在日常生活中寻找幸福

Mow the Lawn

在日常生活中寻找幸福

LONDON — My youngest child, Adele, graduated from the American School in London this week. She’s off to college in California, whence I suspect she will never return. As places to stay go, California is up there. Whenever I’m there I wonder why I leave. Unencumbered by too much past, it offers the sunlit tug of the future.

伦敦——我最小的孩子阿黛尔(Adele)这周从伦敦美国学校毕业了。她要去加州上大学，我觉得那种地方人去了就不会再回来。在诸多让人向往的地方中，加州是数得着的。我每次去都会想，干嘛还要离开。那里没有太多历史负累，又有大把的阳光摆在眼前。

So, dear reader, you find me at a juncture. You put four children through high school, and you find yourself reflecting less on the collapsing Sykes-Picot order and the post-carbon economy than on the happiness whose pursuit America at its founding declared an inalienable right.

所以，亲爱的读者，你看到我正在一个转折点上。你供四个孩子上完高中，接着就会发现自己对赛克斯-皮科协议(Sykes-Picot)体系的崩溃和后碳经济问题没那么上心了，你会更多考虑幸福这个问题，而追求幸福在美国建国之初就宣称为不可剥夺的权利。

The founders were not wrong. It is a self-evident truth that people, whether in creating a new nation or simply beginning a new relationship, seek happiness. That they often go about it in the wrong way does not detract from the sincerity of their quest. Sure as there are acorns beneath the oak tree, people keep rekindling their hopes.

建国者们这么做没有错。不管是创立一个国家还是开启一段关系，人们总会追求幸福，这是不言而喻的。尽管方式不见得对，但不会减损这种追求本身的真挚。就像橡树下总会有橡子，人们的希望会不断重燃。

In this commencement season, there is inevitably much reflection on the nature of those hopes and how to fulfill them. These tend toward the mawkish. Life is a succession of tasks rather than a cascade of inspiration, an experience that is more repetitive than revelatory, at least on a day-to-day basis. The thing is to perform the task well and find reward even in the mundane.

在这样的毕业季，有很多人不免会反思这些希望的本质，考虑如何实现它们。这样似乎有些矫情。生活是一个接一个的任务，而非灵感如泉涌不止，它是一种更具重复性的体验，而非启示性的，至少启示不是每天都会发生。重要的是好好完成每天的任务，能够在哪怕是比较日常的事物中找到乐趣。

I have no idea if Malcolm Gladwell is onto something with the “10,000-hour rule” — the notion that this is the time required for the acquisition of perfected expertise in a particular field — but I am sure grind is underappreciated in our feel-good culture. Don’t sweat the details, but do sweat.

我不知道马尔科姆·格拉德威尔(Malcolm Gladwell)的“一万小时定律”算不算一个大发现——这个理论认为，要精通某一种特定的技能，需要投入一万小时的学习时间——但我可以肯定，刻苦在我们这种讲求感觉良好的文化里是不被赏识的。别为了旁枝末节吓出一头汗，但出汗是必要的。

I’ve grown suspicious of the inspirational. It’s overrated. I suspect duty — that half-forgotten word — may be more related to happiness than we think. Want to be happy? Mow the lawn. Collect the dead leaves. Paint the room. Do the dishes. Get a job. Labor until fatigue is in your very bones. Persist day after day. Be stoical. Never whine. Think less about the why of what you do than getting it done. Get the column written. Start pondering the next.

我越来越怀疑启发的重要性。它被高估了。我觉得，责任这个几乎要被人们淡忘的词，跟幸福的关系要比我们想象的更大。想要幸福吗?那就修草坪，扫落叶，粉刷房间，洗碗，找工作，直到疲惫的感觉深入骨髓。日复一日。学会坚韧。从不抱怨。少考虑为什么要做这些事，多想想怎么做完。写完手上的专栏文章。开始考虑下一篇。

A few years ago, when my son Blaise graduated, I was asked to give the commencement speech at the American School in London. Among other things, I said:

几年前，我儿子布莱斯(Blaise)毕业时，我受邀在伦敦美国学校的毕业典礼上讲话。我当时说到：

“Everyone has something that makes them tick. The thing is it’s often well hidden. Your psyche builds layers of protection around your most vulnerable traits, which may be very closely linked to your precious essence. Distractions are also external: money, fame, peer pressure, parental expectation. So it may be more difficult than you think to recognize the spark that is your personal sliver of the divine. But do so. Nothing in the end will give you greater satisfaction — not wealth, not passion, not faith, not even love — for if, as Rilke wrote, all companionship is but “the strengthening of two neighboring solitudes,” you have to solve the conundrum of your solitude.

“每个人都有让他们为之一振的东西。只是它经常隐藏的比较深。人们会在自己灵魂最脆弱的部分裹上层层外衣，这个部分可能与一个人最宝贵的本质联系最深。干扰也是外在的：金钱、名誉、同伴压力、父母期望。所以要认清哪些是属于自己的神圣之所的闪光，并不容易。但是找到它吧。到最后，没什么能比它带来的满足感更大——财富、激情、信仰都不行，甚至爱也比不上——就像诗人里尔克(Rilke)所说，所有的友谊都不过是‘两种相邻的孤独相加’，你的孤独只有自己能解。”

“No success, however glittering, that denies yourself will make you happy in the long run. So listen to the voice from your soul, quiet but insistent, and honor it. Find what you thrill to: if not the perfect sentence, the beautiful cure, the brilliant formula, the lovely chord, the exquisite sauce, the artful reconciliation. Strive not for everything money can buy but for everything money can’t buy.”

“不管是多么耀眼的成就，也无法给你带来长期的幸福。所以倾听你的内心，安静而持久地倾听，尊重它。找到让自己感到兴奋的事物：也许是完美的句子、漂亮的治疗方案、绝妙的配方、动人的和弦、精致的酱汁、或巧妙的和解。不要为那些金钱可以买到东西奋斗，而要为那些花钱买不来的东西努力。”

It’s not precisely that I would retract any of that today — well, maybe a little — it’s just that I’d put the emphasis elsewhere. I am less interested in the inspirational hero than I am in the myriad doers of everyday good who would shun the description heroic; less interested in the exhortation to “live your dream” than in the obligation to make a living wage.

倒不是说我今天要收回当时说的话——要收回也只是其中一小部分——而是我会把重点放在别的地方。相比于一个鼓舞人心的英雄，我更感兴趣的是无数每天都有所成就的实干家，他们会避讳英雄之类的字眼;相比于“让梦想成真”之类的箴言，我更愿意讨论赚取维持生活的工资的责任。

When you think of Sisyphus — the Greek mythological figure whose devious attempt to defy the gods was punished with his condemnation to pushing a boulder up a hill and repeating the task through all eternity when it rolled down again — think above all that he has a task and it is his own. Rather than a source of despair, that may be the beginning of happiness.

当你想到西绪弗斯(Sisyphus)——希腊神话中的人物，因心思狡黠触犯了诸神，被惩罚将一个巨大的石头推上山顶，落下来就再次推上去，永无休止——跳开来看，他有一项任务，是他一个人的任务。这可以不是绝望的源头，反倒是幸福的开端。

In Camus’ book, “The Plague,” the doctor at the center of the novel, Bernard Rieux, battles pestilence day after day. It is a Sisyphean task. At one point he says, “I have to tell you this: This whole thing is not about heroism. It’s about decency. It may seem a ridiculous idea, but the only way to fight the plague is with decency.”

加缪的《鼠疫》(The Plague)的中心人物伯纳德·里厄(Bernard Rieux)医生日复一日地对抗鼠疫。这也是一项西绪弗斯式的任务。他一度讲到，“这一切不是为了搞英雄主义，而是实事求是。这种想法可能令人发笑，但是同鼠疫作斗争的唯一办法就是实事求是。”(本文中的《鼠疫》译文皆摘自《局外人/鼠疫》，漓江出版社1990年11月第一版，顾方济、徐志仁译。——译注)

Asked what decency is, he responds: “In general, I can’t say, but in my case I know that it consists of doing my job.” Later, he adds, “I don’t think I have any taste for heroism and sainthood. What interests me is to be a man.”

有人问什么是实事求是，他回应说：“我不知道它的普遍意义。但是就我而言，我知道它的意思是做好我的本分工作。”后来他又说，“我对英雄主义和圣人之道都不感兴趣。我所感兴趣的是做一个真正的人。”

In the everyday task at hand, for woman or man, happiness lurks.

无论你姓甚名谁，每天要面对的工作才是幸福隐藏的所在。