TED英語演講稿：不幸也許是個機(jī)會

1、TED英語演講稿：不幸也許是個機(jī)會簡介：殘奧會短跑冠軍Aimee Mullins天生沒有腓骨，從小就要學(xué)習(xí)靠義肢走路和奔跑。如今，她不僅是短跑選手、演員、模特，還是一位穩(wěn)健的演講者。她不喜歡字典中 “disabled”這個詞，因?yàn)樨?fù)面詞匯足以毀掉一個人。但是，坦然面對不幸，你會發(fā)現(xiàn)等待你的是更多的機(jī)會。Id like t share with yu a discvery that I made a few mnths ag while writing an article fr Italian Wired. I always keep my thesaurus handy whenever I

2、m writing anything, but Id already finished editing the piece, and I realized that I had never nce in my life lked up the wrd disabled t see what Id find.Let me read yu the entry. Disabled, adjective: crippled, helpless, useless, wrecked, stalled, maimed, wunded, mangled, lame, mutilated, run-dwn, w

3、rn-ut, weakened, imptent, castrated, paralyzed, handicapped, senile, decrepit, laid-up, dne-up, dne-fr, dne-unted-ut; see als hurt, useless and weak. Antnyms, healthy, strng, capable. I was reading this list ut lud t a friend and at first was laughing, it was s ludicrus, but Id just gtten past mangl

4、ed, and my vice brke, and I had t stp and cllect myself frm the emtinal shck and impact that the assault frm these wrds unleashed.Yu knw, f curse, this is my raggedy ld thesaurus s Im thinking this must be an ancient print date, right? But, in fact, the print date was the early 1980s, when I wuld ha

5、ve been starting primary schl and frming an understanding f myself utside the family unit and as related t the ther kids and the wrld arund me. And, needless t say, thank Gd I wasnt using a thesaurus back then. I mean, frm this entry, it wuld seem that I was brn int a wrld that perceived smene like

6、me t have nthing psitive whatsever ging fr them, when in fact, tday Im celebrated fr the pprtunities and adventures my life has prcured.S, I immediately went t lk up the 2019年 nline editin, epecting t find a revisin wrth nting. Heres the updated versin f this entry. Unfrtunately, its nt much better.

7、 I find the last tw wrds under Near Antnyms, particularly unsettling: whle and whlesme.S, its nt just abut the wrds. Its what we believe abut peple when we name them with these wrds. Its abut the values behind the wrds, and hw we cnstruct thse values. ur language affects ur thinking and hw we view t

8、he wrld and hw we view ther peple. In fact, many ancient scieties, including the Greeks and the Rmans, believed that t utter a curse verbally was s pwerful, because t say the thing ut lud brught it int eistence. S, what reality d we want t call int eistence: a persn wh is limited, r a persn whs empw

9、ered? By casually ding smething as simple as naming a persn, a child, we might be putting lids and casting shadws n their pwer. Wuldnt we want t pen drs fr them instead?ne such persn wh pened drs fr me was my childhd dctr at the A.I. duPnt Institute in Wilmingtn, Delaware. His name was Dr. Pizzutill

10、, an Italian American, whse name, apparently, was t difficult fr mst Americans t prnunce, s he went by Dr. P. And Dr. P always lrful bw ties and had the very perfect dispsitin t wrk with children.I lved almst everything abut my time spent at this hspital, with the eceptin f my physical therapy sessi

11、ns. I had t d what seemed like innumerable repetitins f eercises with these thick, elastic bands - different clrs, yu knw - t help build up my leg muscles, and I hated these bands mre than anything - I hated them, had names fr them. I hated them. And, yu knw, I was already bargaining, as a five year

12、-ld child, with Dr. P t try t get ut f ding these eercises, unsuccessfully, f curse. And, ne day, he came in t my sessin - ehaustive and unfrgiving, these sessins - and he said t me, Ww. Aimee, yu are such a strng and pwerful little girl, I think yure ging t break ne f thse bands. When yu d break it

13、, Im ging t give yu a hundred bucks.Nw, f curse, this was a simple ply n Dr. Ps part t get me t d the eercises I didnt want t d befre the prspect f being the richest five-year-ld in the secnd flr ward, but what he effectively did fr me was reshape an awful daily ccurrence int a new and prmising eper

14、ience fr me. And I have t wnder tday t what etent his visin and his declaratin f me as a strng and pwerful little girl shaped my wn view f myself as an inherently strng, pwerful and athletic persn well int the future.This is an eample f hw adults in psitins f pwer can ignite the pwer f a child. But,

15、 in the previus instances f thse thesaurus entries, ur language isnt allwing us t evlve int the reality that we wuld all want, the pssibility f an individual t see themselves as capable. ur language hasnt caught up with the changes in ur sciety, many f which have been brught abut by technlgy. Certai

16、nly, frm a medical standpint, my legs, laser surgery fr visin impairment, titanium knees and hip replacements fr aging bdies that are allwing peple t mre fully engage with their abilities, and mve beynd the limits that nature has impsed n them - nt t mentin scial netwrking platfrms allw peple t self

17、-identify, t claim their wn descriptins f themselves, s they can g align with glbal grups f their wn chsing. S, perhaps technlgy is revealing mre clearly t us nw what has always been a truth: that everyne has smething rare and pwerful t ffer ur sciety, and that the human ability t adapt is ur greate

18、st asset.The human ability t adapt, its an interesting thing, because peple have cntinually wanted t talk t me abut vercming adversity, and Im ging t make an admissin: This phrase never sat right with me, and I always felt uneasy trying t answer peples questins abut it, and I think Im starting t fig

19、ure ut why. Implicit in this phrase f vercming adversity is the idea that success, r happiness, is abut emerging n the ther side f a challenging eperience unscathed r unmarked by the eperience, as if my successes in life have cme abut frm an ability t sidestep r circumnavigate the presumed pitfalls

20、f a life with prsthetics, r what ther peple perceive as my disability. But, in fact, we are changed. We are marked, f curse, by a challenge, whether physically, emtinally r bth. And Im ging t suggest that this is a gd thing. Adversity isnt an bstacle that we need t get arund in rder t resume living

21、ur life. Its part f ur life. And I tend t think f it like my shadw. Smetimes I see a lt f it, smetimes theres very little, but its always with me. And, certainly, Im nt trying t diminish the impact, the weight, f a persns struggle.There is adversity and challenge in life, and its all very real and r

22、elative t every single persn, but the questin isnt whether r nt yure ging t meet adversity, but hw yure ging t meet it. S, ur respnsibility is nt simply shielding thse we care fr frm adversity, but preparing them t meet it well. And we d a disservice t ur kids when we make them feel that theyre nt e

23、quipped t adapt. Theres an imprtant difference and distinctin between the bjective medical fact f my being an amputee and the subjective scietal pinin f whether r nt Im disabled. And, truthfully, the nly real and cnsistent disability Ive had t cnfrnt is the wrld ever thinking that I culd be describe

24、d by thse definitins.In ur desire t prtect thse we care abut by giving them the cld, hard truth abut their medical prgnsis, r, indeed, a prgnsis n the epected quality f their life, we have t make sure that we dnt put the first brick in a wall that will actually disable smene. Perhaps the eisting mde

25、l f nly lking at what is brken in yu and hw d we fi it, serves t be mre disabling t the individual than the pathlgy itself.By nt treating the whleness f a persn, by nt acknwledging their ptency, we are creating anther ill n tp f whatever natural struggle they might have. We are effectively grading s

26、menes wrth t ur cmmunity. S we need t see thrugh the pathlgy and int the range f human capability. And, mst imprtantly, theres a partnership between thse perceived deficiencies and ur greatest creative ability. S its nt abut devaluing, r negating, these mre trying times as smething we want t avid r

27、sweep under the rug, but instead t find thse pprtunities wrapped in the adversity. S maybe the idea I want t put ut there is nt s much vercming adversity as it is pening urselves up t it, embracing it, grappling with it, t use a wrestling term, maybe even dancing with it. And, perhaps, if we see adv

28、ersity as natural, cnsistent and useful, were less burdened by the presence f it.This year we celebrate the 200th birthday f Charles Darwin, and it was 150 years ag, when writing abut evlutin, that Darwin illustrated, I think, a truth abut the human character. T paraphrase: Its nt the strngest f the

29、 species that survives, nr is it the mst intelligent that survives; it is the ne that is mst adaptanflict is the genesis f creatin. Frm Darwins wrk, amngst thers, we can recgnize that the human ability t survive and flurish is driven by the struggle f the human spirit thrugh cnflict int transfrmatin

30、. S, again, transfrmatin, adaptatin, is ur greatest human skill. And, perhaps, until were tested, we dnt knw what were made f. Maybe thats what adversity gives us: a sense f self, a sense f ur wn pwer. S, we can give urselves a gift. We can re-imagine adversity as smething mre than just tugh times.

31、Maybe we can see it as change. Adversity is just change that we havent adapted urselves t yet.I think the greatest adversity that weve created fr urselves is this idea f nrmalcy. Nw, whs nrmal? Theres n nrmal. Theres cmmn, theres typical. Theres n nrmal, and wuld yu want t meet that pr, beige persn

32、if they eisted? (Laughter) I dnt think s. If we can change this paradigm frm ne f achieving nrmalcy t ne f pssibility - r ptency, t be even a little bit mre dangerus - we can release the pwer f s many mre children, and invite them t engage their rare and valuable abilities with the cmmunity.Anthrplg

33、ists tell us that the ne thing we as humans have always required f ur cmmunity members is t be f use, t be able t cntribute. Theres evidence that Neanderthals, 60,000 years ag, carried their elderly and thse with serius physical injury, and perhaps its because the life eperience f survival f these p

34、eple prved f value t the cmmunity. They didnt view these peple as brken and useless; they were seen as rare and valuable.A few years ag, I was in a fd market in the twn where I grew up in that red zne in nrtheastern Pennsylvania, and I was standing ver a bushel f tmates. It was summertime: I had shr

35、ts n. I hear this guy, his vice behind me say, Well, if it isnt Aimee Mullins. And I turn arund, and its this lder man. I have n idea wh he is.And I said, Im srry, sir, have we met? I dnt remember meeting yu.He said, Well, yu wuldnt remember meeting me. I mean, when we met I was delivering yu frm yu

36、r mthers wmb. (Laughter) h, that guy. And, but f curse, actually, it did click.This man was Dr. Kean, a man that I had nly knwn abut thrugh my mthers stries f that day, because, f curse, typical fashin, I arrived late fr my birthday by tw weeks. And s my mthers prenatal physician had gne n vacatin,

37、s the man wh delivered me was a cmplete stranger t my parents. And, because I was brn withut the fibula bnes, and had feet turned in, and a few tes in this ft and a few tes in that, he had t be the bearer - this stranger had t be the bearer f bad news.He said t me, I had t give this prgnsis t yur pa

38、rents that yu wuld never walk, and yu wuld never have the kind f mbility that ther kids have r any kind f life f independence, and yuve been making liar ut f me ever since. (Laughter) (Applause)The etrardinary thing is that he said he had saved newspaper clippings thrughut my whle childhd, whether w

39、inning a secnd grade spelling bee, marching with the Girl Scuts, yu knw, the Hallween parade, winning my cllege schlarship, r any f my sprts victries, and he was using it, and integrating it int teaching resident students, med students frm Hahnemann Medical Schl and Hershey Medical Schl. And he call

40、ed this part f the curse the Factr, the ptential f the human will. N prgnsis can accunt fr hw pwerful this culd be as a determinant in the quality f smenes life. And Dr. Kean went n t tell me, he said, In my eperience, unless repeatedly tld therwise, and even if given a mdicum f supprt, if left t th

41、eir wn devices, a child will achieve.See, Dr. Kean made that shift in thinking. He understd that theres a difference between the medical cnditin and what smene might d with it. And theres been a shift in my thinking ver time, in that, if yu had asked me at 15 years ld, if I wuld have traded prstheti

42、cs fr flesh-and-bne legs, I wuldnt have hesitated fr a secnd. I aspired t that kind f nrmalcy back then. But if yu ask me tday, Im nt s sure. And its because f the eperiences Ive had with them, nt in spite f the eperiences Ive had with them. And perhaps this shift in me has happened because Ive been

43、 epsed t mre peple wh have pened drs fr me than thse wh have put lids and cast shadws n me.See, all yu really need is ne persn t shw yu the epiphany f yur wn pwer, and yure ff. If yu can hand smebdy the key t their wn pwer - the human spirit is s receptive - if yu can d that and pen a dr fr smene at

44、 a crucial mment, yu are educating them in the best sense. Yure teaching them t pen drs fr themselves. In fact, the eact meaning f thes frm the rt wrd educe. It means t bring frth what is within, t bring ut ptential. S again, which ptential d we want t bring ut?There was a case study dne in 1960s Britain, when they were mving frm grammar schls t cmprehensive schls. Its called the streaming trials. We call it tracking here in the States. Its separating students frm A, B, C, D and s n. And the A students get the tugher curriculum, the best teachers, etc. Well, they tk, ver a