A YOUNG WOMAN AND AN OLD MAN

   "Why am I here in the world?" The other day, one of my friends said so. Sinking into grief, he went on, "To live in pain and loneliness? Why can other people be so happy? Why does the world always leave me empty handed?...." In a word, he was disappointed in love and despised the world for the cold way it treated him. 

   When we have some trouble like him, we tend to think only we have the trouble and wonder why. But this is not right. In fact everyone must have some bitter experience in their long life: failure, slander, parting or lost love. All our life can never be filled with good things only. It's just like half a glass of water: some people complain that the glass is half empty while others are quite happy because the glass is half full. As a matter of fact, the friend of mine was loved by another girl. He knew it, but he didn't think of her feelings at all. If he had thought of her feelings at least, he could have felt sympathy for the situation she was placed in and become aware of his own narrow-mindedness. This reminds me of a story about a young woman with her dead child. Let me tell you the story:

   Once there was a young woman who lost her mind because of the death of her child. She took the dead child in her arms and went from house to house, begging people to heal the child. Of course, they could do nothing for her, and finally she carried the dead child to an old man. He looked upon her with sympathy and said, "To heal the child, I need some poppy seeds; go and beg them from some home where death has never entered." So the woman went out and sought a house where death had never entered, but in vain. At last she was obliged to return to the old man. In his quiet presence, her mind cleared and she understood the meaning of his words.