开往繁花似锦的列车：因改变而生
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老桑说
那远方火车的汽笛声经常触动我们的想象，看到一辆飞驰而过的火车，就会产生旅行的欲望、到遥远国度旅行的念想。
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「 朋友，你好，我是老桑。」
老桑在宾州铁路博物馆
这是我的第200篇公众号文章！
大约3年前，我开始写这个公众号，
希望通过互联网传递正能量，
来激励、鼓励和陪伴你。
我将继续尽我最大的努力，
和你一起砥砺前行。
谢谢大家的支持！
上周末，我参观了宾夕法尼亚州铁路博物馆，那里通过机车、有轨电车和手工艺品追溯了美国铁路200年的历史。在宏伟的主展览厅内，修复后焕然一新的车辆被陈列在室内的五条轨道上。游客们要花好几个小时才能欣赏完所有110辆老式机车和有轨电车。
如果你像我一样，我敢肯定你坐过很多次火车。无论是我之前乘坐的费城到纽约间的通勤列车，还是中国从北京到上海的高铁，每一次旅行都能唤醒我对于愿景与进步的想象。
宾州铁路博物馆
铁路为我们的梦想提供了助力。那远方火车的怀旧汽笛声经常触动我们的想象。对一些人来说，看到一辆飞驰而过的火车，就会产生旅行的欲望，产生到遥远国度旅行的念想。就在我今天离开火车轨道旁的一家杂货店时，一辆美国铁路公司的列车呼啸而过。我看了一会儿，就开始想着接下来要到哪里去。
铁路也代表着进步，因为它们永远地改变了我们的生活。自19世纪以来，他们用速度和效率把美国各地连接起来，把货物送到遥远的市场，将新鲜农产品带到我们的餐桌上，它改变了商业实践，激励了制造业发展，为数百万工人提供了就业。今天，铁路对我们生活的方方面面仍然至关重要。
车辆展览厅
当我在博物馆里闲逛时，我惊叹于铁路是如何带来进步的。美国最早的城市是沿着水路发展起来的，但后来铁路使更偏远地区的资源得以进入商业领域。在铁路出现之前，人们和货物都是通过步行或乘马车的方式来运输的。铁路使乘客和货物能够到达他们以前从未去过的地方。
虽然我们通常总是在想象和进步之间建立起积极的联系，就像铁路一样；但我们必须满足一个条件才能取得进步：改变。如果你想改善你的健康、人际关系、工作或生活方式，你需要做出一些改变。然而，有时我们害怕改变，而正是这种恐惧阻止我们前进。
改变需要你从熟悉过渡到不熟悉。在火车站买票后，经过一个旋转门，登上火车，享受旅程。改变也是如此。然而，许多人走到他们梦想的十字转门后又退缩了，他们认为不值得为此付出代价。遗憾的是，他们放弃了自己的希望和目标。
美好的生活是有代价的。就像我去纽约和上海的火车不是免费的一样，到达变化的另一端也需要门票。你准备好了吗?
电力机车 (1963)
铁路穿山穿岭。就像身处在一个洞穴之中，当你进入一个隧道时，你不知道自己会发现什么。这种不确定性会产生恐惧。
当你开始改变你的生活时，你并不知道结果会怎样。例如，如果你开始一种新的饮食方式，你不知道它会成功。如果你要换工作或辞职，你不知道下一份工作会不会更好。如果你打算要离开一段感情，你不知道下一个人是否真的会关心你，善待你。
这种不确定性使人们感到terrify（恐惧）。与其直面这种风险，还不如顺其自然。但是为了改变，你必须面对这种恐惧，这样你才能应对它。它要求你承认自己对结果不确定，但无论如何你都要去争取。要相信自己有能力把事情弄清楚。
守车 (1942)
你可以说：“我要去大胆尝试，尽管我不知道它究竟会怎样。”
在今天的第200篇博文中，我回顾了自己的第一篇博文，日期是2016年9月25日。名为“行百里者”的文章中还包括我的第一个视频。那个视频完全是照本宣科的，在我拿到我满意的版本之前，我对着镜头读了很多遍台词。我为自己感到非常自豪，因为我必须鼓起勇气用另一种语言拍摄视频。
不过，我没有在这里提供视频链接，因为我对此感到非常尴尬！因为里面的我看起来很不自然也非常僵硬。现在当我拍视频的时候，即使我知道自己想要表达的主题和观点，我也会经常extemporaneous（即兴）发言。不过，我第一次在没有提词器的情况下拍摄时，我还是很紧张的 。因为我一直在担心视频播放出来的效果。
老桑在宾州铁路博物馆录制视频
虽然我还有很长的路要走，但我认为现在自己拍摄的视频已经好多了。虽然写好的台词让我备受拘束，但活在当下的自发性和是vibrancy（活力）帮助我进步。这也是对生活的隐喻。如果你想变得完美，但却只是把所有的事情都照本宣科地读出来，你就不会以你能达到的速度成长或进步。
蒸汽机车 (1914)
铁路改变了风景。曾经质朴的田园风光被铁路网所彻底改造。许多项目都遭到了当地居民的抵制和拒绝，尽管这可能会给他们带来更好的生活。
当你要改变自己的生活时，人们可能会感觉不理解。他们可能会取笑你，甚至拒绝你。他们可能想要把你限制在一个为你打造的概念上的笼子里。他们不知道你capable（能做什么），但却会根据他们的认知来判断你的过往。
客车 (1928)
究竟你是怎样的人并不tether（受制）于你的过往。每一天都是新的一天，你可以选择自己将要怎样去生活。然而，这样做需要勇气，大多数人不会这样做，因为他们害怕可能会遭到拒绝。但也不要去搁置自己的梦想。
在一天结束的时候，想想这就是自己的生活，考虑一下它究竟代表着什么。
铁路桥跨越了奔腾的溪流。而桥梁是土木工程中最复杂的壮举之一，建造它们具有挑战性和风险。然而，人类克服了困难，达到了新的高度。
当机会来临时，它们往往都会留给有准备和有付出的人。
”一次又一次，我们被告知奋斗和困难是生活的事实。有很多谚语都描述了如何克服困难是进步过程的一部分。这些我们已经听过很多次了，但是当我们主动接受这些挑战而不是被迫接受它们时，它们就有了完全不同的含义。
客车 (1886)
人们很难做出改变。为了实现你的梦想，你可能不得不熬夜。你可能需要控制与家人和朋友在一起的时间，这样你才能更专注。你可能不得不改变你的阅读材料，放弃以娱乐为基础的内容，选择更实质性的内容。你将不得不与纪律斗争，以保持专注。
就像一只正在蜕变的蝴蝶，只有在挣扎中你才能找到真正的成长。苦难暴露并塑造你的性格。通过困难，你的道路将变得更有意义。过着舒适生活的人知道他们缺少了什么，因为他们缺乏活力和力量。如果一切都很容易，我们就没有人会学习、成长或感到活着。
“任何物体在不受外力的作用下都会保持匀速直线运动或静止状态，直到不平衡的力迫使它改变运动状态为止。”牛顿第一运动定律也适用于我们的生活。除非我们把不平衡的改变力量释放到我们的生活中，否则我们将停留在同样的环境，同样的习惯。
火车场外景
我的朋友，如果你觉得生活停滞不前，并且你也不会为改变付出代价。这时候就考虑一下不确定性、判断或斗争是否会阻碍你。无论如何，面对这些恐惧并采取行动。当你已经付了这张票，走在了十字转门上，这和走在铁路上一样，你将把自己个人经历的风景转化成进步与成功。
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。
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Your train ticket to a better life:
why you need to change to make progress
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「 Hello, my friend！
I'm John Smagula. 」
This is my 200th blog post! I started this blog nearly three years ago to send positive energy over the Internet to inspire, encourage, and accompany you. I’ll continue to do my best as we all work together to move on and move forward. Thanks for all your support.
Last weekend I visited the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania, which traces 200 years of US railroad history through locomotives, railcars, and artifacts. The beautifully restored rolling stock is displayed on five tracks inside the massive main hall. It takes many hours to see the 110 vintage locomotives and railcars.
If you’re like me, I’m sure you have taken the train many times. Regardless of whether I take the commuter rail from Philadelphia to New York or China’s high-speed rail from Beijing to Shanghai, each trip evokes inspiring imagery of imagination and progress.
Railroads fuel our dreams. The nostalgic whistle of a distant train has often touched our imaginations. For some, the sight of a passing train has the power to create wanderlust and the desire to travel to distant lands. Just today as I was leaving a grocery store next to a train track, an Amtrak train whizzed by. I took a moment to watch it, imagining where I want to go next.
Railroads also represent progress, as they changed our lives forever. Since the 1800s they connected the United States with speed and efficiency, delivered goods to distant markets, brought fresh produce to our dinner tables, changed business practices, encouraged manufacturing, and hired millions of workers. Today, railroads remain vital to our way of life.
Rolling Stock Hall
As I wandered around the museum, I marveled at how railroads beget progress. The earliest US cities developed along waterways, but railroads later allowed resources from more remote areas to enter commerce. Prior to railroads, people and goods traveled by foot or by horse-and-carriage. Railroads enabled passengers and freight to go places they had never gone before.
Although we generally have positive associations with imagination and progress, like with railroads, there’s a condition that must be satisfied for us achieve progress: change. If you want to improve your health, relationships, work, or lifestyle, you need to make some changes. Yet at times we fear change, and that fear is what prevents us from moving forward.
Change requires you to go from the familiar to the unfamiliar. At the railroad station, you pay for a ticket and go through a turnstile to get on board the train and enjoy the ride. Change is like that, too. Yet, many people get to the turnstile of their dreams and back away, thinking it’s not worth paying the price to go through. Sadly, they walk away from their hopes and goals.
There is a ticket price to a better life. Just as my train rides to New York and Shanghai aren’t free, there is a price of admission to get to the other side of change. Are you up for it?
Electric Locomotive (1943)
Railroads tunnel through mountains. Similar to a cave, when you enter a tunnel, you don’t know what you’ll find. This uncertainty can create fear.
When you start to change your life, you don’t know how it’s going to turn out. For example, if you start a new diet, you don’t know if it’s going to work out. If you’re going to change your career or quit your job, you don’t know if your next job will be better. If you are going to leave a relationship, you don’t know if that next person will really care for you and treat you well.
Boxcar (1960)
This uncertainty terrifies people. Rather than confront this risk, you may just settle with what you have. But in order to change, you have to come to grips with this fear so you can deal with it. It requires that you acknowledge that you are uncertain of the result, but that you’re going to go for it anyway. You trust in your ability that you’ll be able to figure things out.
Gondola Car (1964)
You can say, “I’m going to try, even though I don’t know how it’s going to turn out.”
On the occasion of this 200th blog post, I went back to my very first blog post, dated September 25, 2016. This article, Home Stretch, also included my very first video. That video was perfectly scripted, and I read it many times to the camera before I got to the version I liked. I was pretty proud of myself, as I had to draw up courage to film a video in another language.
I’m not linking the video here, though, as I’m pretty embarrassed by it! It seems very unnatural and stilted. Now when I film, even though I know the topic and the points I want to make, I often speak extemporaneously. Yet when I first filmed without a teleprompter, I was terrified. I needed certainty of knowing how the video was going to go.
Although I still have a long way to go, I think my videos are now a little better. The script was holding me back, and the spontaneity and vibrancy that comes from living in the moment has helped me progress. This is also a metaphor for life. If you need to be perfect and have everything scripted out, you’re not growing or progressing at the rate you could.
Railroads altered landscapes. Once pristine and idyllic scenes were transformed by railroad networks. Many projects met resistance—and rejection—by local residents for the change it would produce, even though it may have brought them better lives.
When you go to make changes in your life, people might not understand you. They may make fun of you or even reject you. They may want you to conform to the conceptual cage they have drawn around you. They don’t know what you are capable of, but are judging based on their certainty of you coming from the past.
Steam Locomotive (1875)
Who you are is not tethered to the past. Each day is a new day, and you can always choose how you are going to live. It takes courage to do this, though, and most people don’t take that step because they’re scared of the rejection that could come. Don’t put your dreams on hold.
At the end of the day, it's your life, and you have to decide what it stands for.
Diesel-Electric Locomotive (1955)
Railroads bridged roaring streams. Bridges are among the most complex feats of civil engineering, and they are challenging and risky to construct. Yet the industry proceeded through the difficulties, achieving new heights.
When you knock at the door of opportunity, it's work who answers.
”Time and time again, we are told that struggle and difficulties are a fact of life. There are plenty of idioms and expressions that describe how overcoming hardships is part of the process to progress. We have heard them many times over, but they take on an entirely different meaning when we voluntarily take these challenges as opposed to having them thrust onto us.
Passenger Car (1886)
It is hard to make changes. You may have to stay up late at nights to work on your dream. You may need to limit your time with family and friends so you can focus more. You may have to change your reading materials, abandon entertainment-based content and pick up more substantive content. You will have to struggle with the discipline to stay focused.
Restaurant Sleeping Car (1913)
Like a butterfly going through metamorphosis, it’s in that struggle that you find real growth. Hardships expose and forge your character. Through the difficulties, your path will become more meaningful. Those who live the comfortable life know that something is missing, as they lack verve and power. If everything were easy, none of us would learn, grow, or feel alive.
”An object at rest stays at rest, and an object in motion stays in motion with the same speed and in the same direction UNLESS acted upon by an unbalanced force.” Newton’s first law of motion can be applied to our lives as well. We will stay in the same circumstances with the same habits UNLESS we release the unbalanced force of change into our lives.
Train Yard
My friend, if you feel stalled in life, you may not be paying the price to change. Consider whether uncertainty, judgment, or struggle might be holding you back. Face those fears and act anyway. When you pay this ticket price and walk through the turnstile, like the railroads themselves, you’ll transform your personal landscape into one of progress and success.
{ 今日英文速记卡 }
1.Terrify \ ˈter-ə-ˌfī \
a)含义：v. 恐吓；使害怕
b)例句：
i.This uncertainty terrifies people.
这种不确定性使人们感到恐惧。
ii.Insurgents had put them in bins around the city and set them off by mobile phones to terrify voters.
叛乱分子把这些水瓶子放在遍布全城的垃圾桶里，再通过手机引爆来恐吓选民。
c)近义词：frighten, horrify, scare
2.Extemporaneous
\ ek-ˌstem-pə-ˈrā-nē-əs \
a)含义：adj. 即席的；临时的
b)例句：
i.Now when I film, even though I know the topic and the points I want to make, I often speak extemporaneously.
现在当我拍视频的时候，即使我知道自己想要表达的主题和观点，我也会经常即兴发言。
ii.I especially enjoyed the extemporaneous speech we just heard.
我尤其欣赏我们刚刚听过的即席演讲。
c)近义词：improvised, offhanded, unprepared
3.Vibrancy
\ ˈvī-brən(t)-sē \
a)含义：n. 振动；活力
b)例句：
i.The script was holding me back, and the spontaneity and vibrancy that comes from living in the moment has helped me progress.
虽然写好的台词让我备受拘束，但活在当下的自发性和是活力帮助我进步。
ii.These cities are engines of globalization, and their enduring vibrancy lies in money, knowledge, and stability.
这些城市是全球化的发动机，它们持续的活力源自于财富，知识以及稳定。
c)近义词：liveliness, sprightliness, vitality
4.Capable \ ˈkā-pə-bəl \
a)含义：adj. 有能力的；有才干的
b)例句：
i.They don’t know what you are capable of, but are judging based on their certainty of you coming from the past.
他们不知道你能做什么，但却会根据他们的认知来判断你的过往。
ii.She’s a very capable teacher.
她是一位能力很强的教师。
c)近义词：able, competent, qualified
5.Tether \ ˈte-t͟hər \
a)含义：v. 拴住
b)例句：
i.Who you are is not tethered to the past.
究竟你是怎样的人并不受制于你的过往。
ii.Tether technology is one of key technologies to develop space transportation, space research, and space applications.
系绳技术是发展空间运输、空间研究与空间应用的一项关键技术。
c)近义词：lash, leash, tie
Thank you for watching me to inspire, encourage, and accompany you.
See you next time.
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