Jane Austen is loved mainly as a charming guide to fashionable life in the Regency period (英国摄政时期). She is admired for describing a world of elegant houses, dances, servants and fashionable young men driving barouches (四轮四座大马车). But her own vision of her task was completely different. She was an ambitious and strict moralist. She was highly conscious of human failings and she had a deep desire to make people nicer: less selfish, more reasonable and more sensitive to the needs of others.

In Pride and Prejudice, Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth Bonnet start off heartily disliking each other and then, gradually realize they are in love. They make one of the great romantic couples. He is handsome, rich and well connected; she is pretty, smart and lively. But why actually are they right for one another?

Jane Austen is very clear. It’s for a reason we tend not to think of very much today: It is because each can educate and improve the other. When Mr. Darcy arrives in the neighborhood, he feels “superior” to everyone else, because he has more money and higher status. At a key moment, Elizabeth condemns his arrogance (自大) and pride to his face. It sounds offensive in the extreme, but later he admits that this was just what he needed.

Mostly, we tend to think of love as liking someone for who they already are, and of total acceptance. But the person who is right for us, Austen is saying, is not simply someone who makes us feel relaxed or comfortable; they got to be able to help us overcome our failings and become more mature, more honest and kinder—and we need to do something similar for them.

What's the most important thing for you to have in your life？Somebody mentions hard work, others suggest knowledge, love and luck.

If you arrange the 26 English letters in the order of the alphabet and use numbers to represent each of them, for example, 1 for a, 2 for b, 3 for c… you can change an English word into a number. So hard-work becomes 8+1+18+4+23+15+18+11=98, meaning 98 is its mark; knowledge; 11+14+15+23+12+5+4+7+5=96, while love: 12+15+22+5=54, and luck: 12+21+3+11=47, a small mark. None of these words can give us a full mark. What about money or prayer? They can't, either.

Then what else? Don't be worried. You can always find an answer to a problem in your life, when you change your way of looking at things or doing things, or your attitude. Yes, attitude is the word. See for yourself: attitude: 1+20+20+9+20+21+4+5=100, a full mark.

Different attitudes lead to different courses of life. Most times people hope for a better life. It is possible that one will have a change for the better after one has changed one's attitude.

When you change your manner and became friendly towards others, you'll meet more smiling faces towards you. In the same way, if you take a positive attitude towards failure, you'll find it's also rewarding though it has caused you losses.

I grew up in an age when I had to wait for almost everything. Classic movies were shown on television. And, of course, one had to be home at the appointed time to watch them. “The Wizard of Oz” for example, was broadcast only once a year. The steadily heightening sense of expectation as the broadcast date approached was almost too much for my 10-year-old heart to bear.

And then there was money. The banks did business on weekdays only. They opened at 9 and closed at 4. You needed money but didn't make it to the bank on time? Well, check under the sofa cushions or borrow from family or friends.

Such was the world as recently as the 1970s. Everything seemed to operate on a strict clock, and the words “on demand” had no meaning. This was the way things worked, and it was all we knew.

And then, seemingly overnight, everything changed. It suddenly seemed as if I never had to be anywhere at an appointed time, because everything was available all the time. The changed times, on the other hand, have encouraged nothing less than a constant sense of urgency, which is ironic (讽刺性的): If we can have anything we want anytime we want it, should’t we be less hurried? The answer is that an “on demand” lifestyle has created an appetite for speed: If I can have something this fast, why can’t I have it faster? Recently I read a book that has “FSTR” (get it?) written across its cover. One of its metaphors (隐喻) was telling: First there was the fresh-squeezed lemon； then there was the lemonade mix; now we just buy the lemonade by the gallon (加仑).

And so, on this hot day, I went to the supermarket and bought three fresh lemons. I squeezed them into a tall glass. Then I filled the glass with cold water, ice, and a teaspoon of sugar. Fresh lemonade in hand, I went outside, sat in my lawn chair, and looked out over the river.

Yes, time passes quickly. But, now and then, it doesn’t have to.