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An Email from My Sister: Every Small Detail Reflects the Editor's Devotion and Thoughtfulness, or the Lack Thereof

Dec. 2, 2007

(Clearwisdom.net) My older sister and I have been working together on producing Falun Gong truth-clarification materials. My sister prints the materials and I bind them and distribute them to fellow practitioners. When my sister saw me stapling each set only once, she suggested that I staple it twice to protect the materials. But I didn't heed her advice. Not long ago she again saw me stapling each set of materials only once and made the same suggestion. This time I heeded her advice and agreed it was a good idea.

Today I opened my email box and saw an email from my sister. It was a long note. I am reluctant to delete it. I will share part of her email with fellow practitioners.

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I know it will save time and money to staple the truth-clarification materials once, but this is not something for which we should sacrifice quality to save time or money! Take clothes shopping as an analogy. We all want to buy clothes made with quality materials and fine craftsmanship. If a shirt is designed to have two buttons, but you buy one with only one button on it, surely this small defect would cause you to not care much for the shirt.

I am an editor by profession. When you make printed materials, you have to think from the reader's perspective. When you read a newspaper, a typo, an inappropriate underline, a mistake in formating a paragraph, a low-quality photo or an inappropriate size for a news title will affect the readers' mood. Every small detail reflects the editor's devotion and thoughtfulness, or the lack of them. Only by doing something wholeheartedly will you do it well!

Before any printed material reaches the readers, it has to go through the processes of editing, layout & design, printing, and binding. It takes a lot of peoples' time and effort to complete the first four processes. Can you in good conscience sacrifice the quality in the final process of binding? If I were the recipient of our truth-clarification materials, I would treasure them if I really like them. On the other hand, if our truth-clarification materials do not look presentable, why would I want to treasure them?

How did fellow practitioners work to deliver each year's New Tang Dynasty Television's Chinese New Year Spectacular? They did it as perfectly as could be. As long as we can think of things to make Dafa work better, then we should do our utmost to make it so. Teacher said,

"Of course, some people said, 'Whatever Master does is sure to be done the very best.' True! If it were not the best, I wouldn't do it." ("Fa Teaching at the 2007 New York Fa Conference")

Think about the truth-clarification materials we have been producing. Are they the best and the most beautiful from content to cover? Moreover, these printed materials also represent the image of Falun Gong! Can we be so casual about Falun Gong's image? Of course not!

We should do our share of Dafa work well to be responsible for the Fa, for fellow practitioners and for sentient beings. We should cherish these truth-clarification materials because they are a powerful tool at this pivotal moment in history. Let's provide the most appropriate and beautiful covers for these materials and add our righteous thoughts to make them fulfill their function!

Of course, this is my limited understanding on this issue. Please think it over and see if you agree with me.