Eating the Cookie
One of my patients, a successful businessman, tells me that before his cancer he would become depressed unless things went a certain way.
was “having the cookie”. If you had the cookie, things were good. If you didn’t have the cookie, life was
.
Unfortunately, the cookie kept some of the time it was money, and sometimes power. At
times, it was the new car, the biggest contract… A year and a half after his diagnosis of prostate(前列腺)cancer, he sits
his head regretfully. “It seems that I stopped learning how to
after I was a kid. When I give my son a cookie, he is happy. if I take the cookie away or it
, he is unhappy. But he is two and a half and I am forty-three. It has taken me this long to understand that the
will never make me happy for long.
The you have the cookie it starts to fall to pieces or you start to
about it crumbling(弄碎)or about someone trying to take it away from you. You know, you have to
a lot of things to take care of the cookie, to keep it from crumbling and be
that no one takes it away from you. You may not even get a chance to eat it
you are so busy just trying not to lose it.
the cookie is not what life is about.”
My patient laughs and says has changed him. For the first time he is
. No matter if his
is doing well or not, no matter if he wins or loses at golf. “Two years ago, cancer
me, ‘What is really important?’ Well, life is important. Life any way you can have it, life with the cookie, life without the cookie. Happiness does not have anything to
with the cookie: it has to do with being
. ”
A. Happiness B. Success C. Business D. Love
A. normal B. Common C. worthless D. Useless
A. increasing B. changing C. decreasing D. recovering
A. one B. other C. no D. other
A. shaking B. nodding C. knocking D. raising
A. grow B. learn C. live D. work
A. burns B. breaks C. shares D. throws
A. disease B. change C. kid D. cookie
A. hour B. time C. second D. minute
A. think B. come C. worry D. doubt
A. give up B. add up C. use up D. call up
A. brave B. curious C. aware D. sure
A. unless B. because C. though D. until
A. Eating B. Protecting C. Having D. Making
A. death B. energy C. life D. cancer
A. happy B. weak C. upset D. sad
A. result B. fortunate C. business D. behavior
A. asked B. left C. deserted D. recognized
A. deal B. do C. connect D. link
A. alone B. alive C. ambitious D. active