Put on new set of glasses for a new view

Today I visited San Francisco’s modern-art museum. I was there to see a new exhibit about spaceflight.【小题1】I like to “visit” this particular painting every time I go to the museum not only because it evokes（唤起）strong feelings, but because I always find something new.

There's real pleasure to be found in revisiting a museum replaying a game or rewatching a movie. Some of that enjoyment comes from the feeling of familiarity of course.【小题2】.There’s always plenty more to see, hear, taste, smell, feel, of understand the second or third time around. But how do you discover the exciting new thing in the familiar?

One way is approaching whatever task is at hand by searching for the things that you didn't see in the first time around. First, recognize that everything is always changing.【小题3】Second, remove judgment from the experience, if possible, and just observe what's new. For example, look for the ways in which a change in your neighborhood is interesting or exciting.

【小题4】That could mean removing sugar, coffee, a certain kind of media from your life for a specified time. Once the break is over, that same thing will have more of its former interest or excitement.【小题5】So is true that novelty is fun, but given enough of a break in between, repeated experiences regain that initial excitement.

With all the wars, fighting and sadness in the world today, it's not only necessary, but also essential to have a good sense of humor just to help us get through each and every day of our lives. Putting a smile on someone's face when you know they are feeling down in the dump, makes me feel good and warms my heart.

How would you feel if you could not joke around with your wife, husband, child, co- worker, neighbor, close friends, or even just someone that you are standing in line with at your corner store? I am always saying things that make others smile or laugh, even if I don't know the person I'm joking around with. My Grandma always found humor in everything she did, even if it was the hardest job anyone could imagine. This not only relieves stress in any situation, but also is common courtesy (礼貌) to speak to others that are around you.

I know of a few people that don't have a funny bone in their bodies, as they say. Everyone around them could be rolling on the floor after hearing a great joke and they would sit there without the slightest smile on their face. They don't get the joke that makes others laugh. I am busting a gut while they just sit there, looking at me as if I were from outer space. How can people not get a really funny joke?

Laughing is essential to keep your stress levels under control. Without humor we would find ourselves with a lot of psychological problems, or on a lot of medications to keep us from going crazy. There is too much sadness in this present world. It drives people crazy. We all need to find a way to ignore the sadness and bring a little light into our lives. So，I believe our best medicine is to get together and tell some jokes and have some fun laughing together.

You have heard the words “that which does not kill you makes you stronger”. I have found it true. But I also believe in the philosophy that we are not defined (定义) by what happens to us, but by what we do when things happen to us.

Some friends think we have had far more than our share of bad things occur, but I don’t think bad things are shared. They are events that occur as the result of many aspects, sometimes far past our control or even knowledge of them. I am also a firm believer in the laws of unintended consequences — one event causes things that are quite unexpected, sometimes positive, sometimes not.

So as I considered the question of “What motivates me?” and sought an answer, it struck me that I simply refuse to be defeated. I won’t let life or events tear me down to the point at which I am no longer me, or simply stop being.

In 2008, I battled three types of cancer, had four cancer operations, the firm I worked for closed without notice, my wife was in a horrible car accident, got laid off from her company, the economy devastated our life savings, … and that was for starters.

We also lost two family members and my closest friend. He was the last person I would expect to pass away out of our friends. But a disease took hold of him 9 years earlier. His memorial service was filled with love, and many of us told about his joy of life, humor, his achievements, and the challenges he had overcome in his life — which were many and painful. He would not be defeated in his life either.

Today, my wife and I are hand-in-hand, continuing trying to live our lives with dignity, although living it differently from the end of 2007.