Quality of Life Is Much More Than a Job

hxdthegreat

Quality of Life Is Much More Than a Job------Larry Fennelly
    生活的质量远远不只是一份工作
                       

It has often been remarked that the saddest thing about youth is that it is wasted on the young.

   人们常说青春的最大悲哀就是浪费在青年人身上。

A recent newspaper report on a survey  conducted annually among college freshmen states that today's students are “more materialistic and less altruistic (利他主义的)” than at any other time in the 17 years of the survey.
最近报上有一份报道，关于每年都在大学新生中进行的调查，据报道称，如今的大学生比以往17年调查中的任何时候都“更注重物质利益，更缺乏利他精神”。

Not surprising in these hard times, students' major objective “is to be financially well off. Less important than ever is developing a meaningful philosophy of life.”As a result, the most popular college course today is not literature or history but accounting.
   在现在的困难时期，学生们的主要目标“是经济上要富裕。而培养一种有意义的人生哲学比以往都更不重要，”这一点并不令人惊奇。结果，如今最受欢迎的大学课程不是文学或历史而是会计。

Students' interest in teaching, social service and other altruistic fields is at a low, while enrollment (注册) in business programs, engineering and computer science is way up.
学生们对于教书、社会服务和其它有利于他人的专业的兴趣降到了一个很低的水平，而商业课程、工程和计算机科学的入学人数却直线上升。

That's no surprise either. A friend of mine (a salesperson for a chemical company) was making twice the salary of her college instructors her first year on the job -- even before she completed her two-year associate degree.
这也并不令人惊奇。我的一个朋友（一家化学公司的推销员）工作第一年赚的钱就是她的大学老师们年薪的两倍--而她甚至还未读完大专两年的准学士学位课程。

“What good does their music (or history or literature) do them?” she was fond of saying. And that was four years ago; I don't think I want to know how much she's earning now.
 “他们学的音乐（或历史或文学）对他们有什么用？”她过去常喜欢这么说。那是四年以前；我认为我并不想知道她现在赚多少钱。

Frankly, I'm proud of the young woman -- not of her attitude, but of her success. But why can't we have it both ways? Can't we educate people for life as well as for a career?
 坦率地说，我为这位年轻女士感到骄傲--不是为她的看法，而是为她的成功。但为什么我们不能两者兼得呢？难道我们不能既为生活也为职业来教育人们吗？

In a time of increasing specialization -- a time when 90 percent of all the scientists who have ever lived are currently alive -- more than ever we need to know what is truly important in life. Most of us learn this too late in life.It's only between the ages of 30 and 50 that most people finally arrive at the inevitable conclusion that they were meant to do more than serve a corporation, a government agency, or whatever. We realize that quality of life is not entirely determined by a balance sheet. Sure, everyone wants to be financially comfortable, but we also want to feel that we have a perspective on the world beyond the confines of our occupation; we want to be able to serve our fellow men.
在一个越来越专业化的时代--一个所有出现过的科学家中90%现在还健在的时代--里，我们比以往任何时候更需要知道什么是生活中真正重要的。我们大多数人在懂得这一点时已为时过晚。只是到了30岁和50岁之间，大多数人才最终得出下面这个必然的结论，即他们不该只是为一家公司，一个政府机构或其它什么单位工作。我们意识到生活的质量并不完全取决于一张收支平衡表。当然，人人都想在经济上宽裕，但我们也想感觉到我们对职业范围以外的世界有个正确的认识；我们想能为我们的同胞服务。

If it's a fact that these realizations do not dawn (出现) until mid-life, is it then not the role of educational institutions to prepare the way for them?
 如果这些认识直到中年才会出现是事实的话，那么教育机构的作用难道不是为它们的出现作准备吗？

While it's true that everyone needs a career -- preferably a well-paid one – it's equally true that our civilization has amassed (聚积) an incredible amount of knowledge in fields far removed from our own and that we are better for our understanding of these other contributions -- be they scientific or artistic. It is equally true that, in studying the diverse wisdom of others, we learn how to think. More important, perhaps, education teaches us to see the connections between things, as well as to see beyond our immediate needs.
确实，人人都需要一份工作--最好是一份高薪工作--但是我们的文明确实也已在与我们自己的专业相去甚远的领域中积累了多得令人难以置信的知识，而且由于我们对于其它领域中的这些贡献的了解：无论是科学上的贡献还是艺术上的贡献，我们的状况得到了改善。同样确实无误的是，在研究不同智慧时，我们可以学会如何思考。更重要的也许是教育教会了我们看到事物之间的联系，并看到我们的眼前需求以外的东西。

But the most important argument for a broad education is that in studying the accumulated wisdom of the ages, we improve our moral sense. I saw a cartoon recently that shows a group of businessmen looking puzzled as they sit around a conference table; one of them is talking on the intercom . “Miss Baxter,” he says, “could you please send in someone who can distinguish right from wrong?”
但是综合教育的最重要的理由是在学习世世代代积累的智慧时，我们可以增强道德意识。最近我看到一幅漫画，上面有一群生意人围坐在一张会议桌旁看上去迷惑不解；其中一个人在对着内部通话装置说话。“巴克斯特小姐，”他说，“请你派一位能够分辨是非的人进来好吗？”

In the long run that's what education really ought to be about. And I think it can be. My college roommate, now head of a large shipping company in New York, not surprisingly was a business major. But he also hosted a classical music show on the college's radio station and listened to Wagner as he studied his accounting. That's the way it should be. Oscar Wilde was right when he said that we ought to give our ability to our work but our genius to our lives.
从长远的观点来看，这正是教育所真正应该做的。而我认为它也能够做到。我大学时的室友现在是纽约一家大航运公司的负责人，以前他是个商业专业的学生，这并不令人惊奇。但他当年还在大学的无线电台主持一档古典音乐节目，而且一边学习他的会计学一边听瓦格纳的音乐。事情就应该如此。奥斯卡· 王尔德说得没错，我们应该把能力用于我们的工作，而把天赋给予我们的生活。

Let's hope our educators answer the students' cries for career education, but at the same time let's ensure that the students are prepared for the day when they realize what life is really all about.
让我们希望我们的教师响应学生们对于职业教育的呼声，但同时也让我们保证学生们能为他们认识到生活真谛的那一天做好准备。

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If I were 21



 If I were 21 and wanted to study medicine, I don't think I'd go straight to school. I'd get a job as an aid in a hospital first -- carrying out bedpans（便盆）, if necessary -- and look and listen. After a year or two of that, I might know what kind of medicine I wanted to study. Maybe I'd find that I preferred to become an expert in childhood diseases rather than a surgeon (外科医生). I might even end up as a chemist or a maker of medical equipment. I'd see where the job led me.
如果我是21岁，想要学医，我想我不会直接去学校。我会先在一家医院里找一份做护工的工作——端便盆，如果需要的话——去看，去听。这样干上一两年以后，我也许会知道我想学哪一科的医学。也许我会发现我更愿意成为一名儿科疾病的专家而不是一名外科医生。我最终甚至可能成为一名药剂师或一名医疗器械的制造商。我会看这份工作把我引向何方。

    I happen to have monkeylike tendency  to want to feel, smell and taste things that arouse my curiosity, then to take them apart. Not everybody is like that, but a scientific researcher should be. But if I were 21 and not scientifically inclined,  I wouldn't disdain a job selling plastic dishes, for instance, from door to door.  I'd learn so much about people -- much more than in a laboratory. I'd make money and have fun. And I might learn some new things about what people want to buy --new ideas that would help the researcher, the designer or the manufacturer. It isn't the job you take that matters --it's what you do with it.
我碰巧具有猴子一样的性格倾向，想去摸摸、闻闻、尝尝引起我好奇的东西，然后把它们拆开。并非每个人都这样，但一个科学研究者却应该这样。但如果我是21岁，不喜爱科学，我也不会鄙弃一份挨家挨户兜售塑料盘子之类的工作。我会学到那么多关于人的东西——比在实验室里学的多得多。我会赚钱，过得很开心。我也许会学到一些人们想买什么的新知识——会有助于研究者、设计者或制造商的新思想。重要的不在于你干什么工作——关键在于你如何干。

  I heard the other day of a young army officer who felt bitter when he left the army because his former employer had offered to give him his old job back  -- sealing envelopes. In the army, the young man, had been flying a bomber. Yet sealing envelopes is not a bad job. Some bright young man might derive（取得） an invention from it. Are envelopes made the way they should be, or does an envelope look the way it does because we're used to the way it looks? I don't know. What about the glue（胶水）, our methods of stamping and addressing? What I'm getting at is that some people are too snobbish in their thinking about work to see the possibilities every job offers if it's done right. One way to find out what you want to do in life is to try all kinds of jobs. If you don't like working in a filling station,   try a factory, an office, a shop, a farm. Not only will you find out what you want to do, but you will also pick up an amazing amount of useful information as you go along.
前几天我听说一位年轻的军官退伍时感到忿忿不平，因为他先前的雇主把他的老本行还给了他——封信封。在部队时，这位年轻人一直在驾驶轰炸机。然而封信封也不是一份坏工作。某个聪明的年轻人也许会从中获得一项发明。信封是否就应该这样制作，还是因为我们习惯于它现在的样子所以才认为信封就应该是这个样子？我不知道。胶水怎么样，我们贴邮票和书写姓名地址的方式又怎么样呢？我这里想说的是有些人对工作的看法过于势利，以至于看不到如果干得好每一种工作所提供的潜在价值。有一种弄清楚你想在生活中干什么的方法就是尝试各种各样的工作。如果你不喜欢在汽车加油站工作，那就试试工厂、办公室、商店、农场。你不仅会发现你想干什么，而且还会在这个过程中不经意地获得大量有用的信息。

 I know a young man who's unsure whether to be a boat-builder or an accountant. I suggested, when he asked my advice, that he sit down at a typewriter and write two essays --one on the advantages of being a boat-builder, the other on the advantages of being an accountant. Then he should write two more on the disadvantages of each job and study what he's written. You never know what's in your mind until you get busy and let it out.
我认识一个年轻人，他吃不准是当一名造船者还是做一名会计师好。当他征求我的意见时，我建议他坐在打字机前写两篇文章——一篇论述当造船者的好处，另一篇论述当会计师的好处。然后他应该再写两篇文章论述每份工作的坏处，然后对他所写的东西进行一番研究。你永远不会知道自己心里的想法，直到你开动脑筋，把它表达出来。

   A lot of people seem to think that we can learn only in our teens. Kids get this impression from their elders and, on emerging from the university or armed services at the age of 22, imagine themselves "too old" to take up such a noble science as, for example, medicine.
 许多人似乎认为我们只能在十几岁时学习。孩子们从他们的长辈那儿得到这种印象，22岁从大学毕业或从军队中退役，就以为他们自己“太老了”，无法再学像医学这类的高深的科学了。

  I was in my early 70s when I started my study of medicine -- not for a degree, but to enable me better to experiment with a medicine we're invented in our laboratories. Two years ago I took up hydrogen-electric welding (气电焊), and I became a pretty good welder. I was trying to find a means of eliminating the sputter（劈啪声）. I relate this in no spirit of boastfulness.  I just want youngsters to know that they are never "too old" to learn.
我是70出头时才开始学医的——不是为了拿学位，而是要使自己能更好地试验我们在实验室里发明的一种药。两年前我开始学习气电焊，成了一名相当不错的焊工。当时我正试图找到一个消除劈啪声的办法。我讲这些决无自吹自擂之心。我只是想让年轻人知道他们任何时候学习都不会“太老”。

   Humans are producing more and more new things. The more we produce, the more people will work, and the more people will buy. Employment will snowball.  There are more opportunities today than there have ever been, and they're increasing all the time. I think they're infinite. And the older I get the more I realize that the highest good is the good of the people.  If I were considering a new occupation, I should weigh  three things: how well it served the public; how much fun there was in it; and, of course, whether its financial reward would meet my needs.
人类正在生产越来越多的新产品。我们生产得越多，人们就会工作得越多，买得越多。就业人数就会滚雪球般地增长。如今，机会比以往都多，而且一直在增加。我认为它们是无限的。我年纪越大就越意识到公众的利益高于一切。如果我在考虑从事一项新的职业，我会权衡三个因素：它服务于公众的情况如何；它里面有多少乐趣；它的经济报酬能否满足我的需求。