The Marks of an Educated Man

by Alan Simpson


Actually, Alan Simpson's article "the marks of an educated man" for me is difficult to understand, and because I was not very know about it, my reflection for this article might disgress form the subject or maybe luckly strake to the point....Anyway, I like the line in this article:"an educated man ought to know a little about everything and a lot about something" it was well said, isn't it??!! I saw many people that they get interested to many things but they didn't stay longer at any of it, hence they seems know everything but the truth is when you go deeper the topic they don't know anything. Or you might see this kind of person that he is quite expert in one field, he can talks a lot in this field but once you change the topic and talk about anything except the field he experted, he become idiot and mute. I think that line means there are so many things and knowledge in the world that man can't know them all, he must choose one to study, to concentrate and to be prefessional, at the same time he ought to know little about everything, it was like have common sense in order to integrate life and knowledge.

Why should man have to be educated, because they have to distinguish good from bad, against those imposter and protect their property. But an educated man can't be measured only by his knowledge since in the world there is not definitely only right and bad, black and white, yet there is also vague zone which either good or bad depends on situation, depends on ethical culture and etc... Consider those elements, knowledge whether comes from books or from experiences are not enough to identify good from bad, we have to train our mind, nourish it to be clear and critic on things, we don't just believe what people told us, even teacher is not always right, we have to question it and the answer to prove it. An educated man may not have to know a lot of things but sophisticate on things, he didn't put his favor or opinion to judge things. He has moral value as the foundation of his principle and the way he deal on things. Educated man is also versatility and flexibility, can accept and survive any kind of situation.

I will persist until I succeed

"The prizes of life are at the end of each journey, not near the beginning; and it is not given to me to know how many steps are necessary in order to reach my goal. Failure I may still encounter at the thousandth step, yet success hides behind the next bend in the road. Never will I know how close it lies unless I turn the corner.
Always will I take another step. If that is of no avail I will take another, and yet another. In truth, one step at a time is not too difficult.
I will persist until I succed."


I love this paragraph, it states the truth of success in life, that success is like play hide and seek with us, we never know where it hides, the only clue or rule in this game is that if we persist, we can catch the success at final. I think consider one's success is when he encounters all difficulties that challenge him and never give up, because if things are easy to accomplish or achieve that will not considered success, success always accompany difficulties, challenge and obstacle. The plum blossom or plum flower is beauty for most of people because it blossom during winter, can you imagine that a small red flower bloom in the cold and chill winter, how strong this flower is. My point here is the fruits of persist on our goal, no mather how many failure we have, how many wounds we get during our journey, at the end of it, we will get the fruits of succeess which is so sweet, so delicious.

Long Walk to Forever

[Long Walk To Forever] by Kurt Vonnegut

I loved this love story, it changes my impression on western's love,
I used to thought that western's love is like riding in the roller coaster
always full of excitement, surprise or passion, but [long walk to forever] is
different from I used to read before.

I like the charater Newt, he love Catherine for many years althought he doesn't speak out the word "love", but his persistent love for someone is very treassure, because I think nowadays it is hard to love someone wiht long period of time, the friends around me, their love can't exceed five years, it somehow make me doubt about does real love exist?!

People who don't say"I love you" but show their love by their action is more trustful than those keep on saying" I love you" but never show in their action. I don't think so that Newt should say [I love you] earlier, since he know that Catherine is also love him, there is no need to say love to each other. But women is a weird species, even if they knew their man loves them but they still want to hear that words from the mouth of man. So, in appropriate time say "I love You" to our love one is good and further people's relation.

The part of story touch me most is when Newt is already walk far, but at last he stop, called Catherine's name and Catherine run to him, put her arms around him. It touch me because two of them don't make any regret in their life, Newt stoped and called her maybe is want to try last chance, or maybe he hear Catherine's heart voice ask him to do so(it is lovely to think this way*^_^*) anyway he got Catherine finally. And for Catherine, she choose the one which she loved most, she caught up love and didn't let it pass away from her side.

I always like those love story with happy ending~~~~~