成長是一件好事，令人喜悅不置。當然，它需要各種條件的配合，經過長久艱苦的孕育，付出愛心去灌溉、栽培。
一顆種子，是草也罷，是花也罷，是樹木也罷，埋在地下，受地熱的「孵化」，吸收水分和營養，終於發芽，突出地面，長出兩片嫩葉，像在伸懶腰，一下高出許多，又像鳥的兩隻翅膀，要「摶扶搖而直上」。這就是成長。哇，多麼令人喜悅！
雛鳥、幼蟲、稚獸、小魚，也莫不如此。牠們的小小身軀，幼嫩，鮮細，或睡，或動 ，或靜止，漸次長大起來，漸次活躍起來，漸次強壯起來……。這就是成長。哇，多麼令人喜悅！
人和其他物類也沒有什麼不同。一個人從母體受孕，經過十個月懷胎，然後哇哇墜地，成為嬰兒、幼兒、兒童……由母親哺乳到餵食，到獨立自食，從滾動到爬行，到站立，到被扶著走，到自行踏步前進，從無知到有識……。這就是成長。哇，多麼令人 喜悅！
是的，成長是一件好事，令人喜悅不置。是草，是花，是樹木，是鳥，是蟲，是魚，以至於是人，只要成長，便是一件好事，便令人喜悅不置。其實，何止於這些？我們也樂見經濟成長，文化成長，政治成長……社會成長，國家成長！

1987年8月28日台灣日報副刊

Grow up Hsu ChiCheng

Grow up is a good thing, makes a person to be pleasure limitless. Of course, it must cooperate with many conditions. Be in pregnant for a long time of hardship, offer love mind to water, cultivate.
The grass is all right, the flower is all right, the tree is all right, a seed buries in the earth, receives the hatch of the ground-warmth, absorbs moisture and nutrition, it sprouts, sticks out the ground, grows two pieces of leave, as like to give a stretch, higher in a moment, and again like two wings of the bird, want to strive up onto sky. This is a grow up. Wow, how pleasure it is to be made!
Young bird, larva, cub, young fish, everyone is thus also. Their tiny bodies are immature, fresh, may sleep, may move, may motionless, grow up slowly, active slowly, strong slowly… This is a grow up. Wow, how pleasure it is to be made!
There is no any difference between human being and animal. A person from be in pregnant by mother, passes through be in pregnant of ten months, then birth with burst out crying, becomes an infant, a child… and feed by the mother, to eat by himself independently, from rolling to creep, to stand, to walk by the help of armrest, to step forward by himself, from ignorance to posses knowledge…This is a grow up. Wow, how pleasure it is to be made!
Yes, grow up is a good thing, makes a person to be pleasure limitless. May it be a grass, a flower, a tree, a bird, an insect, a fish, as to a person, only it’s grow up, it’s a good thing, it will make one pleasure limitless. In fact, is it far more than these? We also pleasure to see grow up about economic, culture, polity… grow up about society, country!@

責任編輯：林芳宇