《美丽人生》：你的生活，自我定义
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老桑说
如果你现在正面对失望的处境，
可以考虑重塑你的观点，
试着从新的角度来看待你的境遇。
最后，只要你愿意，
生活就是美丽的。
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「 朋友，你好，我是老桑。」
你曾经失望过吗?比如因为什么事而特别的bummed（心烦意乱）?有时候，一些小事情可能就会让我们感到悲伤或沮丧，比如:
你和12名同学报名接龙参加晚上的聚餐。在晚餐开始的前一天，有三个人在微信群里找借口请假说他们不能参加。晚饭前不久，又有三个人说他们来不了了。预定的12个人的桌子，现在看起来对6个人来说真的很大。
春天来了，你特别想要摆脱让自己情绪低落的“室内热浪”。所以你计划在一年中第一个温暖的周末进行一次有趣的户外活动。但是到了周五的晚上，乌云滚滚而来，又变成了一个寒冷多雨的周末。你不得不scuttle（取消）自己的郊游。
你和朋友计划在最喜欢的餐厅吃一顿特别的晚餐。你已经盼望这顿饭好几天了。然后那天的早些时候你吃了一些不适合你的东西，导致你的胃痛无法消失。你不得不取消晚餐，呆在家里喝姜茶。
这些场景你听起来熟悉吗？你本想和同学们呆在一起，呼吸新鲜空气，或者和朋友聚聚，但突然发生的一些事，derail（打乱）了你的计划。当这种情况发生时，你很容易就会情绪低落。
1997年意大利电影《美丽人生》探讨了一个关于失望的主题——只是在更大的范围内。这部电影以1943年的意大利为背景，当时正值二战肆虐。德国刚刚入侵意大利，将成千上万的犹太人和政治犯驱逐到纳粹集中营。以高质量生活著称的意大利陷入混乱。
美丽人生曾经是美国最卖座的外语电影，后来取而代之的是2000年上映的《卧虎藏龙》——至今仍是美国最受欢迎的外语片。《美丽人生》在中国也广受欢迎，在豆瓣电影排行榜的前250名中排名第五。
Guido, Dora and Giosué
在电影中，圭多(罗伯托·贝尼尼饰)是一名托斯卡纳小镇的犹太人书店老板，他和六岁的儿子乔舒亚被带到集中营。圭多的妻子多拉，虽然不是犹太人，但她为了爱和团聚自愿选择来到集中营。然而，在集中营内男人和女人被关押在不同的营地，所以他们仍然是分开的。
圭多机智敏捷，富有幽默感，他运用丰富的想象力来保护他的儿子免受德国人关押的恐怖威胁。他没有跟儿子讲真实的情况，而是告诉他现在身处一个复杂的游戏，他必须执行任务赚分，谁先得到1000点会赢得一辆坦克。
Giosué and Guido
圭多没有屈服并接受自己的命运，而是充分利用当时的环境。他知道正在发生的暴行，比如大规模处决和强迫劳动。那里的生活条件很差，食物配给也很可怜。然而，他仍然保持积极的态度，设法给他的儿子带来快乐，进而给他周围的其他囚犯带来快乐。
最后，一名德国军官下令处决圭多。当他走向死亡的时候，他经过他的儿子并向他眨眼，假装这只是游戏的另一部分。圭多被击毙后，盟军进攻并关闭了营地。乔舒亚坐上了一辆美国坦克，他以为这是他挣来的，后来母子团聚。电影就这样结束了。
圭多走向死亡
《美丽人生》的一个重要主题关于如何去对待生活。对圭多来说，无论环境如何，生活都是一幅充满爱和欢乐的画面，他的乐观主义是具有感染力的。这告诉我们，生活的方方面面都可以是美好的——即使是在悲剧之中。
在我上面的例子中，如果你的同学中有一半不来吃晚饭，你可以选择对此感到grumpy（生气），抱怨“很少”人来参加，或者，你还可以利用这个机会与到场的朋友们进行更深入的交谈，更好地了解那些参加晚宴的人。
如果下雨毁了你的周末，你可以拿把伞，穿上靴子，无论如何都要去郊游——去一个相较于天气好时没那么拥挤的地方。带上你的耳机，大声唱出来。事实上，《雨中曲》（Singin' in the Rain）是一部经典电影的主题曲!
如果你正在与食物中毒作斗争，那就休息一下，要知道它会过去的。你可以和朋友重新安排晚餐，然后呆在家里看你最喜欢的书和电影。如果你正在减肥中，那么恭喜你——作为额外的好处，你甚至可以减掉几磅。
欢迎查看我公众号菜单栏目中读书会推荐的书评，你不必等到生病的那一天才来享受那些精神盛宴！
当面对令人失望的情况时，这些只是改变你观点的几种方法。当然，这些日常的烦恼远不及《美丽人生》中描绘的纳粹集中营的恐怖。然而，从圭多的态度中我们可以学到的是，无论情况多么糟糕，生活都是由你自己决定的。
没有你的同意，没有人能让你自卑。——埃莉诺·罗斯福
”在电影中，我们还见到了圭多的叔叔埃里塞奥，他经营着一家餐馆，帮助圭多在小镇上起步。在他们被抓走之前，圭多拜访了他叔叔的家，并注意到了他所拥有的各种艺术品、装饰品和其他的古董。埃利塞奥叔叔说：“没有什么比不必要的更有必要。”
在一个我们重视实际而非幻想，注重实用而非浪漫的世界里，我们很容易让对工作和课业的极端关注夺走生活中的许多乐趣。叔叔埃利塞奥经营着一家upscale（高档）餐厅的同时，还沉迷于艺术，提醒我们生活中简单的快乐也可以是最特别和值得追求的。
对于圭多和埃利塞奥叔叔而言，你可以是一个思维丰富的智者，同时享受简单的事情。这就好像他们对这个世界保持着某种纯真，从他们所学的一切中找到快乐——即使是在糟糕的情况下。他们在工作和玩乐之间找到平衡，不会因为“没有必要”而丢弃任何东西。如果它能带来快乐，那么它就是“必要的”。
Uncle Orefice
如果只有6个人参加你的同学晚宴，你仍然可以点你最喜欢的菜，享受这顿饭。或者甚至尝试一些不同的东西，让这顿饭成为每个人的新体验。
在下雨的周末，与其抱怨糟糕的天气，不如把注意力放在小事上。你可以试着发现其中的艺术性。事实上，世界上许多优美的诗歌都是关于雨的。这让我回想起杜甫的《春夜喜雨》和艾米莉·狄金森的《夏雨》。
如果你感觉不舒服，你能享受什么简单的快乐呢?翻阅一本书画书，看看艺术家们是如何努力让生活变得有意义的。享受自己饮用几乎无限数量的好茶。温习一些古典诗歌。生活从不缺乏选项。
埃利塞奥叔叔也和其他人一样被送往集中营。然而，他到达后不久就被送进了毒气室。尽管这部电影是喜剧，但它仍然描绘了这些战时暴行的恐怖。
我的朋友，如果你现在正面对失望的处境，可以考虑重塑你的观点，试着从新的角度来看待你的境遇。圭多教导我们，生活是由我们自己创造的，而埃里塞奥叔叔提醒我们要珍惜简单的快乐——没有什么比不必要的更有必要。最后，只要你愿意，生活就是美丽的。
本文部分图片来源网络。
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给你启发，激励你上进，陪伴你坚持。
敬请期待下一集。
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Life is Beautiful:
how to deal with disappointment
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「 Hello, my friend！
I'm John Smagula. 」
Have you ever been disappointed? Like, really bummed out over something? Sometimes certain small things can make us sad or discouraged, such as:
You put together a 12-person dinner with your classmates. The day before the dinner, three people announce in your WeChat chatroom they can’t attend, offering excuses. And then shortly before dinner, three more people say they can’t make it. Your table, reserved for 12, now seems really big for the 6 people who actually show up.
Spring has arrived and you really want to break out of the “cabin fever” that has you feeling down. You plan a fun outdoor activity on the first warmish weekend of the year. But then on Friday night the clouds roll in, and it turns into a cold and rainy weekend. You have to scuttle your outing.
You plan a special dinner with a friend at your favorite restaurant. You have been looking forward to this dinner for days. And then earlier that day you eat something that disagrees with you, causing you a stomachache that won’t go away. You have to cancel the dinner, staying home to drink ginger tea.
Do any of these scenarios sound familiar to you? You were looking forward to spending time with classmates, getting out in the fresh air, or getting caught up with a friend—but something comes up and derails your plans. It’s easy to get down and out when this happens.
A comedy-drama
Life is Beautiful
The 1997 Italian movie Life is Beautiful explores the theme of disappointment—just on a much larger scale. The film is set in 1943 Italy, with World War II raging all around. Germany had just invaded Italy, deporting thousands of Jews and political prisoners to Nazi death camps. Italy, a country known for its high quality of life was tossed into chaos.
Life is Beautiful was once the highest-grossing foreign language movie in the United States, being replaced by Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon in 2000—which remains the most popular foreign language film in America to this day. Life is Beautiful has also been phenomenally popular in China, where it is #5 on the Douban Top 250 movie list.
Guido
In the movie, Guido Orefice (played by Roberto Benigni) is a Jewish bookshop owner in a small Tuscan town. He and his six-year-old son Giosué are seized and brought to a concentration camp. Guido’s wife, Dora, is not Jewish, but she voluntarily checks into the camp in a show of love and solidarity. Men and women are in different camps, though, so they remain separated.
Guido has a quick wit and a lively sense of humor, and he employs his abundant imagination to shield his son from the horrors of the German internment. Rather than explain the circumstances, he explains to Giosué that the camp is a complicated game in which he must perform tasks to earn points—and whoever gets to 1,000 points first will win a tank.
Dora
Rather than get down and accept his fate, Guido made the best of the circumstances. He was aware of the atrocities that were occurring, such as the mass executions and forced labor. The living conditions were squalid and food rations pitiful. Yet he kept a positive attitude, seeking to bring joy to his son and, by extension, the other prisoners around him.
In the end, a German officer orders Guido’s execution. While walking to his death, he passes his son and winks at him, pretending that this is just another part of the game. After Guido is shot, the Allied forces enter and shut down the camp. Giosué gets to ride in an American tank, which he thinks is his, and is reunited with his mother. And there the movie ends.
Giosué and Guido
Life is what you make of it
A key theme to Life is Beautiful is that life is what you make of it. Life to Guido is a picture of love and joy, notwithstanding the circumstances, and his positivism is contagious. He shows us that life is beautiful in every way if you want it to be—even in the midst of tragedy.
In my examples above, if half of your classmates skip dinner, you can choose to be grumpy about it, bemoaning how “few” people showed up, or you can use this as an opportunity to have a deeper conversation and get to know the people who did attend even better.
If the rain ruins your weekend, you can grab an umbrella and put on some boots, going on the outing anyway—to a venue that will be much less crowded than if the weather was good. Bring along your headphones and sing out loud. In fact, Singin’ in the Rain is the title song of a classic movie!
Singin' in the Rain
And if you’re struggling with a bout of food poisoning, just rest up and know that it will pass. You can reschedule the dinner with your friend and just stay at home getting caught up on your favorite books and movies. If you’re trying to lose weight, well, you may even lose a few pounds as an added benefit.
Check out my book club recommendations in the menu below, although you need not wait for a sick day to enjoy one of the selections!
These are just a few ways to change your perspective when facing a disappointing situation. Of course, these daily nuisances come nowhere close to the horrors of the Nazi internment portrayed in Life is Beautiful. We can learn from Guido’s attitude, though, that no matter how dreadful the situation, life is what you make of it.
“No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.” –Eleanor Roosevelt
”Simple pleasures
Dora and Giosué
In the movie we also meet Guido’s Uncle Eliseo, who operates a restaurant and helps Guido get his start in town. Before they were captured, Guido visits his uncle’s home and notices his assortment of artwork, decorations, and other curiosities. Uncle Eliseo remarks, “Nothing’s more necessary than the unnecessary.”
In a world where we value being practical over fanciful, pragmatic over romantic, it’s easy to let our extreme focus on work and school sap us of the many joys in life. Uncle Eliseo indulged in the arts while still operating an upscale restaurant, reminding us that the simple pleasures in life can be the most special and sought after.
To Guido and Uncle Eliseo, you can be an intellectual while enjoying the simple things. It’s almost as if they maintain a certain innocence about the world, finding joy in everything they learn—even in bad situations. They balanced work with playfulness, and they didn’t discard anything simply because it is “unnecessary.” If it brings joy, then it becomes “necessary.”
Uncle Orefice
If only 6 people attend your classmate dinner, you can still order your favorite dishes and enjoy the meal anyway. Or maybe even try something different, making the meal a new experience for everyone.
On the rainy weekend, rather than grouse about the bad weather, turn your focus to the little things. You can try to find the artistry about it. In fact, some of the best poems in the world are about the rain. Du Fu's Spring Night Rain and Emily Dickinson's Summer Shower come to mind.
And if you’re not feeling well, what simple pleasures can you enjoy anyway? Flip through a book of paintings and calligraphy to see how artists try to make meaning out of life. Enjoy the opportunity to drink nearly unlimited amounts of good tea. Brush up on some classic poetry. There is no shortage of options.
Uncle Eliseo was also taken to the concentration camp with the others. He was sent to the gas chamber shortly after arriving, though. Even though the movie is a comedy, it still portrays the horrors of these wartime atrocities.
Roberto Benigni
My friend, if you’re dealing with disappointment right now, change your perspective and try to see your circumstances in a new light. Guido teaches us that life is what we make of it, and Uncle Eliseo reminds us to cherish the simple pleasures—that nothing is more necessary than the unnecessary. In the end, your life is beautiful—if you want it to be.
{ 今日英文速记卡 }
1.Bummed \ ˈbəmd \
a)含义：adj. 失望的
b)例句：
i.Like, really bummed out over something?
比如因为什么事而特别的心烦意乱?
ii.Her weird hairdo really bummed her boyfriend out.
她那奇怪的发型让男友感到很不爽
c)近义词： discouraged, disheartened, dispirited
2.Scuttle \ ˈskə-tᵊl \
a)含义： v. 破坏；逃避
b)例句：
i.You have to scuttle your outing.
你不得不取消自己的郊游。
ii.Unfortunately, this is another promise that is more likely to scuttle a relationship than shore it up.
不幸地是，这是另一个破坏而不是支持关系的承诺。
c)近义词： abandon, destroy, sink
3.Derail \ di-ˈrāl \
a)含义：v. 出轨；扰乱
b)例句：
i.You were looking forward to spending time with classmates, getting out in the fresh air, or getting caught up with a friend—but something comes up and derails your plans.
你本想和同学们呆在一起，呼吸新鲜空气，或者和朋友聚聚，但突然发生的一件事，打乱了你的计划。
ii.The bank warned that if not addressed immediately, a crash in the property market may derail economic growth in emerging economies.
银行警告说，如果不立刻解决这一问题，物业市场的崩溃将会使新兴经济体的经济发展脱轨。
c)近义词： crash, hinder, thwart
4.Grumpy \ ˈgrəm-pē \
a)含义：adj. 脾气暴躁的
b)例句：
i.In my examples above, if half of your classmates skip dinner, you can choose to be grumpy about it, bemoaning how “few” people showed up, or you can use this as an opportunity to have a deeper conversation and get to know the people who did attend even better.
在我上面的例子中，如果你的同学中有一半不吃晚饭，你可以选择对此感到生气，抱怨“很少”人来参加，或者你还可以利用这个机会与到场的朋友们进行更深入的交谈，更好地了解那些参加晚宴的人。
ii.I would be grumpy and cause those around me to be unhappy.
我的脾气这时候也会特别暴躁，令我周围的人怏怏不乐。
c)近义词： crabby, cranky, grouchy
5.Upscale \ ˈəp-ˈskāl \
a)含义：adj. 高档的
b)例句：
i.Uncle Eliseo indulged in the arts while still operating an upscale restaurant, reminding us that the simple pleasures in life can be the most special and sought after.
叔叔埃利塞奥经营着一家高档餐厅的同时，还沉迷于艺术，提醒我们生活中简单的快乐也可以是最特别和值得追求的。
ii.The upscale restaurant serves delicious steaks, fresh seafood dishes, an extensive collection of wines, and classic cocktails.
高档餐厅供应美味的牛排，新鲜的海鲜，葡萄酒广泛收集，和经典的鸡尾酒。
c)近义词： exclusive, high-end, upmarket
Thank you for watching me to inspire, encourage, and accompany you.
See you next time.
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