A Letter to August

Priscilla and I wrote our newly-born daughter August a letter about the world we hope she grows up in, and also hoping she doesn’t grow up too fast.

Dear August,

Welcome to the world! Your mom and I are so excited to see who you will   (1)  .

When your sister was   (2)  , we wrote a letter about the world we hoped she and now you will grow up in – a world with better education,   (3)   diseases, stronger communities, and greater equality. Your   (4)    should live better lives than ours, and we have a(n)   (5)   to do our part to make that happen.   (6)  headlines often   (7)  what’s wrong, we still believe these  (8)   trends will win out. We’re   (9)   about your generation and the future.

But    (10)  write about growing up, we want to talk about   (11)  .

Childhood is magical. You only get to be a child once, so don’t spend it   (12)  too much about the future. We’ll do everything we   (13)  can to  (14)  the world is a better place for you and all children in your generation.

The world can be a serious place. That’s why it’s   (15)   to make time to go outside and play. You will be   (16)   when you’re older, so I hope you take time to   (17)   all the flowers and put all the leaves you want in your bucket now. I hope you sleep soundly and take frequent   (18)  . And I hope even in your   (19)  you can feel how much we love you.

August, we love you so much and we’re so excited to go on this   (20)   with you. We wish you a life of joy, love and the same hope you give us.

                                                                          Love,

                                                                               Mom and Dad

A letter to … My brother, whom I bullied when we were young

I was five when you were born. Looking at pictures from that time, I look so   (1)   with you. I am holding you, I am smiling, and I look fascinated. But I do not remember that feeling, as if the person in the pictures were somebody else.

I was a daddy’s girl, but I was also the one to break in our parents. I used to call myself the family’s guinea pig (豚鼠),    (2)   you were the happy one, the joker, the one who reaped the rewards of all my battles won or lost. So I must have decided that we were enemies, competitors for the love and attention of our parents, and this feeling is in the   (3)  of all my early memories. All I remember is   (4)   you.

So, as long as I could, I made your life full of   (5)  . I teased you, tricked you and   (6)   you. You tell me it’s not as bad as I remember, but I recall a couple of times when you were left in tears. Our little sister was born when I was 11, and very soon you two bonded(团结)   (7)   and pushed me aside. Did you bond with her because I was becoming a monster, or did I become a monster because of your bond?

Thankfully, you quickly grew tall and strong, and soon you were able to overcome me   (8)   . From then on it was down to verbal abuse and psychological warfare. By the time I was at university, you were a teenager and we competed for higher resources: money, the family car, parental pride.

It all came to a    (9)  stop when I moved abroad as an exchange student. Almost 20 years have passed, and the hate   (10)   me some long time ago, while I wasn’t watching. And at the same time,    (11)   must have crept in (悄悄地进入), sneaking somewhere through the back of my mind.

Despite all the abuse during those years, you have turned into a happy, friendly, passionate, generous human being. You are the most handsome and charming person that I know. And, with your wife and best friend, you have just had your first child. Nobody   (12)   this happiness more. you have worked so hard to become who you are.

You have implied that you’ve forgiven me, or even that there is   (13)  to forgive. But I prefer to remember the hurt — I will always hurt in   (14)  when I look back. All those wasted years in which I should have been your loving sister, standing by your side, defending instead of    (15)   you in your own home. I aim to be now what I always should have been.

I am so proud of you, my heart wells up with love for you and your sister. I will be forever glad that I have the chance to love you both.                                 

Your sister                  

Introduction to Letters to Sam

Dear Reader，

Please allow me to tell you something before you read this book. When my (1)  , Sam, was born, my heart was filled with joy. I had been sitting in a wheelchair for 20 years before then, and I have been  (1)  ill many times. So I wondered if I would have the   (2)  to tell Sam what I had  (3)  .

For years I have been hosting a program on the  (4)  and writing articles for a magazine. Being  (5)   to move freely, I have learned to sit still and keep my heart  (6)  , exchanging thoughts with thousands of listeners and   (7)  . So when Sam was born, I   (8)  to tell him about school and friendship, romance and work, love and everything else. That’s how I started to write these   (9)  . I hoped that Sam would  (10)  them sooner or later.

However, that expectation   (11)   when Sam showed signs of autism(自闭症)at the age of two. He had actually stopped talking before the discovery of the signs. He   (12)   to communicate with others, even the family members. That was   (13)   for me but didn’t stop me writing on. I realized that I had even   (14)   now to tell him. I wanted him to   (15)  what it means to be “different” from others, and learn how to fight against the misfortune he’ll   (16)   as I myself, his grandfather, did. I just   (17)   if I could write all that I wanted to say in the rest of my life.

Now,   (18)  the book has been published, I have been given the chance. Every chapter in the book is a letter to Sam: some about my life, and all about what it means to be a   (19)   .

                                                                                                                              Daniel Gottlieb