Chapter 17 Chapter Sixteen Waiting for That Moment

Chapter Sixteen Waiting for That Moment 1 I wrote that for children, there are no things that cannot be restarted, and they cannot do things that cannot be restarted. I regard this crime as an iron rule.So, what can children do to stop themselves in the inaction phase when it is extremely painful anyway, and there is no way to start over? I've been thinking about this question since I was a kid, so I have an answer.The answer is very simple, and from my personal experience it works very well. ——It is to strive to accumulate the strength to wait for that moment to come.Before thinking about taking action to do something that has no way to start again, you must maintain the strength of "waiting for that moment" no matter what, never admit that you can't do it, and promise not to give up.

For children, this "that moment" is very important.If you grow up as an adult, sometimes you just wait for "the moment", but it may not happen in the end.But definitely not for kids.While you wait for "that moment," it can be said that you have it all.If I had to choose just one sentence to convey to you who live in the 21st century, then I would say this: If you think that you have reached the last moment and you have to do something that you have no way to start over, then please gather your strength and wait for "the moment". This requires courage and the usual tempering of this ability.This power is yours.

2 As I mentioned earlier, when I was in the first year of the new system of junior high school, I got geometry textbooks from students who had attended the old system of high school, and taught these courses by myself.I then went on to study analytic geometry in high school.Because of this, I actually finished the mathematics part of the test set of the university exam with great pleasure. These are the foundations of mathematics, but not everything in mathematics, but logic developed from ancient Greece to symbolic logic as a new discipline are all related to these foundations of mathematics.Now, when I am thinking about more complicated things, I will draw tables one by one in the notebook, and then add the questions one by one in those tables for sorting and thinking.This is especially true when flying abroad because of the long hours of sitting there.Thinking about it like this, sometimes I think "it would be great if I could come to such a conclusion", but even if my thoughts finally turn to a direction different from the conclusion I expected in advance, I feel that I am already prepared, because this matter was originally in my own thinking.

The analytic geometry I learned in high school was originally called "Analytic I", which was still at the stage of advanced mathematical thinking and methods such as differentiation and integration.I think the textbooks and exercises at this stage are much more interesting than "Analysis II" for non-science students like me. I especially like the kind of problems that list the solution of the equation from the word problem.In the process of solving the problem, enclose a certain part of complex numbers and symbols in parentheses, and express it as A, so that the formula becomes simple.In the step-by-step calculation, if you know that there are the same number of A on both sides of the equal sign or that there is A in both the numerator and the denominator, you can remove A from both sides at the same time.At that moment, I was really, really happy.

Moreover, even if A cannot be removed, in the process of sorting out the formula, reopen the brackets and bring in the content represented by A, sometimes the calculation can be completed very smoothly. Sometimes, at the final stage of the calculation, I open the brackets with momentum and try to finish the calculation, but the problem that I couldn't solve at the beginning reappears there, and the time it takes to calculate it as A is just It was all in vain.The futility is very irritating.At that time, I would take a breath and think: ——No way, I did it myself. I'll pick myself up just thinking about it.

In fact, since then, when encountering difficult problems other than mathematics, I have also started to think about it by putting part of it in parentheses and setting it as A.In this case, as I just wrote, sometimes A will be eliminated naturally, and the problem will be solved naturally. There is also this situation, when the calculation, that is, the problem of thinking is finally sorted out, and trying to reduce A to concrete content, the original problem is still there intact.At that time, I will have a somewhat different mood from solving math problems, and I will realize: —I'm just dodging the hardest part of the problem.

So, I will regain my courage and face the most difficult place from the front.I've been doing that all my life as an adult. 3 The reason why the topic revolves around the memories of my studies is because I want to illustrate the following problem. I want to say that for children, they should have the strength to cheer up and wait for that moment.I want to say that not only for children, but also for adults, as long as they are alive and encounter really difficult problems, they might as well temporarily put them in brackets for a certain moment, and continue to calculate their life while doing so. Go down this big formula.It's not the same thing as avoiding it completely in the first place.

Because in the process, the questions in parentheses sometimes find answers naturally.If you set the question in parentheses as B was waiting for "that moment", especially as a child, that's what you're assuming but never quite forgetting.While we are doing other things, in fact, we still have it in our minds and think about it.When you are distressed, instead of thinking about a specific problem and a specific person, use the symbol B to replace and think: ——B hasn’t solved it yet, wait a little longer! Just doing this makes me feel so much easier. I have experienced this many times.Even now, I can replace the "bullyed kid" emoji with a symbol.

And after "that moment", open the brackets and try to solve it. If the problem is still there, this time we really need to face it head-on.But you kids are different, in those two times when you have to be patient no matter what, you will realize that you have grown up and you have become courageous.This is different from doing arithmetic problems.This is how I endured it personally, especially during the period from high school to college graduation.To this day, I am still alive. 4 When the first child in my family was born, the doctor told us that he was a mentally handicapped child, and that this mental retardation could not be cured.For my wife and I, we felt that this was by far the most difficult question we had encountered.

My mother, who lives in a small village in the forest, also regarded it as her own problem and actively helped us find a solution.What my mother thinks is that in the city, children with intellectual disabilities may be discriminated against and bullied. If they live in their own village, because everyone who lives here knows each other, even if other children do not bully others His intention was that when he made fun of the child, he could stand up and speak for him.This is the answer my mother found. So my mother suggested that a mountain hut for her and Guang be built on the edge of the forest, and they planned to live there.She and my wife also talked about it, but in the end we didn't accept it.

——I can do carpentry (saying this, he pointed out the woods across the river to grandma), there are so many trees here, I can live here with grandma as a carpenter. If he didn't say it himself, maybe he was uneasy about going to work in the factory for the welfare of the disabled, maybe because he remembered our talk long ago about building a mountain cabin by the woods. ——Oh, if that's the case... Mother said this.She was old, and she no longer had the physical and mental strength to realize what she had proposed more than ten years ago. A few years passed after that.We asked our piano-playing friends to make tapes of the music created by light and sent them to our hometown in the forest.The mother felt happy in her heart, she called her wife and said: It was right not to build a hut by the edge of the forest and live together.Because if I do that, I can live a leisurely and happy life with Hikari, but I never think of creating music. The "moments" piled up, and what I, my wife, my mother, and even Hikari didn't think about was that the most difficult questions had very good answers.In the future, there will be many new problems for Hikari, but including Hikari's younger brother and sister, I think our family will take the initiative to overcome it together. 5 For the first time in my long career as a writer I have written a book for children in this way.When conceiving this book, because I wanted to write too many things, I ended up including things written for children in the upper grades of elementary school and things written for those who have already read high school and are preparing to enter university.So maybe you feel that the content is scattered, and sometimes the tone is very close to children, but sometimes it is difficult?In fact, I've had letters pointing out this issue.What is reflected here is that I have been writing books for adults and have not actually worked as a teacher. From this, I deeply feel the greatness of Kenji Miyazawa. Of course, there are also feedbacks from readers that the owner finds very pleasant.For example, from a teenager I met on my way to the swim club asking questions about the illustrations in the book's original essay.In this book, my wife illustrated my articles for the first time.The wife is the younger sister of my high school best friend, and we've known each other since we were kids. The boy's problem is: on the left side of the big tree, there is an old man and a child.The child walked around the tree to the old man.That kid is holding a stick at his waist. Does he want to deal with that weird old grandpa?Is the old man holding a weapon for self-defense? According to my wife's explanation, the old people used to hold fans in their hands.So this painting is not a scene of a sudden attack, but a scene of me asking "how did you survive" when I was a child who might have met under "my own tree".Of course, it may also be my mother who asked this question.I was thinking again, now that I am an old man, if I go back to the forest and see me as a child, how should I answer? "Even when you grow into an adult, everything you have in your heart has been preserved! It's just that all of this has been stretched through learning and the accumulation of experience. Today you are always connected with what you owe when you grow up. , to be connected to the people of the past who are behind you, and to the people of the future who will be ahead of you when you grow up. In the words of the Irish poet Yeats: You are a man who stands on his own feet.Even if you become an adult, just like this tree, like you now, stand up straight and live. I wish you happiness!Goodbye, in an unknown time, in an unknown place. " (Translated by Liu Xiaofeng)