Happy holiday

I am still in the process of writing my paper. Although I am in stress, I feel like the more stress I have, the more I need to think about and care for other people. It's sort of like an antidote to prevent me from over focusing on my own problem. I think if Yale has ever taught me anything, it is we all have the obligations to make this world a better world, and it's really not about me.

So, first of all I would like to thank everybody for such a wonderful 2007. It is because of you that I feel like everyday is a good day, and every thing is an opportunity for personal growth. I wish you all joyful at this wonderful season of the year, and I also want to wish everybody good luck in whatever you pursue in the coming year.

Sincerely yours,
Po-Han Chen

Life as a miracle

Sometimes I think our existence is really a miracle. Just think about it, the third law of thermodynamics dictates that everything goes from order to disorder. So it is really miraculous that molecules and elements can gather together and form cells and organs, all linked together in such ordered yet complicated way. If we think about how everything is so impermanent in our life-things rise and fall apart constantly-and how many causes and conditions are required to make one thing to happen, we would see how life is a miracle. Take the fidelity of DNA replication in our body, for example, it requires so many cooperations from so many molecules so that DNA will be replicated in a correct way. Just think about it, how miraculous that these molecules, among tens of thousands of molecules in our cells, can find each other and interact with each other. Sometimes I think we should feel lucky that our body doesn't go wrong, because such proper functioning of every aspect of our cells is such a rarity in nature. The probability that everything works so perfectly is just so low that life is really a wonder by itself. The lesson: life is precious, so treasure it while you can.