Today is Saturday, 29 August 2026.
The BBC weather forecast says temperatures range from 13°C to 18°C, with light rain showers and light winds. Looking through the office window, the sky is grey and dull but calm, and there is nothing particularly exciting about it. The heatwave already seems like a distant memory, and it feels as though the season has changed all of a sudden over the past two weeks.
After spending an hour and half this morning on the presentation Damping Control of Non-linear FEA, I am feeling strangely philosophical about the meaning of life. Why is that, you might wonder? This brings back memories of a novel I read in my youth - How the Steel Was Tempered by Nikolai Ostrovsky (钢铁是怎样炼成的）. It still resonates my body and inspires my soul every time I think about the powerful internal monologue delivered by the main character, Pavel Korchagin (保尔柯察金）, as he pays tribute to his fallen comrades at the martyrs' cemetery: ‘Man's dearest possession is life. It is given to him but once, and he must live it so as to feel no torturing regrets for wasted years, never know the burning shame of a mean and petty past; so live that, dying, he might say: all my life, all my strength were given to the finest cause in all the world - the fight for the Liberation of Mankind.’ (人最宝贵的东西是生命。生命对每个人只有一次。因此，人的一生应当这样度过：当他回首往事的时候，他不会因为虚度年华而悔恨，也不会因为碌碌无为而羞愧；在临死的时候，他能够说：“我的整个生命和全部精力，都已经献给了世界上最壮丽的事业 - 为人类的解放而斗争。”)
Yet, I'm still myself, regardless, and I recoganise that the most precious thing we have is life, and it is given to us more than once. We should live it in such a way that we have no painful regrets for years wasted, and no burning shame for a stagnant and idle past.
At the very end of life, we can say to ourselves: my entire life and all my energy were fully dedicated to the ultimate fight — the liberation of my own soul.
Morning reflections
