I just read a Chinese parable another day. It says an old man was asked which one is more important, the Sun or the Moon. The old man thought for a long while and answered "the Moon".
"Why?"
"Because the Moon shines in the night when we especially need it; the Sun shine in the day when it's already light."
Of course a 10 year-old would know this old man was wrong. But I found it inspiring. Taking thing for granted seems to be a major disposition of our humans. Yesterday I read an article on facebook, about some health advice given by a 104 year-old Japanese doctor. While I appreciated most of them, one advice struck me hard: "Energy does not come from sleeping a lot or eating well, it comes from feeling good." Well, I hope the doctor did not mean it literally (or maybe the translation wasn't accurate), because the fact is that if we don't eat and sleep but just feeling good, we die, and not only that, we die with horrible suffering.
I am not scientist but the basic biology and experience tells me that humans' energy come from foods. Though sleep doesn't provide energy but its function is also crucial to our health. Feeling well is indeed important to the quality of life, but to say it provides energy more than food and sleep, I have to say it's false.
Since I lived with chronic health problem for ages, I found, people - of course include I - tend to take physical health for granted. We apprise our mental power so much that to an extend some people literally believe feeling good is all we need to live well. The belief in our mental power is way out of proportion. A famous political slogan during Chinese cultural revolution was "The field produces as much crops as people want." Nowaday a popular phrase goes "There's nothing you can't do but only things you can't imagine." Such beliefs go on and on. It is called positive thinking and it's panacea for all diseases, fuel for all ambitions.
Why do people so overstate the importance of our mental energy? I suppose the reason is exactly the same as that old man who says the Moon is more important than the Sun, that is: like the Sun, foods and sleep are something we got so used to that we overlook the importance of them, forgot the fact that without them there will be no chance for our mental exercise.
The Moon shines in the night, bringing us romantic imagination and fascination, so and so, but it's the Sun who stays there day and light providing the most essential resources to our existence, making all those romantic exercises possible. Yet, when we enjoy these "luxuries", we think those are all it's about and don't give credit to something that's more essential. Why? I don't know but I suppose that shortsightedness is the flaws we humans are born with.
