John, a famous musician, took his priceless antique zither（奇特琴） and played it in the crowded subway station. The music emanating¹ from（放射，出自） the zither was delicately streaming throughout the whole station. However, during the one-hour play, only six or seven people were truly appreciating the charming music. A three-year-old kid was so fascinated by the music that he forgot everything around. John only got 52 U.S. dollar for his work that day.

 

However, in normal days, when John is about to hold a concert, one ticket can be sold at more than 100 dollars and it is extremely hard to buy a ticket even at such a high price. Therefore, later, many passers-by in the station that day felt deeply regretful for not recognizing the famous musician and missing such a valuable but cheap music feast.

 

I have a very busy friend who had totally changed after knowing that his wife came down with acute illness. He cooked by himself for the family and took a walk with his wife every day. Nonetheless, his wife still did not manage to conquer the illness and passed away after three months. After that, he often sighed miserably² that due to his past busy life, he had missed a lot of beautiful time with his wife. But now, it is impossible to make up for it.

 

A doctor's son jumped from the 19th floor of a building and left a posthumous³（死后的） letter which expressed his strong desire for staying more with his father, going to see a movie with his father, etc. Not until his son committed suicide had the doctor realized that the most precious thing is not career achievement, but the tight and intact family bonds.

 

It is no use crying over spilt milk. We have missed a lot of precious things in our life without knowing to cherish them.

 

Actually, I also missed something precious before. The reason why we would have missed those precious things is less than simple: we had thought that we could still own them tomorrow.

 

Nevertheless, tomorrow is actually by no means reliable. There was a famous Buddhist⁴ monk⁵ saying that in many people’s lives, they have only done two things: waiting and regretting. The result is that they were always too late to cherish what they had before they lost it. We would often claim to do something when we grow up, or when we have money or when we become old, etc.

 

However, when we reach the condition we have expected, we could no longer do realize our wish any more, because we have lost it by then.

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