往事如煙今朝依雲
2001年來到這裏的時候，除了父母的牽掛，我一無所有，如今我有了筆下這些故事，且讓我寫吧。。。。。。
正文
The New Year is traditionally a time to make a new start, to reinvent yourself, to make a resolution. As we head into 2005, commentator and philosopher Alain de Botton is considering how we live our lives. He thinks history, not self-help, has a lot to teach us. And today in the first of three commentaries he argues in favor of New Year’s resolutions.
We don't tend to make resolutions about things we completely believe in. Few of us would ever resolve to be appalled by war or disease. It just comes naturally. But we do resolve all the time to be kinder or more hard-working because a sizable part of us loves being cruel and sitting around. A resolution always hovers over a grave in a conflict, and constitutes a vow by one part of ourselves against the other, which is why, according to some, we should never be so foolish as to make a resolution. After all, to do so is just setting ourselves up for a humiliation when in late January we're tempted once again to bully a colleague or waste the day doing a crossword. The cynics warn us that the collapse of our resolutions will only make us more vividly aware of our shortcomings. And yet I'd like to argue for the supreme importance of resolutions. Even if we don't actually manage to carry them through,trying to lead a moral and a good life must mean regularly daring ourselves to be good. We live in an age obsessed by the language of honesty and authenticity. They suggest that all of us have a real self, someone we truly are deep down which is supposed to be good, essentially honest, well-meaning and kind. But those of us who believe in resolutions might look at the matter a different way. Deepdown we're perhaps not so pure, left to our own devices, we're self-indulgent, selfish, narcissistic and lazy. So we need resolutions for the same reason as we need laws to keep ourselves in check. A resolution is a voluntary abdication of our freedom and immediate gratification, in the interests of a higher goal. In making resolutions, we tacitly admit that we're harmed by being free to do anything and through our vows signal a desire to take up the higher freedom that comes from being correctly shackled. We might be tempted to mock the public nature of resolutions. Why resolve things at New Year? Why tell people? Precisely for the reason that we tend to go in for public marriage because it can be useful to back up our own resolve with the pressure that stems from the expectations of others. It's often not bad enough to let ourselves down, so in addition ,we need the fear of letting lots of other people down to keep us on track. As legislators have always known the feeling of shame is a useful incentive to good behavior. We can use the energy that surrounds the birth of a New Year to lend our own inner change some impetus. Of course there is something arbitrary about the date but we need all the external help we can get when we attempt to keep our best hopes for ourselves alive.
Alain de Botton is the author of How Proust Can Change Your Life. Tomorrow he will explain why having high ideals doesn't necessarily make you naive. You can find out more about Alain de Botton at our website NPR.org.
We don't tend to make resolutions about things we completely believe in. Few of us would ever resolve to be appalled by war or disease. It just comes naturally. But we do resolve all the time to be kinder or more hard-working because a sizable part of us loves being cruel and sitting around. A resolution always hovers over a grave in a conflict, and constitutes a vow by one part of ourselves against the other, which is why, according to some, we should never be so foolish as to make a resolution. After all, to do so is just setting ourselves up for a humiliation when in late January we're tempted once again to bully a colleague or waste the day doing a crossword. The cynics warn us that the collapse of our resolutions will only make us more vividly aware of our shortcomings. And yet I'd like to argue for the supreme importance of resolutions. Even if we don't actually manage to carry them through,trying to lead a moral and a good life must mean regularly daring ourselves to be good. We live in an age obsessed by the language of honesty and authenticity. They suggest that all of us have a real self, someone we truly are deep down which is supposed to be good, essentially honest, well-meaning and kind. But those of us who believe in resolutions might look at the matter a different way. Deepdown we're perhaps not so pure, left to our own devices, we're self-indulgent, selfish, narcissistic and lazy. So we need resolutions for the same reason as we need laws to keep ourselves in check. A resolution is a voluntary abdication of our freedom and immediate gratification, in the interests of a higher goal. In making resolutions, we tacitly admit that we're harmed by being free to do anything and through our vows signal a desire to take up the higher freedom that comes from being correctly shackled. We might be tempted to mock the public nature of resolutions. Why resolve things at New Year? Why tell people? Precisely for the reason that we tend to go in for public marriage because it can be useful to back up our own resolve with the pressure that stems from the expectations of others. It's often not bad enough to let ourselves down, so in addition ,we need the fear of letting lots of other people down to keep us on track. As legislators have always known the feeling of shame is a useful incentive to good behavior. We can use the energy that surrounds the birth of a New Year to lend our own inner change some impetus. Of course there is something arbitrary about the date but we need all the external help we can get when we attempt to keep our best hopes for ourselves alive.
Alain de Botton is the author of How Proust Can Change Your Life. Tomorrow he will explain why having high ideals doesn't necessarily make you naive. You can find out more about Alain de Botton at our website NPR.org.
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