痛苦與成長經典英語文章

　　Looking back over my life, it seems to me that I have learned the most when I felt the greatest pain. My mother's death, for example, made me more profoundly aware of the beauty in nature. My capacity for finding joy in the most ordinary events (watching a flower open, leaves turning red, a bird taking a bath↘) seems to deepen each time I live through great sorrow. Death makes life more precious; frustration makes success more fulfilling; failure makes the next accomplishment more meaningful.

　　In order to feel deeply it is necessary to feel everything. It is impossible to choose. You can't really know how great is your sense of joy at a baby's birth or your satisfaction at succeeding at a hard job unless you are also deeply aware of the anguish of separation and the pain of failure.↘ It's through the capacity to feel that we discover ourselves and others and explore the potential for a full, significant life.

　　This is an especially crucial issue for parents. Our natural inclination is to try to protect children from pain. We have the mistaken notion that if a child is happy we are doing a good job; if a child is sad we are failing as parents. But giving children the message that happy is good and sad is terrible↘ decreases their capacity to explore the full range of human experiences.

　　Children need to understand that suffering, frustration and failure↘ are not only inevitable but helpful. The parent who took a simple puzzle away from a four-year-old child has dreadful feeling because "he gets too upset and frustrated when he can't get it right immediately,"--did the child a great disservice. Children need to experience such feelings as they grow up; it helps them to develop the patience, persistence and ability↘ to cope that they'll need when a scientific experiment fails, or a low grade is received after diligent study. There is nothing so terrible about failing↘ and feeling pain; what hurts in the long run is not trying because of the fear of pain.

　　背誦小貼士 Recitation tips

　　我們都害怕痛苦，事實上沒有痛苦做為參照，我們又怎能體會歡欣的價值？

　　1. Looking back over my life, it seems to me that I have learned the most when I felt the greatest pain. Death-life; frustration-success; failure-accomplishment.

　　2. Children need to understand that suffering, frustration and failure are not only inevitable but helpful.

　　參考譯文

　　痛苦與成長

　　回首往事，我覺得最痛苦的經歷似乎給了我最大啟迪。比方說，母親的去世讓我更加深切地體會到大自然的.美好。每經受一次大的痛苦，我在對日常事物中發現愉悅的能力（觀賞花兒開放，葉兒變紅，鳥兒沐浴）就增加一分。死亡使得生命格外珍貴；挫折使得成功更加完滿；失敗使得下一次成就更有意義。

　　要想感受深切，就須感受一切，有所選擇地感受是不可能的。你沒有深切體會到分娩的陣痛，又哪能真正領悟到新生命誕生的巨大喜悅？你沒有深切體會到失敗的痛楚，又哪能真正領悟到成功完成一項艱巨工作之后的滿足？我們在感受之中發現自己和他人，探索完滿而有意義的生活的可能性。

　　這尤其是父母面臨的一個嚴峻問題。做家長的總是情不自禁地竭力避免讓孩子受苦。我們錯誤地認為，只要孩子幸福，家長就算盡了職，而孩子不幸，家長就是失了職。但是，讓孩子感知幸福即好、不幸即糟這一訊息，則削弱了他們全面發掘人生經驗的能力。

　　孩子們應該懂得，痛苦、挫折和失敗非但不可避免，而且非常有益。父母拿走四歲孩子手中的智力玩具，唯恐“他一時做不好就會灰心喪氣”，這無異于害了孩子。孩子們在成長過程中需要這樣的情感經歷，這種情感經歷有助于培養孩子的耐心、毅力和能力，讓他們將來在科學實驗失敗的時候，在經過努力學習仍取得低分的時候，都能夠處之泰然。失敗和痛苦并不可怕；歸根結底，真正有害的是因為懼怕痛苦而拒絕嘗試。