Think It Over…好好想想……
Today we have higher buildings and wider highways, but shorter temperaments and narrower points of view;
We spend more, but enjoy less;
We have bigger houses, but smaller families;
We have more compromises, but less time;
We have more knowledge, but less judgment;
We have more medicines, but less health;
We have multiplied out possessions, but reduced out values;
We talk much, we love only a little, and we hate too much;
We reached the Moon and came back, but we find it troublesome to cross our own street and meet our neighbors;
We have conquered the uter space, but not our inner space;
We have higher income, but less morals;
These are times with more liberty, but less joy;
We have much more food, but less nutrition;
These are the days in which it takes two salaries for each home, but divorces increase;
These are times of finer houses, but more broken homes;
That’s why I propose, that as of today;
You do not keep anything for a special occasion, because every day that you live is a special occasion.
Search for knowledge, read more, sit on your porch and admire the view without paying attention to your needs;
Spend more time with your family and friends, eat your favorite foods, visit the places you love;
Life is a chain of moments of enjoyment; not only about survival;
Use your crystal goblets. Do not save your best perfume, and use it every time you feel you want it.
Remove from your vocabulary phrases like "one of these days" or "someday";
Let’s write that letter we thought of writing "one of these days"！
Let’s tell our families and friends how much we love them;
Do not delay anything that adds laughter and joy to your life;
Every day, every hour, and every minute is special;
And you don’t know if it will be your last.
今天我们拥有了更高层的楼宇以及更宽阔的公路，但是我们的性情却更为急躁，眼光也更加狭隘；
我们消耗的更多，享受到的却更少；
我们的住房更大了，但我们的家庭却更小了；
我们妥协更多，时间更少；
我们拥有了更多的知识，可判断力却更差了；
我们有了更多的药品，但健康状况却更不如意；
我们拥有的财富倍增，但其价值却减少了；
我们说的多了，爱的却少了，我们的仇恨也更多了；
我们可以往返月球，但却难以迈出一步去亲近我们的左邻右舍；
我们可以征服外太空，却征服不了我们的内心；
我们的收入增加了，但我们的道德却少了；
我们的时代更加自由了，但我们拥有的快乐时光却越来越少；
我们有了更多的食物，但所能得到的营养却越来越少了；
现在每个家庭都可以有双份收入，但离婚的现象越来越多了；
现在的住房越来越精致，但我们也有了更多破碎的家庭；
这就是我为什么要说，让我们从今天开始；
不要将你的东西为了某一个特别的时刻而预留着，因为你生活的每一天都是那么特别；
寻找更多的知识，多读一些书，坐在你家的前廊里，以赞美的眼光去享受眼前的风景，不要带上任何功利的想法；
花多点时间和朋友与家人在一起，吃你爱吃的食物，去你想去的地方；
生活是一串串的快乐时光；我们不仅仅是为了生存而生存；
举起你的水晶酒杯吧。不要吝啬洒上你最好的香水，你想用的时候就享用吧！
从你的词汇库中移去所谓的“有那么一天”或者“某一天”；
曾打算“有那么一天”去写的信，就在今天吧！
告诉家人和朋友，我们是多么地爱他们；
不要延迟任何可以给你的生活带来欢笑与快乐的事情；
每一天、每一小时、每一分钟都是那么特别；
你无从知道这是否是最后时刻。
Three Days To See假如拥有三天光明
All of us have read thrilling stories in which the hero had only a limited and specified time to live. Sometimes it was as long as a year; sometimes as short as twenty-four hours, but always we were interested in discovering just how the doomed man chose to spend his last days or his last hours. I speak, of course, of free men who have a choice, not condemned criminals whose sphere of activities is strictly delimited.
Such stories set up thinking, wondering what we should do under similar circumstances. What associations should we crowd into those last hours as mortal beings? What happiness should we find in reviewing the past, what regrets?
Sometimes I have thought it would be an excellent rule to live each day as if we should die tomorrow. Such an attitude would emphasize sharply the values of life. We should live each day with a gentleness, a vigor, and a keenness of appreciation which are often lost when time stretches before us in the constant panorama of more days and months and years to come. There are those, of course, who would adopt the epicurean motto of “Eat, drink, and be merry,” most people would be chastened by the certainty of impending death.
Most of us take life for granted. We know that one day we must die, but usually we picture that day as far in the future, when we are in buoyant health, death is all but unimaginable. We seldom think of it. The days stretch out in an endless vista. So we go about our petty task, hardly aware of our listless attitude towards life.
The same lethargy, I am afraid, characterizes the use of our faculties and senses. Only the deaf appreciate hearing, only the blind realize the manifold blessings that lie in sight. Particularly does this observation apply to those who have lost sight and hearing in adult life. But those who have never suffered impairment of sight or hearing seldom make the fullest use of these blessed faculties. Their eyes and ears take in all sights and sound hazily, without concentration, and with little appreciation. It is the same old story of not being grateful for what we conscious of health until we are ill.
I have often thought it would be a blessing if each human being were stricken blind and deaf for a few days at some time during his early adult life. Darkness would make him more appreciative of sight; silence would teach him the joys of sound.
Now and then I have tested my seeing friends to discover what they see. Recently I was visited by a very good friend who had just returned from a long walk in the woods, and I asked her what she had observed. “Nothing in particular,” she replied. I might have been incredulous had I not been accustomed to such responses, for long ago I became convinced that the seeing see little.