温馨夜读 PART4 15 Run Free 自由奔跑

 

[ti:]

[ar:]

[al:]

[by:]

[00:00.78]Run Free 自由奔跑

[00:05.58]One afternoon, many years ago, I went to pick up my mother from work.

[00:10.62]I got there a little early so I parked the car by the curb¹,

[00:14.59]across the street from where she worked, and waited for her.

[00:18.17]As I looked outside the car window to my right, 

[00:21.67]there was a small park where I saw a little boy,

[00:24.52]around one and a half to two years old,

[00:26.97]running freely on the grass as his mother watched from a short distance.

[00:31.84]The boy would then fall to the grass, get up,

[00:35.34]and without hesitation² or without looking back at his mother,

[00:38.63]run as fast as he could, again, still with a smile on his face, 

[00:43.03]as if nothing had happened.

[00:44.75]When they fall down, kids don’t perceive their falling down as failure,

[00:49.68]but instead, they treat it as a learning experience, 

[00:52.69]as just another result or outcome.

[00:55.48]They feel compelled to try and try again until they succeed.

[00:59.63]The reason must be...

[01:02.31]they have not associated“falling down”with the word“failure”yet,

[01:06.53]thus they don’t know how to feel the state which accompanies failure.

[01:10.46]As a result, they are not disempowered in any way.

[01:14.08]Plus, they probably think to themselves 

[01:16.97]that it’s perfectly³ Okay to fall down,

[01:19.12]that it’s not wrong to do so.

[01:21.08]In other words, they give themselves permission to make mistakes, subconsciously⁴.

[01:26.55]Thus they remain empowered.

[01:28.52]While I was touched by the boy’s persistence, 

[01:31.86]I was equally touched by the manner in which he ran.

[01:34.53]With each attempt, he looked so confident...so natural.

[01:38.69]No signs of fear, nervousness, or of being discouraged—

[01:42.68]as if he didn’t give a care about the world around him.

[01:46.02]His only aim was to run freely and to do it as effectively as he could.

[01:51.05]He was just being a child—just being himself—being completely in the moment.

[01:56.64]He was not looking for approval or was not worrying about 

[02:00.80]whether someone was watching or not.

[02:02.87]He wasn’t concerned about being judged.

[02:05.61]He didn’t seem to be bothered by the fact that maybe someone would see him fall.

[02:10.42]No, all that mattered to him 

[02:12.90]was to accomplish the task or activity at hand to the best of his ability.

[02:17.54]To run...and to feel the experience of running fully⁵ and freely.

[02:22.68]I learned a lot from that observation and experience,

[02:26.50]and have successfully brought that lesson with me in my many pursuits in life.

1 curb   

n.场外证券市场，场外交易；vt.制止，抑制

参考例句：

• I could not curb my anger.我按捺不住我的愤怒。
• You must curb your daughter when you are in church.你在教堂时必须管住你的女儿。

2 hesitation   

n.犹豫，踌躇

参考例句：

• After a long hesitation, he told the truth at last.踌躇了半天，他终于直说了。
• There was a certain hesitation in her manner.她的态度有些犹豫不决。

3 perfectly   

adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The witnesses were each perfectly certain of what they said.证人们个个对自己所说的话十分肯定。
• Everything that we're doing is all perfectly above board.我们做的每件事情都是光明正大的。

4 subconsciously   

ad.下意识地，潜意识地

参考例句：

• In choosing a partner we are subconsciously assessing their evolutionary fitness to be a mother of children or father provider and protector. 在选择伴侣的时候，我们会在潜意识里衡量对方将来是否会是称职的母亲或者父亲，是否会是合格的一家之主。
• Lao Yang thought as he subconsciously tightened his grasp on the rifle. 他下意识地攥紧枪把想。 来自汉英文学 - 散文英译

5 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。