Fixing Up the Run-Down Places
?大卫·达拉斯·琼斯博士 / Dr. David Dallas Jones
Every life coheres around certain fundamental core ideas whether we realize it or not. If I were asked to state the ideas around which my life and my life’s work have been built it would seem that they were very simple ideas. An old professor of mine used to say that “effort counts”. “The surest thing in the world,” he would say, “next to death is that effort counts.” This I believe with all my heart. We seldom realize the sense of glow, the sense of growing self-esteem, the sense of achievement, which can come from doing a job well. Just working at a thing with enthusiasm and with a belief that the job may be accomplished, however uncertain the outcome, lends zest to life.
If I were to start life again, I think I would do just what I have done in the past—this past having been done by mere chance. I would start at some task which very much needed to be done. I would start in a place which was run down and I would believe with all my heart that if the thing needed to be done and if effort were put into it, results would come for human good.
Too, from the outset, my wife and I have had the feeling that no matter what else we did in life, we had to devote our best thinking and our best living to our children. Now that they are all grown. We have sincere satisfaction in the fact that trying to do a job and trying to earn a living did not take away from us this urgency to be and do so that our children could have a feeling of the importance of integrity, honesty and straightforwardness in life. It seems to me far too often this is overlooked. We people in public life do the jobs we have to do and fail to save our children. This second thing is important—doing the task you have to do but beginning at home to bring peace, love, happiness and contentment to those whom God has given you.
The third idea, around which I have tried to live and work, is that there is an overshadowing Providence that cares for one. Of times our struggles are too intense, too “eager beaverish” when, as a matter of fact, time and God can solve many problems. Never in my life have I gotten away from the idea that God cares and that he provides that the forces of good in the world are greater than the forces of evil and that if we will lend ourselves to those forces, in the long run we have greater joy and happiness in the thing which we try to achieve. This I learned from my mother as a boy. Although she was ill and although we were poor—as poor as people can be—I do not now recall a moment of discouragement in her presence. There was always an overpowering belief that God was in his heaven and that, as Joe Louis said. “God is on our side.”
These things I believe with all my heart.
无论我们能否认识到这一点，每个人的人生都与某种基础的核心思想密切相连。倘若有人问我，我的生命与工作基于何种观念？我觉得它们非常简单。“一分耕耘，一分收获。”这是我的一位老教授过去常说的话。他说：“除了死亡之外，世界上最确切的事就是‘一分耕耘，一分收获’。”我对此深信不疑。我们很少能意识到工作带给我们的乐趣，对我们自尊心的培养，以及给予我们的成就感。只要带着热情去做一件事情，并坚信一定可以完成，无论最终会有怎样的结果，它都会为我们的生活带来激情。
如果再给我一次生命，我想我仍会做过去所做的事——虽然过去所做的一切纯属偶然。我会从急需去做的事情做起，从破损之处做起；我会由衷地相信，只要是必须做的事，只要付出努力，就一定会获得对人类有益的结果。
并且，我和妻子从一开始就认为，无论生活中还有任何什么别的事等待我们去做，我们都必须全身心为孩子们提供最好的生活。如今，他们都已长大成人。我们感到无比满足，我们为生计奔波，努力工作，但都不曾忽略孩子，这样孩子们才能真正明白生活中正直、诚实和坦率的重要性。而我觉得，人们通常都忽略了这些。为了在社会中生存，人们不得不去工作，于是忽略了自己的孩子。然而，后者更为重要——做你必须做的事，但先要把和平、爱心、幸福和满足感带给家中上帝恩赐予你的那些孩子。
上帝始终眷顾着我，这是维系我的生活与工作的第三个观念。有时，我们会过于积极，过于“急功近利”，而事实上，上帝和时间会解决很多问题。上帝眷顾着我们，他让我们懂得世界上善的力量总大于恶的力量，只要我们追随着善，就一定会从我们努力成就的事业中获得更多的快乐与幸福，这正是我一生都不曾背离的一种观念。它们是我儿时从母亲那里学到的。虽然母亲染病在身，虽然我们的生活一贫如洗，但是在我的记忆中，母亲从未有过一刻的气馁。她始终坚信，正如乔·路易斯所说：“上帝与我们同在。”上帝就在天堂。
对于这些观念，我由衷地相信。
1. We seldom realize the_______of glow, the sense of_______self-esteem, the sense of achievement, which_______come from doing a job well. Just working_______a thing with enthusiasm and with a belief_______the job may be accomplished, ____uncertain the outcome, lends zest to life.
2. Now_______they are all grown. We have sincere satisfaction in the_______that trying to do a job and trying to earn a_______did not take away from us this urgency to be_______do so that our children could_______a feeling of the importance of integrity, honesty and straightforwardness in life.
1. 无论我们能否认识到这点，每个人的人生都与某种基础的核心思想密切相连。
2. 只要带着热情去做一件事情，并坚信一定可以完成，无论最终会有怎样的结果，它都会为我们的生活带来激情。
3.但先要把和平、爱心、幸福和满足感带给家中上帝恩赐与你的那些孩子。
1. Fixing Up the Run-Down Places.
fix up：安排；安顿；决定；解决
2. My wife and I have had the feeling that no matter what else we did in life.
no matter what：无论什么