雙語美文|生活的不確定性

■ 生活的不確定性

The Uncertainty Principle

◎ Adam Khan

Two sailors ran into each other in a pub. Over a few beers, one of the men told the other about his last voyage: “After a month at sea,” he said, “we discovered our masts had been eaten through by termites! Almost nothing left of them.”

“That’s terrible,” said the second sailor.

“That’s what I thought at first too,” the first sailor said, “but it turned out to be good luck. As soon as we took the sails down to fix the masts, we were hit by a squall so suddenly and so hard, it would surely have blown us over if our sails were up at the time.”

“How lucky!”

“That’s exactly what I thought at the time, too. But because our sails were down, we couldn’t steer ourselves, and because of the wind, we were blown onto a reef. The hole in the hull was too big to fix. We were stranded.”

“That is bad luck indeed.”

“That’s what I thought, too, when it first happened. But we all made it to the beach alive and had plenty to eat. But now here’s the real kicker: while we were on the island whining about our terrible fate, we discovered a buried treasure!”

名 人 語 庫(kù)

We must accept finite disappointment, but we must never lose infinite hope.

~Martin Luther King

我們必須接受失望，因?yàn)樗怯邢薜模坏f不可失去希望，因?yàn)樗菬o窮的。

——馬丁·路德·金

兩名水手在一間酒吧里偶遇對(duì)方。幾瓶啤酒下肚后，其中一個(gè)人向另一個(gè)說起了他的最后一次航行：“在海上的一個(gè)月后，”他說，“我們發(fā)現(xiàn)我們的桅桿都被白蟻啃透了！它們幾乎啃得一干二凈，什么都沒有留下。”

“這真是太可怕了。”另一個(gè)水手說。

“我最開始也是這么想的，”第一個(gè)水手說，“但它原來卻是幸運(yùn)的事兒呢。正當(dāng)我們把帆拿下來，準(zhǔn)備修復(fù)桅桿時(shí)，突然遭受到一股強(qiáng)勁的陣風(fēng)，如果我們的帆當(dāng)時(shí)還掛在上面的話，它肯定會(huì)將我們都吹走的?！?

“多么幸運(yùn)??！”

“我當(dāng)時(shí)也是這么想的。但因?yàn)槲覀兊姆既∠聛砹?，我們不能引?dǎo)自己的方向，而且因?yàn)檫@陣大風(fēng)，我們都被吹到了礁石上。船體上的洞太大而無法修復(fù)。所以我們被困住了?！?

“那還是運(yùn)氣不好?！?

“那時(shí)我也是這么想的。但我們到海灘上的所有人都活著，還有足夠的東西吃。而這里才是真正棒的地方：當(dāng)我們?cè)趰u上抱怨命運(yùn)的可怕時(shí)，我們卻發(fā)現(xiàn)了埋藏的寶藏！”

As this story illustrates, you don’t know if an event is “good” or “bad” except maybe in retrospect, and even then you don’t really know because life keeps going. The story’s not over yet. Just because something hasn’t turned out to be an advantage yet doesn’t mean it is not ever going to.

Therefore, you can simply assume whatever happens is “good”.

I know that sounds awfully airy-fairy, but it’s very practical. If you think an event is good, it’s easy to maintain a positive attitude. And your attitude affects your health, it affects the way people treat you and how you treat others, and it affects your energy level. And those can help pave the way for things to turn out well. A good attitude is a good thing. And a bad attitude does you no good at all.

So get in the habit of saying “That’s good!” Since you don’t know for sure whether something will eventually work to your advantage or not, you might as well assume it will. It is counterproductive to assume otherwise. Think about it.

If someone ahead of you in line at a store is slowing everything down, say to yourself, “That’s good!” They may have saved you from getting into an accident when you get back in your car. Or maybe, because you slowed down, you might meet a friend you would have missed. You never know.

The truth is, life is uncertain. And even that can work to your advantage.

這個(gè)故事說明，一個(gè)事件是“好事”還是“壞事”你并不知道，也許只有在回想起來時(shí)才明白；因?yàn)樯羁倳?huì)繼續(xù)下去，所以你根本無從得知它的好壞。這個(gè)故事還沒有結(jié)束。因?yàn)橛行┦虑檫€沒有被證明是好事，但這并不意味著它永遠(yuǎn)都不是好事。

因此，你可以簡(jiǎn)單地假設(shè)，無論發(fā)生什么，它都是“好事”。

我知道這聽起來像是空談，但它的確很奏效。如果你認(rèn)為一件事是好事，你就很容易保持積極的態(tài)度。你的態(tài)度會(huì)影響你的健康，會(huì)影響人們對(duì)你的方式以及你對(duì)待他人的方式，它會(huì)影響你的能量高度。那些能幫你鋪平道路，讓事情變好。一個(gè)好態(tài)度是件好事。糟糕的態(tài)度對(duì)你毫無益處。

所以，養(yǎng)成說“那很好”的習(xí)慣。既然你不確定某件事是否最終會(huì)對(duì)你有利，你不妨假設(shè)它會(huì)。否則的話，它會(huì)適得其反。想一想。

如果商店里排在你前面的人慢下來時(shí)，對(duì)自己說：“那很好！”他們可能因此在你返回車?yán)飼r(shí)救你脫離一場(chǎng)交通意外?；蛘撸?yàn)槟惴怕俣?，你可能?huì)遇到一個(gè)本會(huì)錯(cuò)過的朋友。你永遠(yuǎn)不知道會(huì)發(fā)生什么。

事實(shí)是，生活是不確定的。而且甚至常常充滿了好運(yùn)。