Everybody has blue days

Everybody has blue days. 　　These are miserable days when you feel lousy, grumpy, lonely, and utterly exhausted.Days when you feel small and insignificant, when everything seems just out of reach.You can’t rise to the occasion.Just getting started seems impossible.On blue days you can become paranoid that everyone is out to get you.This is not always such a bad thing.You feel frustrated and anxious, which can induce a nail-biting frenzy that can escalate into a triple-chocolate-mud-cake-eating frenzy in a blink of an eye!On blue days you feel like you’re floating in an ocean of sadness.You’re about to burst into tears at any moment and you don’t even know why.Ultimately, you feel like you’re wandering through life without purpose.You’re not sure how much longer you can hang on, and you feel like shouting,“Will someone please shoot me!”It doesn’t take much to bring on a blue day.You might just wake up not feeling or looking your best,find some new wrinkles, put on a little weight, or get a huge pimple on your nose.You could forget your date’s name or have an embarrassing photograph published.You might get dumped,divorced, or fired, make a fool of yourself in public, be afflicted with a demeaning nickname,or just have a plain old bad-hair day.Maybe work is a pain in the butt.You’re under major pressure to fill someone else’s shoes,your boss is picking on you, and everyone in the office is driving you crazy.You might have a splitting headache,or a slipped dish, bad breath, a toothache,chronic gas, dry lips, or a nasty ingrown toenail.Whatever the reason, you’re convinced that someone up there doesn’t like you.Oh what to do, what to do?   　　[参考译文] 　　每个人都有忧郁的时候。 　　那些日子真是惨透了，你觉得心里乱糟糟的、怨气丛生、寂寞、整个人彻底的精疲力竭。那些日子总会让你感到自己的渺小和微不足道，每件事情似乎都够不着边。你根本无法振作起来。 　　根本没有力气重新开始。 在忧郁的日子里，你可能变成偏执狂，觉得每个人都想要吃定你。 其实情况并不总是那么糟。你感到灰心、焦虑，可能开始神经质地拼命咬指甲，然后不可救药地陷入一眨眼吃掉三大块巧克力蛋糕的疯狂！ 在忧郁的日子里，你会觉得自己在悲伤的海里沉沉浮浮。不论在什么时候，你总有种想哭的冲动，却不知道为了什么。最后，你觉得自己犹如行尸走肉，失去生活目标。 　　你不知道自己还可以撑多久，然后你想大喊一声：“谁来一枪把我打死吧！” 其实一点小事就让你一天都郁闷难当。也许只是一觉醒来，没有感觉到或者看到自己最棒的一面，发现自己又多了几条皱纹，又重了几斤，或是鼻子上冒出了一个大包。你可能忘记了约会对象的名字，或是有张可笑的照片被登出来。你或许被人抛弃、离了婚，或是被开除，当众出丑，被刻薄的绰号弄得心乱如麻，或许只因为你得整天顶着一个其丑无比的发型。 也许工作让你痛苦得如坐针毡。你在强大的压力下顶替他人的位置，你的老板对你百般挑剔，办公室里的每一个人都让你发疯。你可能会头疼欲裂，或重心不稳跌个正着，口臭、牙痛、不停放屁、口干舌燥，或是指甲长到肉里头了。不管什么原因，你确定上面有人不喜欢你。 唉，该怎么办，到底该怎么办呢？ We all find the rhythm. 我们终将会找到属于自己的节奏。 We all remember our first days of high-school, college, our first job. 这些场景都历历在目吧：高中第一天，大学第一天，上班第一天。 We all remember the feelings of butterflies in our stomachs when we took our first steps into those positions, the feeling that we were unqualified for what we were doing, that we didn’t belong. 我们都记得迈出第一步时，心中的手足无措，担心自己不够格、担心自己不属于这个地方。 What if my coworkers don’t like me? 要是同事们不喜欢我怎么办？ What if I’m terrible at my work? 要是我做出的工作成果很糟糕怎么办？ What if I mess everything up? 要是我把一切搞砸了怎么办？ These are the thoughts that run through your mind during those first few days as you tiptoe your way around the workplace, being careful that you don’t do anything that will get you noticed, with the fear that when they notice you, you will mess up. But eventually you do get noticed, and you don’t mess up, and soon you develop a rhythm. 这些都是工作的头几天里，脑海中会浮现出的想法。你小心翼翼地在公司里走着，恨不得踮起脚尖，生怕自己的一举一动会引起周围人的注意，生怕自己搞砸一切。然而，你终究还是受到了关注，但你并没有搞砸，并且你很快就找到了自己的节奏。 It has only been a week and you have already fallen into a rhythm. You walk into your workplace and say hello to the receptionist who now knows you by name, you get you morning coffee and strike up a conversation with a coworker who you’ve quickly developed a friendship with. Whereas before you looked around chaotically for the sugar and cream, now the location is familiar and your reach for it instinctual. You walk to your desk, take a rejuvenating sip of coffee, and look over your daily schedule that has become all too familiar to you. 仅仅过去了一周，你的节奏愈发自如。走进公司，你会很自然地和前台打招呼，而他们也叫得出你的名字。取咖啡的时候，你会和同事攀谈起来，不知不觉中你们已经建立了友谊。以前你焦头烂额地到处找糖和奶油，如今你可以轻松自如地找到它们。你走到办公桌前，小啜一口咖啡，一天的活力注满了全身。接着，你从容地翻阅着日程表，里面的内容都已太熟悉了。 You notice a new task that you haven’t encountered before, but you no longer feel uncertainty and fear of messing it up. You have survived a week in this place without messing up, people have congratulated you on how good of a job you’ve done, and you belong here. A smirk creases over your face as you look forward to undertaking this new unproven challenge. The day begins and you fall into your rhythm. 即使接到以前从没接触过的任务，你也会胸有成竹，不再担心自己会搞砸了。你已在这个地方度过了一周，没有搞砸任何事，人们甚至为你出色的绩效而喝彩。你属于这里。所以在准备迎接这个未知挑战的时候，你的脸上露出了一丝得意的笑容。新的一天又开始了，你找到了属于自己的节奏。 We're Just Beginning "We are reading the first verse of the first chapter of a book whose pages are infinite..." 　　I do not know who wrote those words, but I have always liked them as a reminder that the future can be anything we want to make it. We can take the mysterious, hazy future and carve out of it anything that we can imagine, just as a sculptor carves a statue from a shapeless stone. 　　We are all in the position of the farmer. If we plant a good seed, we reap a good harvest. If our seed is poor and full of weeds, we reap a useless crop. If we plant nothing at all, we harvest nothing at all. 　　I want the future to be better than the past. I don’t want it contaminated by the mistakes and errors with which history is filled. We should all be concerned about the future because that is where we will spend the remainder of our lives. 　　The past is gone and static. Nothing we can do will change it. The future is before us and dynamic. Everything we do will affect it. Each day brings with it new frontiers, in our homes and in our business, if we only recognize them. We are just at the beginning of the progress in every field of human endeavor. 　　[参考译文] 　　“我们正在读一本书的第一章第一行，这本书的页数是无限的……” 　　我不知道是谁写的，可我很喜欢这句话，它提醒我们未来是由自己创造的。我们可以把神秘、不可知的未来塑造成我们想象中的任何模样，犹如雕刻家将未成形的石头刻成雕像。 　　我们每个人都像是农夫。洒下良种将有丰收，播下劣种或生满野草便将毁去收成。没有耕耘则会一无所获。 　　我希望未来比过去更加美好，希望未来不会沾染历史的错误与过失。我们都应举目向前，因我们的余生要用未来书写。 　　往昔已逝，静如止水；我们无法再作改变。而前方的未来正生机勃勃；我们所做的每一件事都将会影响着它。只要我们认识到这些，无论是在家中还是在工作上，每天我们的面前都会展现出新的天地。 　　在人类致力开拓的每一片领域上，我们正站在进步的起跑点。 The only problem unconsciously assumed by all Chinese philosophers to be of any importance is: How shall we enjoy life, and who can best enjoy life? No perfectionism, no straining after the unattainable, no postulating of he unknowable; but taking poor, modal human nature as it is, how shall we organize our life so that we can woke peacefully, endure nobly and live happily? 　　Who are we? That is first question. It is a question almost impossible to answer. But we all agree with the busy self occupied in our daily activities is not quite the real self. We are quite sure we have lost something in the mere pursuit of living. When we watch a person running about looking for something in a field, the wise man can set a puzzle for all the spectator to solve: what has that person lost? Some one thinks is a watch; another thinks it is a diamond brooch; and others will essay other guesses. After all the guesses have failed, the wise man who really doesn't know what the person is seeking after, tells the company:" I'll tell you. He has lost some breath." And no one can deny that he is right. So we often forget our true self in the pursuit of living, like a bird forgetting its own danger in pursuit of a mantis which again forgets its own danger in pursuit of another. 　　[参考译文] 　　一切中国的哲学家在不知不觉中认为唯一重要的问题是：我们要怎样享受人生？谁最会享受人生？我们不追求十全十美的理想，我们不寻找那些得不到的东西，我们不要求知道那些不得而知的东西；我们只认识不完美的、会死的人类的本性，那么我们要怎样调整我们的人生，使我们可以和平地工作着，旷达地忍耐着，幸福地生活着呢? 　　我们是谁呢？这是第一个问题。这个问题几乎是无法答复的。可是我们都承认在我们曰常活动中那么忙碌的自我，并不完全是真正的自我；我们相信我们在生活的追求中已经失掉了一些东西。当我们看见一个人在一片田野里跑来跑去在寻找东西时，智者可以弄出一个难题给一切旁观者去解答：那个人失掉了什么东西呢？有的猜一只表；有的猜一支钻石胸针；其他的人则作其他的猜测。智者委实也不知道那个人在寻找什么东西；可是当大家都猜不中的时候，他会对大家说：“我告诉你们吧。他失掉了一些气息了。” 没有人会否认他的话是对的。所以我们在生活的追求中常常忘掉了真正的自我，像庄子在一个美妙的譬喻里所讲的那只鸟那样，为了要捕捉一只螳螂而忘掉自身的危险，而那只螳螂又为了要捕捉一只蝉而忘掉自身的危险。