Thoughts for a new year

   Most of us look away when we pass strangers. It is the expectional person who stops to help the woman maneuvering¹ her kids and groceries up the staircase. We rarely give up in line or on the subway or bus. Locked into our automobiles², we prefer gridlock to giving way.

 新年沉思

  当我们与陌生人擦肩而过时，多数人往往把目光移开。要是有人停下来帮妇女哄她的小孩和帮她把食品搬上楼梯，反而会被人看成另类。无论是排队还是乘地铁或公共汽车，我们很少让位于他人。坐在自己的汽车里，我们宁愿堵塞交通也不愿给人让路。  

   这些日常接触，要是气冲冲的或是使人反感的，那便会减少我们生活的乐趣，要是它们令人愉快，那便会使我们精神振奋。然而，当我们坐在家里做出各种决定的时候，我们考虑的仅是在个人天地--家庭和工作里可以实现的目标。太多的人已经放弃了他们也管理着共享的、公共的世界这一信念。

 As individuals we can change the contour of a day, the mood of a moment, the way people feel. The demolition⁴ and reconstruction⁵ of public life is the result of personal decisions made every day：the decision to give up a seat on the bus；the decision to be patient or pleasant against all odds；the decision to let that jerk take a left－hand turn from a right－hand lane without rolling down the window and calling him a jerk.

  作为众人的一员，我们可以改变一天的面貌，一时的情绪，以及人们对某件事的感觉。公共生活的毁坏和重建是人们每日所做的种种个人决定的综合结果。这些决定包括：公共汽车上让座，面对逆境而能容忍或具有乐观精神；让那个笨蛋从右车道往左拐而不摇下车窗骂他蠢货。

 It's the resolution to be a civil, social creature. This may be a peak period for the battle against the spread of a waistline and creeping cholesterol⁶. But it is also within our will power to fight the spread of urban rudeness and creeping hostility⁷. Civility doesn't stop nuclear holocaust⁸ and doesn't put a roof over the head of the homeless. But it makes a difference in the shape of a community, as surely as lifting weights can make a difference in the shape of a human torso.

这是做一个文明的、社会的人的决定。今天也许是人们为减少腰围和降低胆固醇而斗争的高峰期。然而，反对城市野蛮行为和人际敌对态度的蔓延，也是我们只要愿做就能做到的事。有礼貌不能制止核战争，也不能为无家可归者提供栖身之所，但它的确能改变一个社会群体的面貌，犹如举重定能改变一个人的体形一样。