The Coming Exams

     Recently, I am occupied with loads of assignments and textbooks in the coming of the Mid-term exam. As tired as I am, though, I find it sometimes inspiring to see so many students buckle down on their studies in the library, and I think it is something we would value in the college─ the climate of hard-working (of course not simply in the coming of big exams). I am, anywhere, managing to sustain myself through these weeks of exams. And the most urgent issue for me now is to strike a balance between studying and sleep─ though a hard task it may be.

Life is Beautiful

Life is beautiful to him. There is no difference and hostility of race and people in his mind, but only joy and brightness even in face of the toughest time in life. This is Guido Orefice in the movie of "La vita e' bella (Life is Beautiful)", an award-winning Italian comedy directed by Roberto Benigni in 1997.

Seemingly being mischievous, frolicsome and a bit flighty with some unexpectedly doings that always surprise others, Guido, a carefree Jewish young man in the 1930s Italy, is a person with the mind of child and passion of life. To protect his son from the relentless harm of the Nazis and the fear of death in the concentration camp, he makes up a story to his son that the holocaust is simply a "game" of winning a gorgeous tank despite all the hardship (actually, it is truly a "game" of death and survival). Not because he has no fear for what they might encounter, but all he braves is out of love─ the love to his beloved so selfless and strong that conquers the deepest horror of human conditions and the cruelty of humanity.

When seeing Guido's desperate seeking for his wife Dora for the last glance in the riot, and his encouraging good-bye smile to his son in the last hour of life, a feeling of weeping and bitterness strikes me to the deepest. I think there is no respectable man in the world than the one so brave as to risk everything for those who he concerns, and still believes in hope in the face of death. After viewing the movie, I got to realize why it is honored as a classic, ever powerful and lasting. This is, indeed, a simple story, but never an ordinary one.