励志美文精华: 最成功的投资
编者按:
尽心而尽责地完成一件事会为你带来真正的快乐，而尽责也并不一定是做苦工。为人服务是一项最成功的投资。
The Soundest Investment of All
by C. Jared Ingersoll
I feel very presumptuous and uncomfortable about trying to explain out loud the things I believe in. But I do think that all human problems are in some way related to each other, so perhaps if people compare their experiences they may discover something in common in hunting the answers.
I am a very fortunate man for I lead a full and what is for me a happy life. I say this even though I happen to have had, in the course of it, a couple of severe personal blows.
My first wife collapsed and died one day while she and I were ice skating, after eighteen years of a most happy existence together. My only son, a sergeant in the army combat engineers, was killed in Italy in the last war. Nevertheless, these tragedies did not throw me completely and I have been able to fill my life anew with happiness.
I do not mean to sound calloused. Those blows hurt me deeply. I guess that two basically important things helped me most to recover. One is the fact that I have come to see life as a gamble. The other is a belief in what some people call the hereafter. I try to live fully so that when and if my luck changes there will be little room for regret or recrimination over time lost or misspent. My belief in the hereafter is wrapped in the intangible but stubborn thoughts of a layman. Very likely I would get lost in trying to describe or defend, by cold logic, my belief in God but nobody could argue me out of it.
I have come to believe that I owe life as much as it owes me, and I suppose that explains this fine satisfaction I get out of endeavoring to do a job to the best of what ability I have, and out of helping somebody else.
As a kid I used to ride a rake in the hayfields. I got a tremendous kick out of trying to sweep every field clean as a whistle. Here I made a surprising and happy discovery: that there could be actual enjoyment in the exercise of thoroughness and responsibility, and that duty didn’t have to be a drudge.
I don’t know exactly why, but I like to do things for other people. Not only family responsibilities, work on a hospital board, and various church organizations but also the most inconsequential things that might hardly seem worth the time. My office happens to be on Independence Square and now and then I have occasion to direct a tourist to the Liberty Bell or fill him in on a little of the history of Philadelphia. The tourist doesn’t seem to mind and it makes me feel good. I’m afraid I’m not very profound. I have tried to comprehend why something so simple and so sound as the Golden Rule is so often forgotten or held in disrepute. I can only say—and I say this quite selfishly—that I have found it a good investment. It has paid me a very high return, undoubtedly more than I deserve.
最成功的投资
C.贾里德.英格索尔
我想，若是大声解释我的信仰，不仅会给人一种自大的感觉，也会使我感到不安。但是我认为，从某种程度上来说，人类所有的问题都是息息相关的。因此，倘若人们比较一下他们的经历，也许就能在寻找答案的过程中发现某些共同之处。
我是一个幸运的人，因为我的生活充实而幸福。不管怎样，我依然会这么说，即使曾经的多次不幸给我带来了沉重的打击。我与第一个妻子共同度过了18年幸福的婚姻生活，然而在我们去滑冰的那天，她突然倒下，撒手人寰。我唯一的儿子是一名工兵军士，二战期间，在意大利阵亡。然而，我并没有被这些不幸彻底打倒，而是再次让我的生活充满幸福。
我并不是想让大家觉得我冷酷无情。这些不幸确实对我造成了很大的伤害。我想我之所以能够重新振作起来，其中有两个重要的原因：一是我认为生活其实就是一场赌博，二是我对人们所说的来世深信不疑。为了在晦运时，不至于因虚度时光而后悔或自责，我努力让自己充实地生活。作为一个普通信徒，无形而坚定的思想正是我信仰来世的来源。我信仰上帝，也许我难以用冷冰冰的逻辑来描述这个信仰或为它辩护，但谁也无法说服我放弃它。
我相信，我对生活付出多少，就会得到多少。因此，我认为，我最大的满足正是来源于尽自己最大的努力去做一份工作或是帮助别人。
孩提时，我常会在干草地上开耙草机。在将每片草地耙干净的过程中，我总会获得极大的成就感，并惊奇地发现：尽心而尽责地完成一件事会为你带来真正的快乐，而尽责也并不一定是做苦工。
我很喜欢为人服务。我不仅为家庭负责，在一家医院的理事会及各种教会组织中工作，我还会去做一些看似浪费时间的最无关紧要的琐事。我的办公室正好在独立广场，因此我偶尔会为去独立钟的游客带路，一路上给他讲一些费城的历史。虽然游客并不在乎这些，但我却乐此不疲。我自己并非知识渊博之人。我常常想弄明白，像黄金定律那样简单而合理的箴言为何总被人们遗忘或不屑一顾。我只能说，也自私地说，我发现为人服务是一项最成功的投资。毫无疑问，它给予我的回报远远高于我的应得。
本文选自《这，我相信》，该书共选取自述性散文七十二篇。原文作者用简洁、朴实的文字讲述自己如何在逆境中领悟到生活的真谛而最后获得成功。原文短小精悍、语言平实，启迪读者心智。译文忠实于原文的内容和风格，可读性强。本书不仅是一本英汉对照的优秀励志读物，而且还是翻译佳作，可供在校大学生、英语自学者和翻译爱好者阅读学习。
本书译自美国畅销书This I Believe。This I Believe起初是一个广播节目，策划于1949年，旨在帮助美国人克服看重物质享受而轻视精神情操的社会倾向。该节目每日播出，每位嘉宾讲叙五分钟，其讲稿为一篇六百字的短文，每周在报纸上刊登。这些嘉宾或是社会名流，或是无名小卒，他们的肤色、职业、种族均不相同，但他们必须有一点共同之处——事业成功，应对生活成功。该节目获得巨大的成功!每天约有三千九百万美国人围在收音机旁聆听罗斯福总统夫人、海伦·凯勒、公司老板、商人或出租车司机讲述他们的信仰。
该广播节目最后成为一种文化现象，共有用六种语言播出、八十五家主要报纸开辟专栏每周刊登此节目的文章。1952年经仔细挑选，选中一百人的一百篇短文汇集出版。书名是This I Believe，畅销三十万册，是当年销售量仅次于《圣经》的畅销书。该书的阿拉伯译本创下了三天内售出三万册的记录。This I Believe至今仍然是美国全国性的媒体节目。它邀请各行各业的美国人撰文讨论指导他们生活的哲学。听众每周可在两个广播节目中听到这些人的自述，还可以在网上阅读他们的短文。
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