赋予生命意义

　　Have you thought about what you want people to say about you after you're gone? Can you hear the voice saying, “He was a great man. Or “She really will be missed. What else do they say?

　　你有没有想过，你希望人们在你死后怎样评论你?你能否听到这样的说，“他是个伟大的人或“人们的确会怀念她，他们还会说些什么?

　　One of the strangest phenomenaof life is to engage in a work that will last long after death. Isn't that a lot like investing all your money so that future generations can bare interest on it? Perhaps, yet if you look deep in your own heart, you'll find something drives you to make this kind of contribution---something drives every human being to find a purpose that lives on after death.

　　人生最奇异的现象之一就是，你从事的事业在你死后仍将长久存在。这和你用所的钱进行投资以便后人能从中获益不是如出一辙吗?也许，如果你审视自己的内心深处，你就会发现促使你做出这种贡献的驱动力-一种驱使每个人寻找在自己死后仍能继续存在的事业的驱动力。

　　Do you hope to memorialize your name? Have a name that is whispered with reverent awe? Do you hope to have your face carved upon 50 ft of granite rock? Is the answer really that simple? Is the purpose of lifetime contribution an ego-driven desire for a mortal being to have an immortalname or is it something more?

　　你希望自己的名字被人记住吗?你希望别人提起你的名字时心怀敬畏吗?你希望自己的面容被雕刻在50英尺高的花岗岩上吗?答案真的那么简单吗?贡献一生的目的难道终将一死之人想要获得不朽名声的自我鞭策的欲望?抑或是其他更伟大的事物?

　　A child alive today will die tomorrow. A baby that had the potential to be the next Einstein will die from complication is at birth. The circumstances of life are not set in stone. We are not all meant to live life through to old age. We've grown to perceive life3 as a full cycle with a certain number of years in between. If all of those years aren't lived out, it's a tragedy. A tragedy because a human's potential was never realized. A tragedy because a spark was snuffed out before it ever became a flame.

　　今天活着的孩子明天就会死去。一个有可能成为下一个爱因斯坦的婴儿会死于出生并发症。生命的情形并不是固定不变的。我们并没有注定都要活到老年。我们已经认识到，生命是一个周期，其时间长度是特定的。如果这些时间没有被充分利用，那就是个悲剧，因为人的潜能还未实现，因为火花还没形成火焰就被补灭。

　　By virtue of inhabiting a body we accept these risks. We expose our mortal flesh to the laws of the physical environment around us. The trade off isn't so bad when you think about it. The problem comes when we construct mortal fantasies of what life should be like. When life doesn't conform to our fantasy we grow upset, frustrated, or depressed.

　　由于存在于肉体之中，所以我们接受这些风险。我们使易朽的肉体服从周围物理环境的法则。你仔细想一想就会发现，这种交易并不是那么糟糕。当我们幻想生命应该如何时，问题就来了。当生命和我们的幻想不一致时，我们就变得烦恼，无奈或沮丧。