2010年12月17日 星期五

Summary & Response-Three Passions I Have Lived For

Summary


Three Passions I Have Lived For, written by Bertrand Russell who is a British philosopher, talks about the most important three things – love, knowledge and the suffering of human beings- the author Bertrand Russell aspires after and how these three things affect him throughout his whole life. Bertrand Russell points out that, at the beginning, the first thing he longs for is love. To Bertrand Russell, love is a kind of fantastic and wonderful thing which let him be ravished with joy. Because of love, loneliness in Bertrand’s mind can be eliminated. Because of love, Bertrand’s heart can be saved from the suffering. Love can lead him to heaven.


The second thing Bertrand care about is knowledge. He wants to know the deep thoughts of human beings; moreover, he wonders why the stars shine in the dark sky. He is eager to gain the knowledge he does not know on earth.


After chasing love and knowledge, Bertrand says that pity brings him back to the real word as soon as he almost arrives at the heaven. Because all people are born to be human beings, people have to feel lonely and despairing when they suffer from torturous things.


Because of love and knowledge, Bertrand finds the reasons and meaning to live in hopes. In addition, Bertrand has the courage to face the suffering in front of him and solve them.


Response


“What are the most important three things which are worth pursuing throughout my life?” I ask to myself. After pondering, I think that those are love, family and friendship.


The first thing I am concerned about is family. We all are born in one family although the real “home” is not really existent in everyone’s life. To almost people, they are born in the world because of their parents; there is invisible but indivisible connection between parents and their children. In my thoughts, it is predestination that we can be born in the same family, meet each other and have so much time getting along with my family members. Because of these precious reasons, we should cherish the family members around us and treat them well.


I believe that, secondly, everyone needs friends; friendship is an important element to everyone. When we go outside from home, there are no parents caring about us. We are bound to care ourselves; however, there are still some situations that we cannot deal with. At the moment, friends around play an important role to us. I have a memorable experience that one of my friends save me when I need help. Once I had a serious stomachache at midnight, only one of my friends can come to the house I live and bring medicine which can take me to heaven from hell.


Last but not the least, love is the priority I consider throughout my life. I deeply believe that to love and to be loved are both happiness. When we feel depressed and need help, there are always someone giving us a hand; on the contrary, when we have happiness and enough ability, we can help others who need us.


In conclusion, no matter friends, family or love, I am deeply convinced that we should appreciate people around us and things we have. Because we never know what will happen in the future, we should seize the moment and continue to live seriously.

8 則留言:

  1. After I finished your essay, I also asked myself what those three important things in my life are, and it really spent me lots of time thinking about. After pondering, experiences, friends, and family would be my choices.

    The first thing I want to talk about is experiences. I think they can make our mind grow up, and not be childish anymore. In our future, the more experiences you have, the more smooth your job will be. At the same time, your experiences, such as the mistakes you have made before and the lessons you have learned from others, can make you become a useful person in the future. Second, friends are people who will teach us which way we should go, and which way we should not go. Just like what you said, “friendship is an important element to everyone.” Last, I think family is also a key in our lives. I would say family decides who you are because most of us have lived with our family since we were children. Undoubtedly, family can get together with you, on the other hand, they can affect you absolutely.

    In conclusion, I am totally agreed with you and on the same page with you. I think we need to treat everyone seriously, too. We have no chance to know what the future is, so the only thing we can do is step by step. And, never forget people around as and the experiences we have made.

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  2. After reading your article, I also think what are the most important three things which are worth pursuing throughout my life? I think those three are family, human relationship and wisdom.

    Why I put family as the first important? I think family is very important for me. Even if you were very rich, you can’t buy the concern from your family members. For me, I treasure everyone in my family. Despite they can’t always in my side, they will always support me anytime whether I am in good or bad mood. And family is one of the motivations in my life.

    Human relationship is very important in everyone’s life. Having friends can help me when I facing difficulty. I can share our happiness together with my friends. And the feeling that we can cooperate with each other is very great.

    Wisdom is also the thing I think it can’t lack in my life. Even if I am not the wisest person, but I truly pursue the wisdom in my life. I think an intelligent person can solve many problems by himself. And it can own the ability of independent.

    In conclusion, those three thing family, human relationship and wisdom are very important. Just like you say “we never know what will happen in the future, we should seize the moment and continue to live seriously.”

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  3. Good article, if I have to determine three important things through my life, I would choose family, adversity and human relationship

    Family is like a pillar supporting my life; I know that I am happy enough to have such peaceful and kindness family, and I appreciate my parents and sisters for their consideration and sacrifice. Of course, my dog cannot be forgotten; “she” plays a vital role in my life since I was 10. Without “her”, my childhood could not be so lightful.
    Adversity is a good challenge for me. Every time I face new problem, I will do my best to tackle with it. The experience I derive from challenges can not only help my mental development, but enhance ability of AQ. In terms of human relationship, I like to take care of others or share sentiment with them. Maybe it is because the influence of environment in the past, I don’t want to evade myself and miss any opportunity making good friends.

    Human are learning and exploring through life span, and the life is bitter and short. Hence I especially agree your last paragraph. No matter what happens, we should hold on our tenet of life and appreciate people around us.

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  4. After reading your response, I started to think about what are the most important three things which are worth pursuing throughout my life. I agree with you that family is the first priority. But then are self-breakthrough and happy.

    The reason why I don’t choose love and friendship is because those are not stable and real. We often lie to ourselves and pretend that we like someone. However, the relationship is easy to break through out a tiny stuff. And also, after reading The Midsummer Night’s dream, you will know “the course of true live did never run smooth.” says by Lysander.

    Self- breakthrough can make me know the true meaning of life. It gives me a target to achieve; therefore, I will work and study hard in order to go on the top. For me, it is real life and one way that can prove “I lived.” At the same, I want to live happily. We all have one life. Why don’t we just live in our way can make ourselves happy?

    Like you said, “to appreciate people around us and things we have” is important. It is in order to have a balance between us and our lives. To try to find our own balance, you will know what you really want. Most of all, live happily is really really important.

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  5. After reading your article, I do agree that family and friends are two of the first important things in my life. However, I do not agree that love will be that good like you mentioned.
    For family, there is always an invisible connection between my family members and I. I think I am quite lucky to be born in this family. Although we might quarrel sometimes, we would forgive each other some day. For me, family is always like my protector; no matter I am happy or sad, sick or healthy, it is always there for me.
    For friends, true friends are always there to care my feeling. Friends are sometimes like a mirror that can reflects our advantages and disadvantages. They can remind us what mistakes we make directly and easily being accepted. They can provide sincere suggestions to help us make a decision. As we grow up without living with our family everyday, friends are just like our family members that concern and take care of us.
    However, I think that love is mercurial. Once it brings you happiness, but once it hurts you strongly than you imagine. The connection of love is too weak. With a little force, it may be destroyed. As a result, I do not agree that love is the three of the things that I care the most.

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  6. everyone of us can choose of what we want to live for, actually you shouldn't have to choose 3 and limit your self because life is worth living for. You can have all the optimistic things in life to see how beautiful life is and have more reasons to live

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  7. After i have read your response to Bertrand Russell's essay i was so touched and deeply agreed with all your opinions about family, friends and love. Empathy is present because i was also alike you. I also consider my family as the number one important people in my life. second is the friends and the most priority is love. For me love is very essential in which we cannot feel something about someone without love. You inspired me so much through this. god bless and more power.

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  8. I thought I was good at writing essays all through freshman and sophomore year of high school but then in my junior year I got this awful teacher (I doubt you’re reading this, but screw you Mr. Murphy) He made us write research papers or literature analysis essays that were like 15 pages long. It was ridiculous. Anyway, I found DigitalEssay.net and since then I’ve been ordering term papers from this one writer. His stuff is amazing and he always finishes it super quickly. Good luck with your order!

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