Honestly, I am still in kind of shock. My cell phone was stolen when I was on my way to work. Or precisely I was robbed in broad light at a place which I pass by almost every day. In fact I was listening to English through my mobile phone when it happened. Suddenly the sound went off and I looked inside my bag (where I put my cell phone) to see what’s going on. Then a man in white T-shirt emerged from my behind. He moved so quickly that all I could catch was just a fleeting image of his back. Soon he faded into the morning commute crowd. When I realized what was happening, it was already too late. I had to deal with the aftermath, the anger of my loss, the chaos of all the procedures to go through, and the frustrations of being powerless. And furthermore, I saw it happening. It happened when I felt comfortable and when I felt safe. There was a nagging sense of unreal, of dread floating untethered in the back of my mind, with my former security gone in the space of a heartbeat. I knew that I couldn’t allow myself going in that direction. I tried not to think too much about the phone I lost and what’s inside it. The pictures I took, the learning program it held, the record, the personal information. Since when we have become so relied on this little machine? Like our whole life is compressed into it. What if they fell into the wrong hands? I know there’s password and everything, but still…. No, I have to stop there. So I focused on the work at hand, trying to make myself busy. When it’s done, I went back to the book I was reading “The Da Vinci Code”, trying to find some temporary escape.

I guess that is why we love detective stories. In a detective story, the criminal, no matter how smart is, can always be caught up in the end. But in real world, all you can catch is probably only the vague view of a thief’s back!

Detective story is always my favorite reading. But it’s my first time to read a book of Dan Brown. In fact, if I am not reading with Youshu, I would not include his book in my reading list. Dan Brown is great but his books are not easy reading. It’s not only because of Dan’s choices of words, but also because it involves a lot, especially things related to the Church, the Christian, the Region. For a Chinese who are not familiar with the western region--the history and the stories, you just need to do extra researches to better understand Dan Brown. But once we settle down and read it through, I’m sure we could learn a lot more. In any given situation, only your own attitude counts. The freedom to choose what kind of attitude is our privilege that nobody can take away. For now, I could choose to spend time mourning for my loss, and let all those negative feelings to eat me alive, or I could choose to finish my reading. Even it might lead me nowhere, but at least, it changes my attentions and makes me feel better.