Wayne pulled out his iPad.
"Just look at it. Flip through it."
It was the levels pages of Angry birds.
You see, for past months, we had been furiously addicted to this game of
crushing pigs with flying birds shot from a sling. It wasn't enough to
just get past all the stages, it became paramount that we collected
three stars for each stage, a mark of excellence of our mastery in pigs
slaughter.
I flipped through the pages in silence. Every level was marked with three stars.
"You are crazy." I announced.
He turned away slowly and smugly, knowing full well I actually meant, "Wow."
I had to hand it to him, he was determined to make the difficult
possible. It was, I suppose in other words, an accomplishment. Of sorts.
He was this close to not making the definition.
I try to remember the people closest to me and some of their accomplishments. Big or small.
My dad washed dishes to pay for his school fees, my mother raised 3
daughters on $300 a month for years. My sister Kia remained kooky and
genuine despite of her high flying job, and there is the other sister
Jeanette.
One day Jeanette came home from the hospital at lunch time. She looked
exactly like someone who had been up all night with snatches of sleep in
between. She plopped down by the dinner table and told me she managed
to dig all the shit out of this man who had renal failure while I was
having soup. I put my bowl down.
"I beg your pardon?"
"I had to, he couldn't pass shit, if I didn't he would die of toxicity."
"Oh."
"Tonight!"
"Ohkay! I get it!"
I resumed drinking my soup, then it suddenly struck me,
"You did it with your hands?"
She rolled her eyes and said,
"With gloves on of course silly."
I don't think I told you, but that my dear, is an accomplishment.
I supposed all these little things may not amount to much at this point.
And sometimes we wonder why we do the things we do, be it soldiering on
with bombing pigs or digging fecal waste from someone's intestines. Some
of it makes complete sense, and some do not.
But i believe in the cool cliche that everything happens for a reason.
Just like Steve Jobs and his course in typography in college. Just like
washing dishes behind a restaurant in winter. Just like plowing for
shit. And what the hell, maybe, just like slaughtering pigs on your
iPad. We may not have the answers now, and maybe at the end of it, we
realised we do it only just because, WE CAN .
Hell yeah everybody. Let's roll.
Translation courtesy of joyapple:
豬與糞便
曹先生 (Wayne) 抽出他的iPad.
"你看一下嘛。"
那是憤怒的小鳥（目前一種十分流行的iPad/iPhone遊戲）的等級頁面。
你可知道，過去的幾個月裡，我們一直瘋狂地沉迷於這個用投石器把小鳥彈出去打豬的遊戲。打通關已經不夠了，我們到最後，每一關都必須蒐集三顆星。這才能看出一個人殺豬技術的登峰造極。
我靜靜地瀏覽了每一頁。每一關都是三顆星。
「你太瘋狂了。」我宣佈說，
他慢慢地轉過臉，有幾分得意，他確信我其實是在說「哇！」
我不得不承認，他曾下定決心去攻克所有的難關。我想，換句話說，這也算一種成就。在某種程度上。他這種行為只差一點點就不能定義成就這個詞了。
我努力想身邊的人和他們的成就。偉大的或卑微的。
我的父親為了攢自己的學費去刷盤子，我的母親每月用300新幣養育了三個女兒很多年。我的姐姐燕佳儘管從事著高職的工作，卻還保持著個性和真誠。還有我的妹妹燕美。
一天，燕美午飯時間從醫院回家。她看起來像是熬了一整夜，只是中間眯了一小會而已似的。她撲通一聲坐在餐桌前，告訴我她幫一個腎衰竭的病人把糞便全部清理出來。當時我正在喝湯。我放下碗。
「再說一遍？」
「我必須要這麼做，他無法排泄，要是我不這麼做，他就會中毒身亡。」
「哦。」
「今晚就會！」
「OK我知道了！」
我重新喝我的湯，突然又有了疑問。
「你用你的手做的嗎？」
她翻了白眼說：
「當然要帶手套了，笨蛋。」
我想我沒有對你說過，但是親愛的，這是你的成就。
此時此刻，所有這些瑣事也許目前感覺沒什麼大不了的吧。
有的時候我們會思考，為什麼要做我們做的事情。不管是不屈不撓地挑戰如何炸豬，還是從一個人的腸子裡挖出糞便。有些事情是意義非凡的，而有的感覺一點意義都沒有。
但我相信，用俗不可耐卻很酷的話說，凡事皆事出有因。比如斯蒂芬·喬布斯（蘋果的CEO）在大學期間學了排版印刷。比如冬天在一家餐館的後門洗刷盤子。比
如清理糞便。又或者也許在 iPad玩殺豬遊戲也算在內。我們現在可能沒有找出答案，也許最終，我們只是意識到我們這樣做只是因為：我們做得到。
來吧大家。飛吧飛吧。
from YZ's Grand enoug.
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