（第三届）

Learn to love and care

张小洁 西安航天中学初三（4）班
阅读书目：雾都孤儿 Oliver Twist （书虫· 牛津英汉双语读物）

    Here I am sitting on a couch alone, thinking about what I have just finished reading with tears of sadness filling my eyes and fire of indignation filling my heart, which revived my exhausted soul that has already been covered by the cruelty and the selfishness of the secular world for a long time. It is truly what I felt after reading Oliver Twist, written by the prominent British author Charles Dickens.

    The resonance between me and the book makes me feel not only the kindness and the wickedness of all the characters in the novel, but what this aloof society lacks, and what I lack deep inside. These supreme resources I’m talking about right now are somewhat different from minerals, oil that we usually mention. They’re abstract like feelings, and some kinds of spiritual stimulation that all of us desire anxiously from one another —— love and care.

    Those charitable figures whom Dickens created in the novel are really what we need in life. They showed love and care to others, just as the gentle rain from the sky fell upon the earth, which was carved into my heart deeply.
Mr. Brownlow is one such person.

    The other day he had one of his elaborate watches stolen by two skilled teenage thieves, Artful Dodger and Charley Bates, and thought naturally it was Oliver, who was an orphan and forced to live with a gang of thieves, that had done it because he was the only one near by after the theft had taken place. Being wrathful, he caught Oliver, and sent him to the police station where the ill-tempered, unfair magistrates worked. Fortunately for him, Oliver was proved innocent by one onlooker afterwards. With sympathy, Mr. Brownlow took the injured, poor Oliver to his own home. There Oliver lived freely and gleefully for some months as if he were Mr. Brownlow’s own son. One day, however, Mr. Brownlow asked Oliver to return some books to the bookseller and to send some money for the new books that he had already collected. The thief Oliver once stayed with kidnapped him. After that he disappeared in Mr. Brownlow’s life. Searching for a while, Mr. Brownlow had to believe the fact that he had run away with his money. But dramatically, they came across each other again a few years later. Without hesitation, Mr. Brownlow took Oliver home for the second time not caring if he had done something evil.

    Perhaps most of us would feel confused about Mr. Brownlow’s reaction. But as a matter of fact, this is just the lesson we should learn from him. Jesus said in the Bible. “Forgive not seven times, but seventy-times seven.” Why is that? Because forgiveness is our ability to remove negative thoughts and neutralize them so our energy may be spent on doing what we came here for. We cannot move forward in our future if past issues cloud our thinking. Stop put Mr. Brownlow into the list of your models. Always give people a second chance no matter what they might have done. That’s also a substantial part of loving and caring others.

    Then there are Mrs. Maylie and Rose, Oliver’s other benefactors. Maybe the reason they loved and cared Oliver was not because of forgiveness. In my point of view, it was trust. They had faith in Oliver when he was considered to be a filthy burglar who tried to break the front door of Maylie’s at midnight. But this wasn’t how these two ladies saw the whole thing. They denied Oliver’s crime immediately and listened attentively to Oliver’s own description of his miserable life. They were deeply touched by Oliver’s strong perseverance and astonishing vitality. Accordingly, they remedied Oliver’s body and heart and turned him into a different boy. He began to wear appropriate and clean suits which were tailor-made for him and receive education.

    As far as we can see, it is trust that helps us all live together without precaution. Sometimes trust can even lead us to miracles, which we often expect to come about, so why not trust? Trust yourself, trust others, and you’ll salute miracles every single day.

    In the novel, though the young Oliver again and again fell for conspiracies of those hideous thieves, who tried to torture Oliver’s body and poisoned Oliver’s heart intensely, he always lived on and tried hard to seek for his own life. Then I realized what supported him all through were actually beliefs. In most cases, what you believe is what you’ll become. Believe that you are unlimited, that you can do anything you commit to doing, and when you do, your accomplishments will know no bounds. You control your beliefs and that is how you ultimately control your life. It’s all dictated by your attitude.

    In the final analysis, love and care contain numerous forms, there are love of forgiveness, love of trust, etc. but they all come from your beliefs in life. When someone tells you he’s deceived you, forgive him anyway, when someone tells you what he’s done, trust him anyway, and when you face adversities while chasing your dreams, think about your beliefs, then what hinders you will become a piece of cake in no time.

    So find out “Olivers” in your life and do as Mr. Brownlow and Mrs. Maylie do: love them and care them, which cost nothing but save much. They enrich those who receive, without impoverishing those who give. They can be certain smallest words or actions, but the memory of them sometimes last forever.

    Charles Dickens said:“Love makes the world go around.” These immortal words have inspired and will keep on inspiring us to chant the melody of love and to say the prayer of care forevermore. Let us, therefore, enjoy life and treat other people lovingly. These principles are the roots and foundations of beliefs supporting this article and our mission together.