Reading Journal - The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck
20180123-24 Chapter 5
-Q & A-
001 What does “you are always choosing”? Can you define it and give an example?
“We‘re always choosing” means we are actually always interpreting the meaning of every moment in our lives and taking active roles in what’s occurring to and within us. For example, when confronting a depressing situation, we can choose to accept it, fight it back, or even ignore it, and different attitudes we choose towards it will make us adopt different action to deal with it.
002 What’s the point of telling William James’s story?
The author told us Willam James’s story to show us importance of choosing good values in our life and how the attitudes we choose to will influence our lives.
003 Any responsibility problems you had with your boyfriend/girlfriend or parents? If any, please tell us your story.
There have been many responsibility problems I had with my boyfriend. For example, at the very beginning of our relationship, I insisted that it was necessary for a boyfriend to reply his girlfriend’s text message immediately. If he fails in this, it just means he did love her deeply enough. So, it’s rather frequent for us to have quarrels about this problem, because it’s quiet possible that one can forget reply the text message. Later I realized that replying text message or not actually has nothing to do with the degree of one’s love, because even I myself sometimes forget to reply messages to my loved ones. After that, we quit talking about this question and foucus more on our true feelings and needs. As a result, we get along better with each other.
-Take-away Message-
001 作者提到恋爱关系是由两个人价值观相似得的人共同确立的。所以如果你觉得自己的伴侣自私无情，实际上可能你自己也是这样的。所以，与其一味地责怪伴侣，让这段关系变得紧张，不如尽早转化心态，对自己的情绪和行为负责，这样才能真正地解决问题。
002 大众媒体为了点击量，刻意炒作那些引人愤怒的新闻，激发人们的受害者心态，让人们把关注点放在那些让自己难受、愤怒的事情上，责怪这个社会有问题，而忽略了真实的社会问题。更可怕的是，这样的信息传播让我们逃避自己对自己的责任，认为自己的一切失意都是别人的错。
003 “With great responsibility comes great power.” 意识到自己可以对自己的情绪和行为负责的现实，才能获得改变现状的内在动力。
-Words & Expressions-
001 reverberate
原句: “Your turnaround will reverberate out through your relationships, and many of them will blow up in your face.”
释义：v. if an event, action, or idea reverberates, it has a strong effect over a wide area and for a long time 〔事件﹑活动或思想〕产生广泛而长久的影响
造句：The foundation of the New Republic of China will reverberate through history.
002 at best
原句: “At best, it can be managed.”
释义：used to emphasize that something is not very good, pleasant, honest etc even if you consider it in the best possible way
造句：The plan was at best only partially successful.
003 own up (to doing something)
原句: “Some things just feel too painful for them to own up to.”
释义：to admit that you have done something wrong, especially something that is not serious
造句：He still won’t own up to the fact that he had choose worse values and metrics so that he had lived a miserable life before.
004 credit somebody with doing something
原句: “I credit it with inspiring a significant amount of personal growth.”
释义：v. to believe or admit that someone has a
造句：Do credit me with a gift for telling stories.
005 a (good catch)
原句: “He was educated, interesting, and good-looking—a good catch, in principle—but he was absolutely convinced that women found him too short to date.”
释义：someone who is a good person to have a relationship with or to marry because they are rich, attractive etc – often used humorously
造句：He’s actually a good catch in terms of wealth and work, but he is rather selfish.
