英文自修142：隐秘世界（20140930）
本系列内容英文原文取自BBC Thought for the Day节目网站，本篇录音没有放出，故只有阅读。
转载、翻译：武太白
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Thought for the Day 20140930 Canon Angela Tilby
原文
I can’t help feeling just a bit sorry for Brooks Newmark, the former minister for Civil Society caught sending explicit pictures of himself on social media to the supposed ‘Sophie Wittams’. He has had the grace to blame no one but himself for his sudden downfall.
Brooks Newmark
"Sophie Wittams"
He’s not, of course, the only one who has lived to regret a moment of wild indiscretion. People in public life often have low boredom thresholds, a strong sense of their own desirability and a frustration with the routine, unrewarding bits of their job. But there’s another element in this sad and somewhat comic story. The undercover journalist was working for a Sunday paper and it has been suggested that the whole operation was an attempt at entrapment. The paper has defended itself claiming the expose was in the public interest – i.e we need to know that male MPs are using social media to meet women. Even so it is one thing to be caught in a compromising situation which you have engineered yourself; quite another to be lured along by a male journalist.
Most of us have Walter Mitty moments; flashes of fantasy in which we enjoy unlimited power, riches, success or sex. A therapist said to me recently: Everyone has a secret life. And I suppose that also means everyone is entitled to a secret life, a psychic space where desire and fear play themselves out and I begin to discern what I really want, who I really am. It is only when the opportunity appears to realise those unlived fantasies that we have to make a choice of whether to pursue them or resist.
In Christian spirituality this is classic case of failure to resist one of the universal temptations. All kinds of people; married or single, male or female are drawn to the idea of a secret, guilt free, sexual encounter. The attraction tells us we are creatures of desire; that there is always more to us than our outer respectability reveals. Traditional language would say that the devil has many disguises and tempts us to disaster in many ways. If when an invitation comes, you find yourself scheming your way to turning your secret fantasy into reality you run the risk of implosion. Not only does your private world collapse in a highly embarrassing way but your outer world is ruined too.
Finding yourself to be neither a respected professional figure, nor a successful Casanova must be the ultimate deflation. But it is not the end of the world for any of us. Being completely humiliated by the exposure of your own fantasies is a terrible ordeal but it is also a moment of opportunity. You see the strangers you have been entertaining within in their true colours. That is the moment to make some better, wiser choices, a first step to greater integrity.
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译文
我不禁有点为前公民社会大臣布鲁克斯·纽马克感到难过，此人在社交媒体上发送自己的色情图片给一个叫“索菲·维塔姆斯”的“女人”时被抓个正着，但他很大度，除了责怪自己导致了这场突然的身败名裂以外，他谁也不责备。
当然，一失足成千古恨者也不止他一个。公共生活中人经常厌倦阈值较低，对自身的优越感较强，对他们工作中那些一成不变的、缺乏成就感的部分有挫败感。但在这个伤感的、有点戏剧性的故事中，还有另一种成分。那个卧底的记者（前文“索菲·维塔姆斯”——译注）供职于一家星期日报，有人说整个操作实际上有点钓鱼的味道。这家报纸辩称，揭露此事符合公众利益——即我们需要知道国会议员是通过社交媒体找女人的。即便如此，在自己一手造成的情境下被抓、从而对声名造成损害是一回事，被一名男记者假扮的女人诱惑被抓则完全是另一回事了
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我们大部分人都有沃尔特·米提（爱做白日梦的图片编辑，电影“The Secret Life of Walter Mitty”主人公——译注）式的时刻；幻想闪光时，我们力大无穷，富可敌国，睥睨天下，情色无限。最近一位心理医生对我说：每个人都有隐秘的生活。我觉得这就是说每个人都有权过隐秘的生活，拥有一个心灵空间，能让欲望和恐惧在那里自生自灭，我们则开始认识到自己真正想要什么，我们又真正是谁。只有当机会出现，能够实现这些未能亲历的幻想时，我们才不得不做出选择，是追寻这些幻想还是拒绝如此。
基督教灵性中，这是经典的案例，表明未能抵挡住普遍存在的诱惑。各种各样的人，已婚、未婚，男人、女人，都受到吸引，想象一种隐秘的、无罪的艳遇。这种吸引表明，我们是欲望动物；比起我们外表的可尊可敬，我们内心深处总有更多的东西。传统语言会说魔鬼变化多端，以多种方式诱惑我们，造成灾难。如果良机来临时你发现自己想方设法要把隐秘的幻想变成现实，那么你就要冒身败名裂的风险。不但你的隐秘世界会崩溃得令你极为尴尬，你的外部世界也就此坍塌了。
气球戳破的最终结果必定是发现你自己既不是受尊重的公众人物，也不是成功的卡萨诺瓦（意大利浪荡公子——译注）。但不论对谁来说，这都并不是世界的终点。因为自身的幻想遭曝光而羞辱得无地自容，这是可怕的折磨，但也是机遇时刻。你看到了内心深处的那个陌生人，还是穿戴整齐的真实形象。这也是做出更好的、更睿智选择的时刻，是向更高一层的道德迈进的第一步。