英语美文-Enjoy Life’s Little Pleasures 享受小快乐

A few weeks ago we found ourselves once again at one of Dr.Margaret’s high school reunions. Her large graduating class has gotten together every five years for three decades now, and it has always been an event that we enjoyed more than we thought we would. The opportunity to share memories of a lifetime ago. And the life lived since then, with people from the same background has a way of grounding people.We are able to reflect on what has, and does, give life value. 　 　

Dr.Margaret had to tell the story several times of the death last year of her best friend since age 12. This was the first reunion that they didn’t attend together, and it cast a poignant light on what is really important in life and relationships. All of this got us to reflecting on a quote from Norman Lear that Dr.Patrick keeps hanging above his desk at the office: 　 　

Throughout the American scene——television, sports, government——the message seems to be that life is made up of winners and losers. If you are not number one or in the top five， you have failed. There doesn’t seem to be any reward for simply succeeding at the level of doing one’s best. Success is how you collect your minutes. You spend millions of minutes to reach one triumph, one moment, then you spend maybe a thousand minutes enjoying it. If you were unhappy through those millions of minutes, what good is the thousand minutes of triumph？ It doesn’t equate. How many successful people end up suicides? Life is made of small pleasures. Good eye contact over the breakfast table with your wife. A touching moment with a friend.Happiness is made of those tiny successes. The big ones come too infrequently. If you don’t have all of those zillions of tiny successes, the big ones don’t mean anything. 　 　

Even though we read it often, this experience of reflecting over

the many years of our lives and looking forward to the lesser number that are left gives the quote special emphasis. We realize that life’s most precious moments are a warm and funny lunch shared with friends, playing cards with the family in front of the fireplace, or sleeping in two extra hours on Saturday instead of working on the book that we are too busy to get out. 　 　

Now we have returned to our over-busy and hectic lives, and we will likely have little or no contact with those folks we went to high school with so long ago. We’ll see them at the next reunion though, and in the meantime will try to remember, as quoted from Robert Brault,“seize the moment and enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things.” 　 　

几个星期以前，我们高中同学又一次在聚会上见面，当年教我们的玛格丽特博士也出席了。三十年来，她这个规模庞大的毕业班每五年聚一次。而每一次，我们都 会觉得聚会给我们带来的欢乐远比预想的要多。背景

相同的人重叙当年，谈说别后的生活，总能把人拉回到现实中来。我们可以仔细想想是什么让生活有了意义，什 么可以让生活有意义。 　　

玛格丽特博士给我们说了好几次她的一个朋友去年离世的事情，那是她十二岁以后最要好的朋友。这是他们第一次没有一 起出席聚会，这让我们深刻地体会到生命和人与人之间最重要的是什么。所有这一切，让我们回想起帕特里克博士在办公桌上方的那面墙上一直贴着的一张纸，那是 诺尔曼·里尔的一段话： 　　

“在美国的各种场合——电视界、运动界、政界——传递的信息似乎都是，生活中只有赢家和输家。如果你不是第一 名，或者前五名，那就意味着你失败了。如果你只做到尽你所能，你不会得到任何奖赏。成功在于你怎样利用每一分钟。你用数百万分钟来取得一次成功，而成功只 是一瞬间的事，然后，你可能用一千分钟来享受成功的滋味。如果你在那数百万分钟里不快乐，那么成功之际的一千分钟又有什么用呢？乐不抵苦。多少成功人士最 后都自杀了？生活是由无数微小的快乐构成的。在早餐桌上与你妻子愉快的对视；与朋友相处的感人片刻。幸福就来源于这些微小的成功。大的成功并不经常到来。 如果你没有这无数个微小的成功，那些大的成功就没有任何意义。” 　　

虽然我们经常看到这段话，可现在回顾过去漫长的岁月，展望余下不多的日子，这段话便有了一种特殊的况味。我们意识到生活中最珍贵的时刻是与朋友一起分享的温馨而又愉快的午餐，是与家人在壁炉前打扑克牌，或者周六多睡两个小时，而不是忙于研读我们来不及看完的某一本书。 　 　

如今，我们又回到异常繁忙、紧张的生活中，基本上不怎么会与那些很久以前一起读高中的人联系。不过，我人会在下一次聚会时见到他们。与此同时，我们会谨 记罗伯特·布洛尔特的话：“把握此刻，享受细微的小事，因为终有一天回过头来你会发现，这些其实都是大事。”