UnitOur Schedules Our Selves課文翻譯綜合教程三

1、Unit 13 Our Schedules, Our SelvesJay Walljasper1 DAMN! Youre 20 minutes no, more like half an hour late for your breakfast meeting, which you were hoping to scoot out of early to make an 8:30 seminar across town. And, somewhere in there, theres that conference call. Now, at the last minute, you have

2、 to be at a 9:40 meeting. No way you can miss it. Lets see, the afternoon is totally booked, but you can probably push back your 10:15 appointment and work through lunch. That would do it. Whew! The day has barely begun and already you are counting the hours until evening, when you can finally go ho

3、me and happily, gloriously, triumphantly, do nothing. Youll skip yoga class, blow off the neighborhood meeting, ignore the piles of laundry and just relax. Yes! No! Tonights the night of the concert. You promised Nathan and Mara weeks ago that you would go. DAMN! 2 Welcome to daily grind circa 2003

4、a grueling 24-7 competition against the clock that leaves even the winners wondering what happened to their lives. Determined and sternly focused, we march through each day obeying the orders of our calendars. The idle moment, the reflective pause, serendipity of any sort have no place in our plans.

5、 Stopping to talk to someone or slowing down to appreciate a sunny afternoon will only make you late for your next round of activities. From the minute we rise in the morning, most of us have our day charted out. The only surprise is if we actually get everything done that we had planned before coll

6、apsing into bed at night. 3 On the job, in school, at home, increasing numbers of North Americans are virtual slaves to their schedules. Some of what fills our days are onerous obligations, some are wonderful opportunities, and most fall in between, but taken together they add up to too much. Too mu

7、ch to do, too many places to be, too many things happening too fast, all mapped out for us in precise quarter-hour allotments on our palm pilots or day planners. We are not leading our lives, but merely following a dizzying timetable of duties, commitments, demands, and options. How did this happen?

8、 Wheres the luxurious leisure that decades of technological progress was supposed to bestow upon us? 4 The acceleration of the globalized economy, and the accompanying decline of people having any kind of a say over wages and working conditions, is a chief culprit. Folks at the bottom of the socio-e

9、conomic ladder feel the pain most sharply. Holding down two or three jobs, struggling to pay the bills, working weekends, no vacation time, little social safety net, they often feel out of control about everything happening to them. But even successful professionals, people who seem fully in charge

10、of their destinies, feel the pinch. Doctors, for example, working impossibly crowded schedules under the command of HMOs, feel overwhelmed. Many of them are now seeking union representation, traditionally the recourse of low-pay workers. 5 The onslaught of new technology, which promised to set us fr

11、ee, has instead ratcheted up the rhythms of everyday life. Cell phones, e-mail, and laptop computers instill expectations of instantaneous action. While such direct communication can loosen our schedules in certain instances (its easier to shift around an engagement on short notice), overall they fu

12、el the trend that every minute must be accounted for. Its almost impossible to put duties behind you now, when the boss or committee chair can call you at a rap show or sushi restaurant, and documents can be e-mailed to you on vacation in Banff or Thailand. If you are never out of the loop, then are

13、 you ever not working? 6 Our own human desire for more choices and new experiences also plays a role. Just like hungry diners gathering around a bountiful smorgasbord, its hard not to pile too many activities on our plates. An expanding choice of cultural offerings over recent decades and the libera

14、ting sense that each of us can fully play a number of different social roles (worker, citizen, lover, parent, artist, etc.) has opened up enriching and exciting opportunities. Spanish lessons? Yes. Join a volleyball team? Why not. Cello and gymnastics classes for the kids? Absolutely. Tickets to a b

15、lues festival, food and wine expo, and political fundraiser? Sure. And we cant forget to make time for school events, therapy sessions, protest rallies, religious services, and dinner with friends. 7 Yes, these can all add to our lives. But with only 24 hours allotted to us each day, something is lo

16、st too. You dont just run into a friend anymore and decide to get coffee. You cant happily savor an experience because your mind races toward the next one on the calendar. In a busy life, nothing happens if you dont plan it, often weeks in advance. Our “free” hours become just as programmed as the w

17、ork day. What begins as an idea for fun frequently turns into an obligation obstacle course. Visit that new barbecue restaurant. Done! Go to tango lessons. Done! Fly to Montreal for a long weekend. Done! 8 Weve booked ourselves so full of prescheduled activities theres no time left for those magic,

18、spontaneous moments that make us feel most alive. We seldom stop to think of all the experiences we are eliminating from our lives when we load up our appointment book. Reserving tickets for a basketball game months away could mean you miss out on the first balmy evening of spring. Five p.m. skating

19、 lessons for your children fit so conveniently into your schedule that you never realize its the time all the other kids in the neighborhood gather on the sidewalk to play. 9 A few years back, radical Brazilian educator Paulo Freire was attending a conference of Midwestern political activists and he

20、ard over and over about how overwhelmed people felt about the duties they face each day. Finally, he stood up and, in slow, heavily accented English, declared, “We are bigger than our schedules.” The audience roared with applause. 10 Yes, we are bigger than our schedules. So how do we make sure our

21、lives are not overpowered by an endless roster of responsibilities? Especially in an age where demanding jobs, two-worker households or single-parent families make the joyous details of everyday life - cooking supper from scratch or organizing a block party seem like an impossible dream? There is no

22、 set of easy answers, despite what the marketers of new convenience products would have us believe. But that doesnt mean we cant make real steps to take back our lives. 11 Part of the answer is political. So long as Americans work longer hours than any other people on Earth we are going to feel hemm

23、ed in by our schedules. Expanded vacation time for everyone, including part-time and minimum wage workers, is one obvious and overdue solution. Shortening the work week, something the labor movement and progressive politicians successfully accomplished in the early decades of the 20th century, is an

24、other logical objective. Theres nothing preordained about 40-hours on the job; Italy, France, and other European nations have already cut back working hours. An opportunity for employees outside academia to take a sabbatical every decade or so is another idea whose time has come. And how about more

25、vacation and paid holidays? Lets start with Martin Luther Kings birthday, Susan B. Anthonys birthday, and your own! Any effort to give people more clout in their workplaces from strengthened unions to employee ownership could help us gain much-needed flexibility in our jobs, and our lives. 12 On ano

26、ther front, how you think about time can make a big difference in how you feel about your life, as other articles in this cover section illustrate. Note how some of your most memorable moments occurred when something in your schedule fell through. The canceled lunch that allows you to spend an hour

27、strolling around town. Friday night plans scrapped for a bowl of popcorn in front of the fireplace. Dont be shy about shucking your schedule whenever you can get away with it. And with some experimentation, you may find that you can get away with it a lot more than you imagined. 13 Setting aside som

28、e time on your calendar for life to just unfold in its own surprising way can also nurture your soul. Carve out some nonscheduled hours (or days) once in a while and treat them as a firm commitment. And resist the temptation to turn every impulse or opportunity into another appointment. Its neither

29、impolite nor inefficient to simply say, “l(fā)et me get back to you on that tomorrow” or “l(fā)ets check in that morning to see if its still a good time.” You cannot know how crammed that day may turn out to be, or how uninspired you might feel about another engagement, or how much youll want to be rollerbl

30、ading or playing chess or doing something else at that precise time. 14 In our industrialized, fast-paced society, we too often view time as just another mechanical instrument to be programmed. But time possesses its own evershifting shape and rhythms, and defies our best efforts to corral it within

31、 the tidy lines of our palm pilots or datebooks. Stephan Rechtschaffen, author of Time Shifting, suggests you think back on a scary auto collision (or near miss), or spectacular night of lovemaking. Time seemed almost to stand still. You can remember everything in vivid detail. Compare that to an ov

32、ercrammed week that you recall now only as a rapid-fire blur. Keeping in mind that our days expand and contract according to their own patterns is perhaps the best way to help keep time on your side. 日程，自我杰伊·沃爾賈斯珀1.討厭!遲到了20分鐘不對，差不多半小時了本來還想著這早餐會議可以早早結(jié)束，然后去趕8:30在城市另一端召開的交流會。在那邊開會的時候還有個電話會議。還有一分鐘，

33、就得出席9:40的會議。這可千萬不能錯過。嗯，下午已經(jīng)排滿了，不過大概可以把10:15的預(yù)約往后推一推，然后邊吃午餐邊干活。這樣應(yīng)該可以了。唷!這一天才剛剛開始呢，你就已經(jīng)在算著時間盼著傍晚的到來，那時總算可以回家去，幸福、快樂、滿足地?zé)o所事事了。瑜伽課就不去上了，住戶會議也算了，成堆的臟衣服就無視好了，盡情放松一下。太好了!大事不妙!今晚有音樂會呢。幾個星期以前就答應(yīng)了內(nèi)森和瑪拉要去的?？蓯?2.歡迎來到苦元2003一場全天候與時間賽跑的緊張比賽，哪怕是獲勝者也在疑惑自己的生活中到底發(fā)生了什么。我們堅定不移、全神貫注地按照日歷的命令快步跑過每一天。片刻閑暇、駐足反思、任何奇遇在我們的計劃中都

34、沒有立足之地。停下腳步與某人閑聊，或悠閑地享受下午的陽光，都只會讓我們趕不及下一輪活動。從早上起床后的那一分鐘開始，大多數(shù)人的一整天都已經(jīng)規(guī)劃完畢。一天中僅有的意外竟然是晚上倒頭睡覺之前才突然想起我們計劃了的事不知道是不是真的全部做好了。3.無論上班、上學(xué)還是在家，越來越多的北美人實際上已成為日程表的奴隸。填滿我們?nèi)粘瘫淼挠蟹敝氐呢?zé)任，也有奇妙的機緣，而大多數(shù)都介于這兩者之間，不過加在一起就實在是太多了。太多的活兒要做，太多的地兒要去，太多的事兒冒出來一切的一切在我們隨身帶的掌上電腦或記事簿上都以一刻鐘為單位精確地安排好了。我們不是在過日子，只是在跟從一個讓人暈眩的時間表，這表上有職責(zé)，也有承

35、諾，有需求，也有選擇。這一切是如何發(fā)生的？幾十年的技術(shù)進步本該賜予我們的奢侈閑暇如今安在？4.經(jīng)濟全球化的加速發(fā)展，以及隨之而來人們對薪酬、工作條件話語權(quán)的喪失，是造成這一切的罪魁禍首。在社會經(jīng)濟底層的人們對這種痛苦感受最為切身。要保住兩三份工作，盡力付清賬單，周末照常上班，沒有休假時間，缺乏社會保障，導(dǎo)致他們常對自身命運生出無力掌控的感覺。但是，即使是成功的專業(yè)人士，那些似乎完全掌握自己命運的人，也會為其所苦。以醫(yī)生為例，按照各級健康維護組織的規(guī)定，他們的工作強度高到無法想象，個個身心俱疲。很多醫(yī)生現(xiàn)在都在尋求工會的幫助，而在傳統(tǒng)上工會是低收入職工的靠山。5.新技術(shù)的沖擊，原本有望讓我們解脫

36、，卻反而一步步加快了日常生活的節(jié)奏。手機、電郵、筆記本電腦，都讓我們期待別人能作出即時行動。這種直接溝通在特定情況下可以讓我們的日程變得較為寬松(臨時改變安排變得更方便)，但總體而言，它們讓“每分鐘都必須有安排有交代”這種趨勢愈演愈烈。如今，想把職責(zé)置之不理已經(jīng)不太可能了。不管你是在看說唱表演也好，在壽司店用餐也好，老板或委員會主席都可能一個電話打來，就算你在班夫或泰國度假也好，文件照樣可以傳到你的郵箱。要是你根本擺脫不了自己的工作圈子，那你的工作哪有消停的時候？6.我們自身渴望有更多選擇和新的體驗也是一個原因，雖則這是人之常情。我們就好像一群饑腸轆轆的人，聚集在擺滿豐盛美食的餐桌前，想不安排

37、太多活動還真是不容易。近幾十年來，不僅文化活動日益豐富，而且我們還如釋重負地意識到，每個人能游刃有余地扮演多個不同社會角色(工人、市民、愛人、父母、藝術(shù)家等)，這一切使我們可能擁有精彩紛呈、振奮人心的機遇。學(xué)西班牙語？好。參加排球隊？干嘛不呢。給孩子們報大提琴班和體操班？肯定要。買票去參加布魯斯音樂節(jié)、美食名酒博覽會和政治獻金籌集活動？當然啦。我們也不會忘記為學(xué)校活動、治療課程、抗議集會、宗教服務(wù)和朋友聚餐騰出時間。7.誠然，這一切都能讓我們的生活更加豐富，可每天只有二十四小時，所以也會失去某些東西。你不可能再在路上偶遇一個朋友然后決定一起去喝杯咖啡了，也不可能帶著愉快的心情細細回味某一經(jīng)歷，

38、因為你的腦子早已飛速轉(zhuǎn)到日程上的下一個條目。在繁忙的生活中，沒有事先安排的事情就不會發(fā)生，而且往往還得提前幾個星期安排。我們的“自由”時間也不過是像工作日一樣事先安排好的。一開始只想好好玩玩，最后往往變成必須解決的問題。去試一下那家新開的燒烤店。完成!上探戈課。完成!坐飛機到蒙特利爾度個悠長的周末。完成!8.我們用事先安排好的活動把自己的生活填得滿滿當當?shù)?，根本就沒有時間留給一些妙不可言、隨心所欲的事情，那是最能讓我們感到生機與活力的時刻。我們很少停下來去想想，我們把預(yù)約本寫滿的同時，又有多少體驗從生活中刪去了啊。提前幾個月就把籃球比賽的門票預(yù)訂好，可能意味著你會錯過春天第一個芬芳的夜晚。孩子們下午五點的溜冰課，與你的日程配合得天衣無縫，你卻從沒意識到，那正是社區(qū)里的其他孩子聚在路邊一起玩耍的時間。9.幾年前，激進的巴西教育家保羅·費賴雷參加一個中西部政治激進分子的會議，一再聽到人們說起每天面對的職責(zé)如何令他們不知所措。最后，他站起來，