多结交新朋友

"To be is to be in relations." If this is true, then the more relations a living thing has, the more it is alive. To live abundantly means simply to increase the range and intensity of our relations. Unfortunately we are so constituted that we get to love our routine. But apart from our regular occupation how much are we alive? If you are interested only in your regular occupation, you are alive only to that extent. So far as other things are concerned poetry and prose, music, pictures, sports, unselfish friendships, politics, international affairs....you are dead.

Contrariwise1, it is true that every time you acquire a new interest even more, a new accomplishment you increase your power of life. No one who is deeply interested in large variety of subjects can remain unhappy, the real pessimist2 is the person who has lost interest.

Bacon said that a man dies as often as he loses a friend. But we gain new life by contact with new friends. What is supremely3 true of living objects is only less true of ideas, which are also alive. Where your thoughts are, there will your life be also.

To be or not to be to live intensely and richly, or merely to exist, that depends on ourselves. Let us widen and intensify our relations. While we live, let us live.

“生活即是联系。”如果确实如此,那么,一个人拥有的社会关系越多,他就活得越充实,活得丰富多彩。就是说,我们要扩大交往面,强化各种关系。但遗憾的是,我们过于僵化,什么都是按部就班。除了工作,我们的生存还有什么意义?如果一个人只对工作感兴趣,对其他事情――诗、散文、音乐、绘画、运动、无私的友谊、政治乃至国际事务都漠不关心,那么,他的生命也就仅限于工作,他已经死了。

反之,每当你拥有新的兴趣――甚至,新的技艺――你的生命力就增强了。一个兴趣广泛的人不可能郁郁寡欢,真正的悲观者是那些没什么兴趣爱好的人。

培根说,一个人每失去一个朋友,他就死了一次。但我们可以从与人交往,结识新朋友的过程中获得新生。思想有多远,你就能走多远。

是满怀激情,活得很充实,还是仅仅为活着而活着,都取决于我们自己。让我们扩大交往面,强化各种关系吧!活就要活得精彩。

注释

1. contrariwise adv. 反之;顽固地

2. pessimist n. 悲观论者;悲观主义者

3. supremely adv. 无上地;崇高地