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The Healing Power of Humor

As a heart doctor, I have to deliver a lot of bad news. Humor is a wonderful tool. Not only can it help lift patients’ spirits up, but it actually helps them recover faster. There is tons of scientific evidence that patients who are depressed after heart operations have a higher death rate, and optimistic patients have significantly fewer wound infections. 1．

It relaxes patients.

Medical operations usually make patients feel nervous. Some may sweat, have chest pain and feel unusually strong or irregular heartbeats. 2． When people use humor, the nervous system just tones down a bit, and that allows the heart to relax.

3．

People are scared of their bodies. Humor can crack through the ice and take the fear away. For example, I have to tell patients about the risk of cognitive impairment (认知损伤) after operations. They’re terrified, fearing the worst. 4． I tell them in a humorous way that it’s usually just like forgetting second grade. People understand what that means, and it doesn’t seem quite as frightening.

It eases worries.

After open-heart operation, a patient might say, “Doctor, my chest really hurts.” And I’ll smile and say, “Oh, does it feel like someone opened you up, cut the bone and operated in there?” That tells them the pain is normal and they are going to be fine. So they take their minds off their troubles and worry less.

It helps doctors.

5． When we give the news, we are supposed to help patients in a human way. A good sense of humor is just like a weapon, and it can beat the difficult situation. As a matter of fact, humor benefits doctors as well. Plus, it is a better way to enjoy life.

Rich, heavy food is a major part of the end of the year holidays in the United States. People in the U.S. celebrate Thanksgiving on the third Thursday of November. People around the world celebrate Christmas on December 25. Both holidays involve (包含) traditions of cooking very large meals. The food at these meals usually has lots of sugar, salt, and butter in it. Turkey and pie are some of the most common foods in these holidays.

Terri Price has hosted a holiday party on the last Saturday before every Christmas for 30 years. It started when her children were very, very small. She has been preparing many of the dishes for most of the 30 years.

But over time, some traditions do change. The Neveldines are a family who hope to be healthier by changing what they eat. Mick Fury, the Neveldine’s oldest child, said this change is important during the holidays and the rest of the year, too.

Mick and his wife, Michelle, try to eat only organic food. Organic food is any plant or animal food product made without the use of unnatural chemicals or processes. But, Mick is not the only Neveldine who changed their diet. Felicia Neveldine, Mick’s sister, decided nine years ago to become a vegan. A vegan is a person who does not eat or use animal products of any kind.

Felicia became a vegan because of her concern for the treatment of animals and the environmental effects of animal farming. She said that her change in diet also improved her health.

Choosing these special diets means the Neveldines choose their foods carefully. Mick grows a garden behind his house where he gets fresh vegetables.

Holiday traditions may not change, but the way these traditions happen just might.

Attention! We need to put a stop to parents doing harm to youth sports. It has gotten out of hand.

A recent study showed 26 million American children took part in non-school sports. By the age of 13, about 18.2 million quit.

No wonder kids are quitting. Many parents show no sportsmanship. They often shout happily at an injury if the injured player is on the other team. My brother Mario Widdowson got hit in the face during a soccer game. The parents from the other team were shouting gladly at his pain. All of the players were down on one knee waiting for Mario to get up, out of respect and it was the right thing to do. The kids did much better than these parents.

There are different types of parents. In the book “Parenting with Love and Logic” the authors describe two different types of parents. The first is helicopter parents, who don’t allow their kid to succeed or fail on their own. The other type is lawnmower parents, who clear anything in their child’s path to make life as easy as possible.

I have observed helicopter parents. When my brother was playing club soccer, one of his teammate’s parents shouted at their son. “Shoot the ball”. It was from about half field. He did it and the coach stopped him from playing and asked him to leave the field.

The parents are trying to coach their kids. The players on the field follow blindly and many mistakes happen. It’s not good for kids’ confidence. What is the purpose of youth sports anyway?

Problems happen in youth sports all over the United States. Parents need to behave themselves. Then the number of students who quit at the age of 13 will drop greatly.

At 8 years old, Danay Ferguson is the youngest business owner in Fresno, California, where the literacy (识字) rate is shockingly low when compared to the rest of the United States.

“I wanted to share my enthusiasm for reading with other kids, so I asked my daddy if I could open up my business,” Danay says, adding that her father, Dwayne Ferguson, asked her to prove she was serious about taking on such a major project. “He said I had to invite all of his friends on Facebook to the fan page he made for me,” she says. “It took me two days to invite my dad’s 4,000 friends to ‘like’ my page, one by one.”

With the help of her family and team of over 40 volunteers (mostly consisting of kids), Danay strengthened her literacy support in 2014 with her very own no-profit (非营利的) organization named Reading Heart. Danay has worked hard to raise awareness of her organization’s task by giving talks at schools, meeting with city officials and hosting board meetings.

“Her main line is ‘How about you get a book and read it and then share the book with somebody else, and do it again?’ instead of, ‘I give you a book and keep it,’ says Dwayne. “She’s starting a movement on ‘I will give everybody books, but you have to read and share them.’ And she’s trying to do this worldwide.”

And Danay also hopes to break the Guinness World Record for most books collected in a 24-hour period. Danay has a goal of beating the existing record (set at 274,325) with 500,000 donated books, which she is now making possible with a speaking tour that covers 130 schools encouraging kids to read. So far, Reading Heart has collected 90,000 books and given out over 20,000 books, having gifted used and new books to kids in schools, hospitals and in poor areas. “It is the most amazing thing to be a part of,” Dwayne tells us. “My wife and I have to remember that we are her parents because we have great respect for her.”

There are 43 Chinese items included on UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage lists 1． not only bear witness to the past glories of Chinese civilization, but also continue to shine today.

In 2001, when Kunqu Opera 2． (list) as one of the masterpieces of the oral and intangible heritage of humanity by UNESCO, Yang Fengyi, artistic director and head of the Northern Kunqu Opera Theater, traveled with her performers to the UNESCO headquarters in Paris to witness the historic moment. They showed the ancient art form through a short performance. One of the actresses received a note from 3． audience member after the show, 4． (tell) her how beautiful she was onstage 5． how beautiful Kunqu Opera was.

One of the 6． (old) traditional opera forms still performed in China, Kunqu Opera was born in the region of Kunshan in today’s Suzhou, Jiangsu Province. It has distinguished 7． (it) by the virtuosity (高超技艺) of its rhythmic patterns and had a strong influence 8． all the more recent forms of opera in China, such as Peking Opera.

Like many traditional Chinese art forms, Kunqu Opera has faced competition from mass culture and a lack of interest among young people, but the 9． (recognize) by UNESCO put Kunqu Opera in the international spotlight at the same time as it began 10． (experience) a domestic revival.

“Who did this?” asked the teacher. Thirty children tried to think about what they had done. She wasn’t really asking: she was demanding a(n) _________. She seldom became _________, but she was this time. She held up a piece of broken glass and asked, “Who broke this window?”

“Oh, oh,” I thought. I was the one who broke the window. I had not done it on purpose. I was _________ my baseball. It needed more practice. Why did it have to be me? It wasn’t really my _________. If I admitted guilt, I would be in a lot of trouble. How would I be able to pay for a big window like that? I didn’t even get an allowance (零花钱). My father would beat me! I didn’t want to _________ my hand, but some force much stronger than I was pulled it skyward. I told the _________. “I did it,” I said no more. It was hard enough saying what I had done.

My teacher went to one of our library _________ and took down a book. She then walked towards my desk. I had never known my teacher to _________ a student, but I feared she was going to start with me.

“I know how you like birds,” she said as she stood looking down at my red face. “Here is that field guide about birds that you are constantly _________. It is yours. It’s time we got a new one for the school __________. You will not be punished as long as you remember that I am not rewarding you for your misdeed, I am rewarding you for your truthfulness.”

I couldn’t believe it! I wasn’t being punished and got my very own bird field guide, the very one that I had been __________ money to buy. The money would go to the school to buy a new __________.

The book is gone, so is my __________ teacher. All that remains of that day is my memory and the lesson my teacher __________ me. That lesson stays with me every day and it will __________ forever.

Five ways to get through homesickness

Whether you moved for work, school, or just to explore a new area, moving away from your family can be really hard. Experiencing homesickness after moving away from your family is totally normal. 1．

Bring along comforts from home.

Maybe you have a favorite blanket that you used to sleep with. Maybe you could grab a recipe for your favorite dessert. It won’t be exactly the same, but you can take some creature comforts with you to make yourself feel more at home. 2． If you always had a family dinner on Friday nights, host a dinner with your friends on Fridays instead.

Reach out to friends.

When you’re feeling down, see if a friend wants to go grab a drink or a cup of coffee. Let them know that you’re missing your family members, and see if they can relate(理解；有同感). 3． A lot of people around your age are leaving home for the first time, so you’ll probably be able to relate to each other.

Stay busy.

4． Dive into work, hobbies, responsibilities, and hanging out with friends. Before you know it, you’ll have been in your new place for 6 months without even realizing it.

5．

What’s something you’ve always wanted to try? Maybe you’ve never been rock climbing before, or maybe your friend invited you to play video game with them. A fun new hobby can help distract you from your feelings and make you happier in your new place. Joining clubs and hobby groups is also a great way to meet new people in a brand-new area.

WhasApp’s much-expected “Unsent” feature is finally ready. It has been in development for months, but has now started rolling out to users.

The feature, which is officially called “Delete for Everyone”, has also been widely referred to as “Recall” and “Revoke”. It lets you unsend messages, making them completely disappear from a conversation. They will be hidden from both yourself and the other people in the chat.

However, both you and your recipient (接受者) need to be using the latest version of WhatsApp, and it only works for messages you have sent within the last seven minutes. Once that period of time has passed, your message is there to stay.

“Delete for Everyone” can work on all types of messages, including texts, images, videos, GIFs and documents. To unsend a message, you simply need to highlight it by tapping and holding the line of text, select the “Delete” button from the menu and hit the “Delete for Everyone” option.

“This is particularly useful if you sent a message to the wrong chat or if the message you sent contains a mistake,” explains WhatsApp in an FAQ (frequently asked questions). “Messages you successfully delete for everyone will be replaced with ‘This message was deleted’ in your recipients’ chats. Similarly, if you see ‘This message was deleted’ in a chat, it means that the sender deleted the message.”

WhatsApp says you will be informed if “Delete for Everyone” hasn’t worked. It also warns that even if the feature does work successfully, there is a chance that the person you have been chatting to may have already seen the message before you decided to delete it.

According to WABetaInfo, the roll-out of “Delete for Everyone” is proving very slow, so don’t worry if you are unable to make use of it quite yet.

“My favorite thing about hiking is that I get to work out my legs,” said Skylar, a six-year-old camper. “And I get to see the view!” Skylar is one of twenty kids participating in the week-long Gross Out Camp, a summer program hosted at parks and outdoor spaces across Alabama. “This is kids’ natural habitat out here in the woods,” said Verna Gates, who started Gross Out Camp 14 years ago.

As schools begin again across Alabama, most students are returning to days spent in indoor classrooms, but some will continue to learn and play outside, even while at school. It’s part of a growing movement to teach kids in nature and help them connect with their environment.

In recent years, at least three nature preschools, or forest schools, have opened across Alabama. They operate almost entirely outside. “It seems like a very foreign concept, especially when we first described it to people,” said Sarah Crim, director of the Woodland Wonders Nature Preschool in Auburn. “But it’s great, and it works.”

In this forest school, students learn knowledge from every activity. The class might discover a turtle walking along the forest floor at the Kreher Preserve & Nature Center, where the school is located. That presents an opportunity for students to talk about the animal’s shape and color, and write about their discovery.

After starting Woodland Wonders in 2019, Crim said word spread quickly. The school has since added classes and programs for older kids, but they can’t keep up with demand. It’s a similar case at Little Mountain Forest School in Huntsvillem, where kids learn and play at Monte Sano State Park. Co-founder and co-director Beth Barry said that both kids and parents love the natural space.

Fellow co-founder and co-director Sarah Callaway said the most common question is about the weather. They spend a lot of time reviewing proper clothing, because students are outside rain or shine. “As a forest school parent, it can be a pain in the behind to have to deal with your muddy and wet kid,” Callaway said. “But the kids love it. Those are some of the best days.”

Our neighbors have always had a beautiful statue by the gate of their house. I’ve always loved to look at it whenever I look out of the kitchen window.

The other day I found it wasn’t there! I hoped it was just moved and not lost! There were thieves reported recently. I told Mike about my worry and he said he would ask the neighbors the next time he saw them.

That afternoon he met Mrs “Neighbor” at the door and mentioned the missing statue to her. He told her how much we loved it and hoped it was safe. She said that she had just moved it to the yard and would bring it back right away. “Oh no,” said Mike. “We’re just glad it’s safe!”

That evening we went out to sit in our garden and saw that the statue was back by the gate! Oh, sweet neighbor! You were so kind!

The next day we were out in the garden again, planting flowers, and found that we had too many. We didn’t know where to put them all! I had to leave before we decided what to do with them. On my way out, I met Mrs “Neighbor” and thanked her for moving the statue back! She said she moved it to her yard because the area on the side of her house was too barren (荒芜的). There were no flowers. Suddenly an idea came into my mind! The flowers! She could have them!

Now the statue sits in beautiful flowers. I look out of my kitchen window again and smile. The kindness shared between neighbors is such a beautiful thing!