From the author: The article was published on September 13, 2011, in the newspaper "Grand Duke Courier". It is unlikely that anyone will argue that a person’s greatest value is his own life. Based on this statement, it becomes easier for us to accept ourselves as we are, love ourselves and see how the world around us will change. LIFE IS A GAME!? Parable A student comes to the Teacher and says: - Teacher, I’m tired, I have such a hard life, such difficulties and problems, I swim against the tide all the time, I don’t have any more strength,... what should I do? Instead of answering, the teacher put three identical containers of water on the fire. I threw carrots into one container, put an egg into another, and poured coffee beans into a third. “What has changed?” - he asked the student. “The egg and carrots were boiled, and the coffee beans dissolved in the water,” the student answered. “No,” said the Teacher, “this is just a superficial look at things.” Look - hard carrots, having been in boiling water, became soft and pliable. The fragile and liquid egg became hard. Outwardly they have not changed, they only changed their structure under the influence of equally unfavorable circumstances - boiling water. Likewise, people who are strong outwardly can fall apart and become weaklings where the fragile and tender ones only harden and get stronger. - And coffee? - asked the student. - Oh! This is the most interesting! Coffee beans dissolved in a new hostile environment and changed it - they turned boiling water into a magnificent aromatic drink. There are special people who do not change due to circumstances, they change the circumstances themselves and turn them into something new and beautiful, extracting benefit and knowledge from the situation. It is common for all people to know themselves and think. Heraclitus Every person strives for the best (in his own understanding), and the majority, as a rule, are not very happy with what they have, i.e. They want more, a better quality of life. With this desire, and often desire, we do not face the truth sincerely enough. We may not be satisfied with different kinds of attitudes towards life, towards people or with people, towards things, etc. It often happens that parents ask their children: “Why are you behaving so badly?” In response they receive: “How do you educate!” Let's start with when children are born - from diapers. How many of us have asked the questions: What am I giving to this little man who is open to new things? And when children grow up and strive to express themselves in this world, do they meet understanding and acceptance? Or do they face condemnation, prohibitions, restrictions? This and more leads to personality disharmony. But in early childhood, basic mechanisms are laid that accompany a person throughout his life. Parents who consider themselves right and knowledgeable forget that they themselves were children, and remember only the model of upbringing, the grievances received from their parents, which they use, as a rule, all their lives, passing it on to their children, without thinking about how will affect them, but wishing them only “good”. You need to see what the action is for. Aristotle And who allowed himself to look into such depths of such phenomena, in which it is possible, although sometimes painful, to see the essence, so to speak, the root, of many unpleasant moments of our precious life? We often encounter moments of revelation that can sometimes influence the course of events and create a more favorable future, qualitatively changing the present. But, having encountered such glimpses, we turn away, not wanting to open our minds to something new, due to the fear of upcoming changes, increasing the pressure of unresolved issues, which often gives rise to new difficulties. This can be listed endlessly, because everything is individual. And here a logical question arises: can I!