【正文】 ch beings are too exceptional to form a proper ground for a work of art. They cannot be made real. The ordinary is the writer’s richer field. Its unexpectedness, its singularity, its infinite variety afford unending material. The great man is too often all of a piece。第十篇：The 50Percent Theory of Life 生活理論半對半 The 50Percent Theory of LifeI believe in the 50percent theory. Half the time things are better than normal。 having a child and doing those Dad things like coaching my son’s baseball team, paddling around the creek in the boat while he’s swimming with the dogs, discovering his passion so deep it manifests even in his kindness to snails, his imagination so vivid he builds a spaceship from a scattered pile of Legos.But there is a vast meadow of life in the middle, where the bad and the good flipflop acrobatically. This is what convinces me to believe in the 50percent theory.One spring I planted corn too early in a bottomland so floodprone that neighbors laughed. I felt chagrined at the wasted effort. Summer turned brutalthe worst heat wave and drought in my lifetime. The airconditioned died。 the marriage ended。 the money gone. I was living lyrics from a country tunemusic I loathed. Only a surging Kansas City Royals team buoyed my spirits.Looking back on that horrible summer, I soon understood that all succeeding good things merely offset the bad. Worse than normal wouldn’t last long. I am owed and savor the halcyon times. The reinvigorate me for the next nasty surprise and offer assurance that can thrive. The 50percent theory even helps me see hope beyond my Royals’ recent slump, a field of struggling rookies sown so that some year soon we can reap an October harvest.For that on blistering summer, the ground moisture was just right, planting early allowed pollination before heat withered the tops, and the lack of rain spared the standing corn from floods. That winter my crib overflowed with cornfat, healthy threetoastalk ears filled with kernels from heel to tipwhile my neighbors’ fields yielded only brown, empty husks.Although plantings past may have fallen below the 50percent expectation, and they probably will again in the future, I am still sustained by the crop that flourishes during the drought. 第十二篇：Clear Your Mental Space 清理心靈的空間 Clear Your Mental SpaceThink about the last time you felt a negative emotionlike stress, anger, or frustration. What was going through your mind as you were going through that negativity? Was your mind cluttered with thoughts? Or was it paralyzed, unable to think?The next time you find yourself in the middle of a very stressful time, or you feel angry or frustrated, stop. Yes, that’s right, stop. Whatever you’re doing, stop and sit for one minute. While you’re sitting there, pletely immerse yourself in the negative emotion.Allow that emotion to consume you. Allow yourself one minute to truly feel that emotion. Don’t cheat yourself here. Take the entire minutebut only one minuteto do nothing else but feel that emotion.When the minute is over, ask yourself, “Am I wiling to keep holding on to this negative emotion as I go through the rest of the day?”O(jiān)nce you’ve allowed yourself to be totally immersed in the emotion and really fell it, you will be surprised to find that the emotion clears rather quickly.If you feel you need to hold on to the emotion for a little longer, that is OK. Allow yourself another minute to feel the emotion.When you feel you’ve had enough of the emotion, ask yourself if you’re willing to carry that negativity with you for the rest of the day. If not, take a deep breath. As you exhale, release all that negativity with your breath.This exercise seems simplealmost too simple. But, it is very effective. By allowing that negative emotion the space to be truly felt, you are dealing with the emotion rather than stuffing it down and trying not to feel it. You are actually taking away the power of the emotion by giving it the space and attention it needs. When you immerse yourself in the emotion, and realize that it is only emotion, it loses its control. You can clear your head and proceed with your task.Try it. Next time you’re in the middle of a negative emotion, give yourself the space to feel the emotion and see what happens. Keep a piece of paper with you that says the following:Stop. Immerse for one minute. Do I want to keep this negativity? Breath deep, exhale, release. Move on!This will remind you of the steps to the process. Remember。第十三篇：Be Happy 快樂 Be Happy!“The days that make us happy make us wise.”John Masefieldwhen I first read this line by England’s Poet Laureate, it startled me. What did Masefield mean? Without thinking about it much, I had always assumed that the opposite was true. But his sober assurance was arresting. I could not forget it.Finally, I seemed to grasp his meaning and realized that here was a profound observation. The wisdom that happiness makes possible lies in clear perception, not fogged by anxiety nor dimmed by despair and boredom, and without the blind spots caused by fear.Active happinessnot mere satisfaction or contentment often es suddenly, like an April shower or the unfolding of a bud. Then you discover what kind of wisdom has acpanied it. The grass is greener。 the shortings of your friends are more understandable and more forgivable. Happiness is like a pair of eyeglasses correcting your spiritual vision.Nor are the insights of happiness limited to what is near around you. Unhappy, with your thoughts turned in upon your emotional woes, your vision is cut short as though by a wall. Happy, the wall crumbles.The long vista is there for the seeing. The ground at your feet, the world about youpeople, thoughts, emotions, pressuresare now fitted into the larger scene. Everything assumes a fairer proportion. And here is the beginning of wisdom.183