书城外语享受一分钟的感动
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第24章 将风浪踏在脚下 (4)

I don’t have an attitude problem but you have a perception problem.

本文简介:对今天西方的年轻一代来说,智慧别有一番含义。

古人的智慧对文明总是大有裨益。在电视情景喜剧、纽约式的机智问答和即兴的单句俏皮话大行其道的时代,现代意义上的西方智慧更像是一出美国情景喜剧里对白之类的东西。以下是近来在西方社会流传的一些具有代表性的单句睿语:

我每天只能取悦一个人。今天轮不到你。明天看上去也不太妙。

我喜欢最后期限。我尤其喜欢它们飞驰而过时发出的嗖嗖声。

告诉我你需要什么,然后我会告诉你没有它怎么过。

接受这一事实——有时你是在雕像上随意排泄的鸽子,有时你是那倒霉的雕像。

需要某个人就像需要一顶降落伞。如果他们第一时间不在场,你就可能再也没有需要他们的机会了。

在生活的键盘上,始终要把一个手指按在“退出”键上。

你比一群在花生酱中乱窜的海龟还要慢。

不要插手凶龙恶兽的事,因为你是松脆的,而被涂上番茄酱后味道好极了。

每个人在别人眼中都是怪物。

千万别和白痴争论。他们会把你拉低到和他们同等的水平,再用经验击败你。

切勿成为不可替代的人——如果没人能取代你,你便无法得到提升。

如果早晨第一件事就是吃一只活青蛙,那么余下的一天便不会有更糟的事发生了。

每件东西都可归入杂项。

老板偶然来到你的办公桌时,你总是在做一些无关紧要的事。

碰到难题时,把它简化成这样一个问题——“惊险片明星印第安那·琼斯会怎样处理?”——你就能比较容易地解决它了。

不是我的态度有问题,而是你的感觉有问题。

Weakness or Strength将弱项变为强项

Sometimes our biggest weakness can become your biggest strength. Take, for example, the story t of one 10-year-old boy who decided to study judo despite the fact that he had lost his left arm in a devastating car accident.

The boy began lesson with an old Japanese judo master. The boy was dong well, so he couldn’t understand why, after three months of training, the master had taught him only one move.

“Mister,” the boy finally said, “shouldn’t I be learning more moves?”

“This is the only move you know, but this is the only move you’ll ever need to know,” the master replied.

Not quite understanding, but believing in his teacher, the boy kept training.

Several months later, the master took the boy to his first tournament.

To his surprise, the boy easily won his first two matches. The third match proved to be more difficult, but after some time, his opponent became impatient and charged; the boy deftly used his one move to win the match. Still amazed by his success, the boy was now in the finals.

This time, his opponent was bigger, stronger, and more experienced. For a while, the boy appeared to be overmatched.

Concerned that the boy might get hurt, the referee called a time-out. He was about to stop the match when the master intervened.

“No,” his master insisted, “let him continue.”

Soon after the match resumed, his opponent made a critical mistake: he dropped his guard. Instantly, the boy used his move to pin him. The boy had won the match and the tournament. He was the champion.

On the way home, the boy and his master reviewed every move in each and every match. Then the boy summoned the courage to ask what was really in his min.

“Mister, how did I win the tournament with only one move?”

“You won for two reasons,” the master answered. “First, you’ve almost mastered one of the most difficult throws in all of judo. Second, the only known defense for that move is for your opponent to grab your left arm.”

The boy’s biggest weakness had become his biggest strength.

有的时候,你的弱项可以变成你的强项。

给你讲一个10岁男孩的故事做例子。这个男孩在一次惨烈的车祸中失去了左臂,但他仍然决定学习柔道。

男孩师从一位年长的日本柔道大师。孩子练得很好,但他不明白为什么师傅在三个月的训练中,始终只让他重复同一个动作。

“师傅,”男孩终于忍不住问道,“我是不是可以学点儿别的动作了?”

师傅回答说:“这是你惟一知道的动作,但也是你惟一需要知道的动作。”

男孩虽然不理解,但他非常信任自己的师傅,于是继续练着。

几个月后,师傅带这个男孩子去参加他的第一次比赛。

令这个男孩不可思议的是,他轻易赢了头两场比赛。第三场比赛似乎更难,但他的对手在比赛中开始失去耐心,向他冲过来,而这个孩子立即用他学过的惟一一招击败了对手。就这样稀里糊涂地,他进入了决赛。

这一次,他的对手更壮、更强,也更有经验。有那么一阵,男孩似乎低档不住了。考虑到男孩可能会受伤,裁判叫了暂停。他正准备停止比赛的时候,男孩的师傅阻止了他。

“不能停,”他说,“让他继续比。”

比赛继续进行之后不久,男孩的对手就犯了一个致命的错误:防漏(柔道术语)。男孩迅速用他那惟一的一招绊倒了对手,赢了这场比赛,并最终取得了冠军。

回家的路上,当男孩和他师傅重温着每一场比赛里的每一个动作时,他鼓起勇气道出了心中的困惑。

“师傅,我怎么会用一个动作就赢得了所有的比赛呢?”

“你获胜有两个原因,”师傅回答道:“第一,你已经基本掌握了柔道当中最难学的一个动作。第二,要对付这个动作,你的对手惟一可以做的就是去抓你的左臂。”

就这样,男孩的最大弱点变成了他的最强项。

Having Hearts in His Eyes眼里有心

Cody started life weighing 24 ounces.

Due to extreme prematurity, our son had eye surgery to prevent blindness. As a result of the surgery, he lost peripheral vision in his right eye. And his near sightedness would mean glasses and close monitoring by an ophthalmologist for the rest of his life.

Such a small price to pay, in our opinion, compared to the alternative.

Cody wore glasses with great pride, making it abundantly clear to his little brothers that Mommy and Daddy also wore glasses, and wasn’t it a shame that they didn’t have any themselves. This usually prompted a round of begging from his siblings that it was only fair they get glasses, too.

Then kindergarten happened.

One day, a couple of kids at recess derailed Cody’s bright outlook on having glasses in his possession. One boy said, your glasses look stupid, Cody. Another kid yanked them off his face and bent them.

Cody was a timid, small child. Seeing tears well up in his eyes, as he recounted the event, wrung our hearts dry.

Just recently though, something changed his outlook.

It was the morning of Valentine’s Day. I shut off the alarm and groped around in the dark until I found my glasses. I donned them and without turning on the light, blindly made my way to the bathroom. I flipped the bathroom switch, and there I discovered why it was extra dark in my bedroom.

My husband, Stephen, had placed two red heart stickers on my glasses. And plastered all over the mismatched antique mirrors above our bathroom basins were the same stickers.

“VALENTINE,” my husband had scrawled on one mirror, “I LOVE YOU THIS MUCH!”

In one mirror was drawn a stick arm with a hand pointing west. And in the other mirror was the same thing pointing east. I was chuckling under my breath, so as not to wake the rest of the household, while staring at my reflection.

I penned my response in the mirror, “Thanks to you, sweetie, I’ve got hearts in my eyes!”

While dressing Cody for school, he whispered, “Mom?”

“Yes, big boy?” I whispered back.

“You got hearts on your glasses.”

“Yep, I sure do.”