Thoughts for a new year

Most of us look away when we pass strangers. It is the expectional person who stops to help the woman maneuvering her kids and groceries up the staircase. We rarely give up in line or on the subway or bus. Locked into our automobiles, we prefer gridlock to giving way.

新年沉思

當我們與陌生人擦肩而過時，多數人往往把目光移開。要是有人停下來幫婦女哄她的小孩和幫她把食品搬上樓梯，反而會被人看成另類。無論是排隊還是乘地鐵或公共汽車，我們很少讓位于他人。坐在自己的汽車里，我們寧愿堵塞交通也不愿給人讓路。

These daily encounters, when they are angry or alien, diminish our lives. When they are pleasant, we feel buoyed. Yet when we sit at home and make resolutions, we think about what we can accomplish in private spaces：home, work. Too many have given up the belief that they control the shared, the public world.

這些日常接觸，要是氣沖沖的或是使人反感的，那便會減少我們生活的樂趣，要是它們令人愉快，那便會使我們精神振奮。然而，當我們坐在家里做出各種決定的時候，我們考慮的僅是在個人天地--家庭和工作里可以實現的目標。太多的人已經放棄了他們也管理著共享的、公共的世界這一信念。

As individuals we can change the contour of a day, the mood of a moment, the way people feel. The demolition and reconstruction of public life is the result of personal decisions made every day：the decision to give up a seat on the bus;the decision to be patient or pleasant against all odds;the decision to let that jerk take a left-hand turn from a right-hand lane without rolling down the window and calling him a jerk.

作為眾人的一員，我們可以改變一天的面貌，一時的情緒，以及人們對某件事的感覺。公共生活的毀壞和重建是人們每日所做的種種個人決定的綜合結果。這些決定包括：公共汽車上讓座，面對逆境而能容忍或具有樂觀精神;讓那個笨蛋從右車道往左拐而不搖下車窗罵他蠢貨。

It’s the resolution to be a civil, social creature. This may be a peak period for the battle against the spread of a waistline and creeping cholesterol. But it is also within our will power to fight the spread of urban rudeness and creeping hostility. Civility doesn’t stop nuclear holocaust and doesn’t put a roof over the head of the homeless. But it makes a difference in the shape of a community, as surely as lifting weights can make a difference in the shape of a human torso.

這是做一個文明的、社會的人的決定。今天也許是人們為減少腰圍和降低膽固醇而斗爭的高峰期。然而，反對城市野蠻行為和人際敵對態度的蔓延，也是我們只要愿做就能做到的事。有禮貌不能制止核戰爭，也不能為無家可歸者提供棲身之所，但它的確能改變一個社會群體的面貌，猶如舉重定能改變一個人的體形一樣。