We’e Just Beginning
◎ Charles F. Kattering
“We are reading the first verse of the first chapter of a book whose pages are infinite ...”
I do not know who wrote these words, but I have always liked them as a reminder that the future can be anything we want to make it. We can take the mysterious, hazy future and carve out of it anything that we can imagine, just as a sculptor carves a statue from a shapeless stone.
We are all in the position of the farmer. If we plant a good seed, we reap a good harvest. If our seed is poor and full of weeds, we reap a useless crop. If we plant nothing at all, we harvest nothing at all.
I want the future to be better than the past. I don’t want it contaminated by the mistakes and errors with which history is filled. We should all be concerned about the future because that is where we will spend the remainder of our lives.
The past is gone and static. Nothing we can do will change it. The future is before us and dynamic. Everything we do will affect it. Each day brings with it new frontiers, in our homes and in our businesses, if we will only recognize them. We are just at the beginning of the progress in every field of human endeavor.
“我們正在讀一本書的第一章第一行,而這本書有無數(shù)頁……”
我不知道這句話是誰寫的,可我很喜歡。它提醒著我們,未來是由自己創(chuàng)造的,一切皆有可能。我們可以把神秘的、不可知的未來塑造成我們想象中的任何一種樣子,就像雕塑家把一尊未成形的石頭刻成雕像。
我們就像是農(nóng)夫。如果我們播下良種,必將獲得豐收。然而,如果播下劣種,或田間雜草叢生,我們收獲的就是無用的莊稼。沒有耕耘就不會(huì)有收獲。
我希望未來比過去更加美好。我希望未來不再重蹈歷史的錯(cuò)誤與過失。我們應(yīng)該專注于未來,因?yàn)槲覀兊挠嗌紝⒃谖磥碇卸冗^。
往昔已逝,靜如止水,我們無力改變它。未來就在眼前,生機(jī)勃勃,我們所做的一切都會(huì)影響它。如果我們意識(shí)到這些,無論是工作還是家庭,我們都能開拓一片新天地。在人類致力開拓的每一個(gè)領(lǐng)域里,我們正好站在進(jìn)步的起跑點(diǎn)上。