佚名/Anonymous
A college student once told me: "I don't need to be happy—just successful."
It's an odd juxtaposition. She needn't be happy— "just successful". She places one in opposition to the other.
Students are today's expressions of tomorrow's practices. Their words can be the visible signs of the less visible struggles encountered by us all.
I have a memory from my own undergraduate years of a headline in my campus newspaper: "Why Aren't We Happy?" As the headline suggests, we fell short of leading joyful lives. Yet at least happiness was still on the agenda. What underlies the tendency of many of us, like my success-seeking student, to give up genuinely trying?
I've often failed to enjoy Sunday because of my schedule on Monday. At bottom, it was simply anticipatory anxiety over the work of the week ahead—fear that there would be unexpected complications or that I would fail to measure up in some way. Usually, when Monday came, I did quite well. Much of what I worried about never happened.
Joy has its own moral underpinning. There's a completeness to joy that does not allow us to exclude our sense of the person we should be. Pleasure is certainly possible in less-than-honorable actions. But the experience of joy requires more; it is pleasure taken in worthy things.
True joy requires choices that develop into habits that evolve into character. And that's work we can't delegate.
The essential first step is trying to live a less fearful life—one that avoids collapsing life's possibilities before exploring them. It entails welcoming uncertainty and comfortable incompleteness.
一個大學生曾告訴我：“我不需要快樂——我隻要成功。”
她這麽比較這兩個概念很奇怪，她不需要快樂——“隻要成功”，也就是說，她將這兩者放在了對立麵上。
學生今天的言，就是社會明天的行。他們所說的話是一種明顯的信號，我們每個人都在努力奮鬥，隻是我們的態度往往不易覺察。
記得上大學時，校報上有一篇文章的標題是這樣的：“為什麽我們不快樂？”這個標題的意思是：我們的生活缺少快樂。然而，我們的生活中有快樂，至少，我們仍在尋找快樂。隻是，像那個追求成功的學生一樣，許多人寧願放棄快樂，這是為什麽呢？
想到星期一的工作日程，我經常連星期天都過不好。這實際上是提前對未來一周的工作感到焦慮——擔心會發生意想不到的麻煩，或自己在某些方麵做不好。我通常在正常上班的日子做得很不錯，我擔心的很多事從未發生過。
快樂自有其在心理上的基礎架構，快樂的完整性讓我們不得不考慮自己應該做什麽樣的人。當然，一些不怎麽光彩的行為也會衍生快樂。但是，體驗快樂需要的不僅僅是這些，我們需要體驗有意義的快樂。
真正的快樂需要作出選擇，這些選擇可以養成習慣，從而形成性格。這是隻有我們自己才能做到的。
最基本的第一步就是，我們要嚐試去過一種沒有過多憂慮的生活——這種生活可以避免我們患得患失，從而有勇氣去探索快樂。這種生活難免會有各種不測，但是我們需要坦然麵對生活的缺憾。
心靈小語
快樂是一種心境，跟財富、環境、年齡無關，功名利祿隻能給我們短暫的快樂。唯有純淨的心靈，對生活的博愛，才能給我們永恒的喜悅。一個人要想獲得真正的快樂不是獲得成功，增加財富，而是降低欲望，品味現在……
W 詞匯筆記
jaxtaposition[?d??kst?p??z???n]n.並置；並列；毗鄰
例 However, some people crave just this sort of juxtaposition.
然而，有些人渴望這種區分。
undergraduate[??nd??ɡr?djuit]n.本科生
例 Mr. Stone spent his undergraduate days in Columbia University.
斯通先生在哥倫比亞大學度過了他四年的大學生活。
genuinely[?d?enj?inli]adv.真的；真正地
例 She appeared genuinely surprised by this gesture of affection.
看來她真的被這個愛意的表示驚呆了。
delegate[?deliɡit]v.托付；授（權）
例 Many employers find it hard to delegate.
許多雇主都覺得很難下放權力。
S 小試身手
但是，體驗快樂需要的不僅僅是這些，我們需要體驗有意義的快樂。
譯___________________________________________
真正的快樂需要作出選擇，這些選擇可以養成習慣，從而形成性格。
譯___________________________________________
這種生活難免會有各種不測，但是我們需要坦然麵對生活的缺憾。
譯___________________________________________
P 短語家族
She places one in opposition to the other.
in opposition to：反對
造___________________________________________
Yet at least happiness was still on the agenda.
on the agenda：列入議程
造___________________________________________