Isak Dinesen - Author of the novel, "Out Of Africa"

Due to my pending Europe trip in the early Fall, I have been doing some study on European continent and its travel information. One of the best ways I found is to watch DVDs filmed by professional travellers, such as Rudy Maxa and Rick Steve.

In one of the DVDs I came to know Isak Dinesen, the novelist who wrote "Out of Africa", which has been turned into a hollywood movie casted by Robert Redford. According to the lady in the DVDs, Isak Dinesen was interviewed at the end of her life about what she learned from her own life. Isak Dinesen responded, "1. You have to have courage to live. 2. You must be able to love. 3. You must have a sense of humor." I concur wholeheartedly. If there is something I would add to it, I would either expand the first statement a little bit or add a fourth statement, which is the courage to take some GOOD risk.

The word COURAGE is short and simple, and yet its impact, when fully exercised, can be so PROFOUND that even a disconnected artificial heart may feel its vibrance.

Is the lack of courage to live equivalent to the lack of hope to live? Have you met someone who has been diagnosed with terminal disease and yet still does his/her best to seize every moment to enjoy life? On the contrary, have you ever met someone who has a good family, a healthy body, and a decent job and yet nothing positive can come out of his/her mouths. To live well is to have courage to live and accept his/her own responsibilities. Merely living is like a walking skeleton. A pathetic scene to be seen. It is one thing to find life, at times, difficult, discouraged, and frustrated to deal with, but it is quite another to shrug off your own responsibilities and blaming on others.

A friend of mine recently told me that he can easily be attracted to girls, but he can't love. Why can't he love? Fear to have his heart pierced and twisted from the inside out again? Or fear that he may not be loved back with the same intensity that he so anticipated? Knowing his background, I am afraid to say that it is not as much of his inability to love as of his inability to overcome the fear of being hurt/rejected again. FEAR is the enemy of COURAGE!

PERFECT LOVE casts out FEAR.

Huh! Life is pain. The other day my girlfriends and I were talking about newborn babies and their crying the moment they are out of the mother's womb. I know there are medical explanation for their crying.. To be sentimental, I am a firm believer that we are born to troubles and that in order to go through this life in one piece, one must learn to be humorous and laugh at the happening...