When we were young, our teachers and parents always tell us not to do bad things, do all kinds of good things, stay away from bad kids/bad students, and be a good kid. In our little naive 10-year-old world, there are very clear cut between “good” and “bad”. Our idea of good was listening to the elders and behave like the way they want us to. Get good grades, help out with house chores, be kind and give helpful hands to people around you. Being bad was disobeying orders, have very lousy grades, skip schools and do drugs or smoke.

Somehow as we grew older, the distinction between good and bad isn’t so clear anymore. The people we thought were nice suddenly become the bad people. The evil looking people may have the kindest heart hidden inside them. Police aren’t always the good guys and criminals aren’t always the bad guys. The good things that we used to do don’t seem right anymore.  Being good doesn’t always give you the result you deserved. Justice doesn’t always give fair decision. The evil guys are often the rich and powerful who receive the most respects and attention from society. Everything seems to be fallen into grey area and in reverse orders than what we used to when we were young. That’s just how the reality is. That’s what we’re supposed to face in today’s society. How do lost souls fit themselves in such a estranged world and be able to know what are good and bad for them? Unfortunately I do not know the answers either.

This remind me of a Chinese folk tale I heard before. When God created the world, he only gave human 10 years of life and all the other animals live longer than human. When human found out, he cried and begged for more years to live. Other animals were very sympathetic and each donated 10 years of their life to human. Therefore, only the first10 years of human life were the pure original human nature. After that,we were all mixed with pig’s, horse’s, monkey’s, and dog’s personalities. Every time I heard this story, I couldn’t help but wonder: what if we can all extend the first 10 years just a little bit longer, how much better the world will become?