carnegie Institute of Pittsburgh, which has a library, a museum of fine arts, and a museum of national history. He also founded a school of technology that is now part of Carnegie Mellon University. Other philanthropic gifts are the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace to promote understanding between nations, the Carnegie Institute of Washington to fund scientific research, and Carnegie Hall to provide a center for the arts.
Few Americans have been left untouched by Andrew Carnegie’s generosity. His contributions of more than five million dollars established 2,500 libraries in small netmunities throughout the country and formed the nucleus of the public library system that we all enjoy today.
篇 29
Princess Diana
What was it about Diana, Princess of Wales that brought such huge numbers of people from all walks of life literally to their knees after her death in 1997? What was her special appeal, not just to British subjects but also to people the world over? A late spasm of royalism hardly explains it, even in Britain, for many true British monarchists despised her for cheapening the royal institution by behaving more like a movie star or a pop diva than a princess. To many others, however, that was precisely her attraction.
Diana was beautiful, in a fresh-faced, English, outdoors-girl kind of way. She used her big blue eyes to their fullest advantage, melting the hearts of men and women through an expression of netplete vulnerability. Diana’s eyes, like those of Marilyn Monroe, contained an appeal directed not to any individual but to the world at large. Please don’t hurt me, they seemed to say. She often looked as if she were on the verge of tears, in the manner of folk images of the Virgin Mary. Yet she was one of the richest, most glamorous and socially powerful women in the world. This netbination of vulnerability and power was perhaps her greatest asset.
篇 30
A Greek to Remember
Diogenes was a famous Greek philosopher of the fourth century B.C., who established the philosophy of cynicism. He often walked about in the daytime holding a lighted lantern, peering around as if he were looking for something. When questioned about his odd behavior, he would reply, “I am searching for an honest man.”
Diogenes held that the good man was self-sufficient and did not require material netforts or wealth. He believed that wealth and possessions constrained humanity’s natural state of freedom. In keeping with his philosophy, he was perfectly satisfied with making his home in a large tub discarded from the temple of Cybele, the goddess of nature. This earthen tub, called a pithos, and formerly been used for holding wine or oil for the sacrifices at the temple.
One day, Alexander the Great, conqueror of half the civilized world, saw Diogenes sitting in this tub in the sunshine. So the king, surrounded by his countries, approached Diogenes and said, “I am Alexander the Great.” The philosopher replied rather contemptuously, “I am Diogenes, the Cynic.” Alexander then asked him if he could help him in any way. “Yes,” shot back Diogenes, “don’t stand between me and the sun.” A surprised Alexander then replied quickly, “If I were not Alexander, I would be Diogenes.”
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