Mom and Dad think of another way to teach Laura the meaning of life. Before bedtime, Laura is to think of ten things that she’s grateful for. Her first night trying out this, she gives thanks for her Mom, Dad, Grandma, Grandpa, first aunt, second aunt, second uncle, little uncle, Jade, Alan, her piano teacher, her Chinese Medicine teacher, and her school. She starts naming everyone at school, then the government, and the Earth, and light, to great scientists like Albert Einstein, Isaac Newton, and Benjamin Franklin. Then she starts to think both macroscopically and microscopically, and includes atoms, cells, the Milky Way, to the entire universe. “Once I start the list, I can’t stop,” Laura observes to her parents. “I go beyond 10 things.”
“Yes,” Dad replies, “This tends to happen a lot.”
After that, they discuss anything she learned or have problems in, and her parents will solve it. Tonight, her problem is that her parents won’t spend more time with her outside of tutoring. Mom and Dad are preparing for their lessons for school all the time or grading papers that Laura feels left out.
“Laura dear, do you love us?” Mom asks.
“Of course I love you,” Laura responds.
“Do you know what loving someone means?” Mom asks.
“You are loyal to the person you love and want to be with them all the time and be really close to each other,” Laura responds.
“Laura, loving someone means that you want them to feel good, to be happy,” Mom says.
“The next time you are in anger, you can repeat the mantra I want you to feel good or I want you to be happy,” Dad adds.
“If you want a bird happy, you have to let it free. Do you agree?” Mom asks.
“I understand now. Love is wanting the other person to be happy,” Laura responds. “I really want you two to be happy. I won’t be possessive or obsessive ever again.” Laura writes this new insight into her journal.
Little aunt learns quickly the lesson from first aunt. Children’s ideas are to be taken seriously. She begins to spend more time with Laura and ask for suggestions as to what else can be improved in daily life that she could make out of a business. One day, while Laura was riding with little aunt in a car on the way to the park, Laura sees that little aunt is trying to juggle the phone and the driving wheel at the same time, and comments, “wouldn’t it be great if we had a voice-activated or thought-activated phone in the car where we don’t need to touch anything to talk to someone?” Little aunt borrows some money from first aunt and develops a car that has voice-activated and mind-activating phone inside, a suggestion from Laura again. Little aunt’s car phone catches on like wildfire. She earns the equivalent of $600 million dollars her first year. Meanwhile, first aunt makes $256 million dollars the second year, and $478 million dollars the next year.
Laura tests first place on her college entrance test. Of course, she will attend Ning Da University, at the age of ten years old. While going there, there are some bad students who are jealous of Laura and spit her way all the time. Laura finds it hard to bear, but she remembers her parents’ words. She uses the strategy of thinking the opposite, love, and also repeating the mantra of I want you to feel good and I want you to feel happy. She then goes home and writes a poem about good wishes, even though she is extremely angry.
May you always have the calmest of minds and the most peaceful of temperaments;
May you always think, speak, and move with sincerity, grace, and dignity;
And may you always have inner peace and serenity inside of you.
May you never become angry or hurt anyone or anything;
May you never think of revenge, pranking someone, or teaching someone a lesson;
And may you dare to love everyone and wish them well, even when they make you angry or hurt.
May the most valuable things in your life be virtue, family and friends, memories, enthusiasm, and time;
May you treat everyone with respect, even those who give you the hardest time;
And may you be willing to learn from everyone and everything in the universe, from your family members and teachers to your enemies and strangers, from a rock and an atom to a star and the entire universe.
May you have your own voice and a strong will;
May you dare to stand out from the crowd, be unique and an original, and see everyone as hot, cool, and popular;
And may you be brave, strong, and tough.
May you never run away from your problems but face and conquer them;
May you never complain and always accept others’ complaints and criticisms;
And may you always accept hard work and life’s tasks for you and always be meticulous and productive.
May you always be innocent, independent, and interdependent;
May you always be guided like road signs on a road on your journey of life;
And may you give lots of what you’d like to receive, including giving love, despite that you have lack of it, and you will feel loved.
May you do each small and big thing in life with love;
May you fly above the clouds;
And may each moment be the most meaningful.
May your ambitions be the highest;
May your noble intentions be the truest;
And may your health always be the best.
May you have the grandest goals before you sleep;
May you be filled with the most beautiful dreams at night with angels watching you through the nights;
And may you have the greatest hope and enthusiasm after you wake up, most refreshed and rejuvenated;
May all your positive wishes come true and positive goals fulfilled;
May you be always enveloped by light, love, warmth, comfort, and joy;
And may your life be filled with limitless and boundless success, prosperity, and bliss.
Laura decides to give her poem to the spitters the next time she seems them. The spitters realizes that Laura has feelings and are touched by the poem, hereonafter never spitting at her again.
