11月07日

Dear Parents,

According to Chinese lunar calendar, Nov. 07 denotes the official beginning of winter season (立冬). So this week's behavioural homework focuses on "冬则温"：

孝行

-- I demonstrated in the class how to make a small soothing bag with soy bean and encourage your children to make one at home. Every night they can warm it in microwave and give it to parents. I hope you already get this surprise from your kids because they were asked to do it on Sunday night . Please refer to 黄豆灸法 for the benefits of this soybean bag.

常礼举要

--I urged your kids to prepare themselves well and wear warmly before leaving home -- "冠必正 纽必结 袜与履 俱紧切". Put on warm mitten, scarf, etc. and make sure that shoe laces are not losing. Use mirror to check if the wearing are in right position. Try not to be sick in the winter season because: "身有伤 贻亲忧"

-- Gandhi

In this class, we learned "行高者 名自高 人所重 非貌高". I believe that Gandhi ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohandas_Karamchand_Gandhi ) is one of greatest men who demonstrated this principle well. Mahatma Gandhi was short, slim (100 pounds) and not handsome (非貌高), but he possessed a huge mind power which eventually let British men leave his homeland - India. In the town (Brossard) where I am living, in front of municipal library, there is a statue of Gandhi. Two sentences are engraved at the bottom of the statue (my translation in Chinese):

"Generations to come will scarce believe that such a one as this ever in flesh and blood walked upon this earth." -- Albert Einstein

我们的后代将难以置信：如此伟大的灵魂曾经以血肉之躯存在过，并在我们的星球上行走过。-- 爱因斯坦

“You can chain me, you can torture me, you can even destroy this body, but you will never imprison my mind.” -- Gandhi

你们可以捆绑我，可以折磨我，甚至可以摧毁我的肉体，但是你们将永远无法禁锢我的灵魂。 -- 甘地

I shared with class some practices that Gandhi did to make India become independent country. But most importantly he had very high moral standing (行高者). Several years ago after reading his autobiography -- " The Story of My Experiments with Truth", I totally agree what Einstein said. He maintained very simple life style, believed any kind of violence for any reason is evil; he was the first on who applied non-violence in political area; he was consistently seeking  the truth during his whole life. What about his fame (名自高)? His birthday (Oct 2) become the international day of non-violence. Nobel Prize committee always regrets that Gandhi was not awarded with peace prize even though he was nominated four times. In 1948, when Gandhi was assassinated, the committee chose not to award the peace prize to anyone, stating that "there was no suitable living candidate".

--晏子

Another example of "行高者 名自高 人所重 非貌高" is 晏婴 who is very short but very intelligent. The children loves the story "晏子使楚":

晏子到了楚国，楚国人知道晏子身材矮小，楚国人在大门旁边开了一个小洞来迎接晏子。晏子不进，对接待的人说：“只有访问'狗国'，才从狗洞进去。今天我出使楚国，不应当从这个门进入。”接待的人立刻把晏子的话传给了楚王。楚王大开城门，让晏子进入。          

(晏子使楚。楚人以晏子短，为小门于大门之侧而延晏子。晏子不入，曰：“使狗国者从狗门入。今臣使楚，不当从此门入。”傧者更道，从大门入)

More stories please refer to  http://baike.baidu.com/view/4618.htm.

-- Ending

I would like to close this note with a quotation of Gandhi (my translation in Chinese):

Whenever I despair, I remember that the way of truth and love has always won. There may be tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they may seem invincible, but in the end, they always fail. Think of it: always.

每当我沮丧之时，我铭记：真理和仁爱总是胜利的。尽管有时，存在过暴政和杀戮，这些邪恶可能看起来不可一世，但终将失败。常思之，勉之。

Thanks,

Fan