幽默+智慧！美国知名作家的TED演讲：我用61年人生经验总结出这12条铁律，只有经历过的人才会懂！（附视频&演讲稿）
英语演讲视频，第一时间观看
被誉为“人民的作家”的美国作家Anne Lamott在61岁生日即将到来之前，在TED做了一次演讲，分享她从生活和写作中收获的12条真理。
她对自己一生的进行了回顾，她说，幽默使人快乐、智慧使人升华。这些人生经验包括了生活的各个方面，有的逗人哈哈大笑，有的教人深思远虑。
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Anne Lamott
我从写作中学到的12个最宝贵的人生经验
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My seven-year-old grandson sleeps just down the hall from me, and he wakes up a lot of mornings and he says, "You know, this could be the best day ever."
我七岁大的孙子就睡在我隔壁的房间，他常常在清晨醒来，然后说，“你知道，今天也许会是最棒的一天。”
And other times, in the middle of the night, he calls out in a tremulous voice, "Nana, will you ever get sick and die?"
也有的时候，在午夜时分，他会怯生生的问我，“奶奶，你也会生病和死亡吗？“
I think this pretty much says it for me and most of the people。I know, that we're a mixed grill of happy anticipation and dread. So I sat down a few days before my 61st birthday, and I decided to compile a list of everything I know for sure.
我想，我和大多数我认识的人可能都是这样，我们同时拥有着乐观与恐惧的情绪。所以在我61岁生日的前几天，我坐下来，决定把我确信的一切都列出来。
There's so little truth in the popular culture, and it's good to be sure of a few things. For instance, I am no longer 47, although this is the age I feel, and the age I like to think of myself as being.
流行文化中的真理太少了，能看清一些事实是有益的。比方说，我已经不再是47岁了，虽然我依然觉得自己才47岁，我也希望自己一直是47岁。
My friend Paul used to say in his late 70s that he felt like a young man with something really wrong with him. Our true person is outside of time and space, but looking at the paperwork, I can, in fact, see that I was born in 1954.
我的朋友保罗在他80岁将至时曾说，他觉得自己是个身体出了点故障的年轻人。真正的我们不因时间和空间而改变，但是当我看到那些文书，事实上，我能认识到自己是1954年出生的。
My inside self is outside of time and space. It doesn't have an age. I'm every age I've ever been, and so are you, although I can't help mentioning as an aside that it might have been helpful
我的内在不因时间和空间而改变，它没有年龄。我存在于我所活过的每一个年龄，你也一样，虽然我不得不提一句，
if I hadn't followed the skin care rules of the '60s, which involved getting as much sun as possible while slathered in baby oil and basking in the glow of a tinfoil reflector shield.
如果我当时没有遵循60年代那一套护肤理论可能会对我大有好处，那会建议你尽可能多晒太阳，并涂抹厚厚的婴儿油，然后拿锡箔反光板来吸收更多阳光。
It was so liberating, though, to face the truth that I was no longer in the last throes of middle age, that I decided to write down every single true thing I know. People feel really doomed and overwhelmed these days, and they keep asking me what's true.
不过，面对现实也是一种解脱，我再也不用在中年之际作最后的挣扎，我也决定写下我所知道的每一件真相。近来，人们感到非常绝望和茫然，他们不断问我什么是真的。
So I hope that my list of things I'm almost positive about might offer some basic operating instructions to anyone who is feeling really overwhelmed or beleaguered.
所以我希望这些我确信的事情可以向那些不知所措或陷入困境的人提供一些基本的指引。
Number one: the first and truest thing is that all truth is a paradox. Life is both a precious, unfathomably beautiful gift, and it's impossible here, on the incarnational side of things. It's been a very bad match for those of us who were born extremely sensitive.
第一：第一个也是最真实的事情就是，所有真相都是有对立面的。生命是精美绝伦的无价之宝，同时从另一方面看，它又是完全相反的。这对我们这些天生敏感的人来说，真是不相匹配啊。
It's so hard and weird that we sometimes wonder if we're being punked. It's filled simultaneously with heartbreaking sweetness and beauty, desperate poverty, floods and babies and acne and Mozart, all swirled together. I don't think it's an ideal system.
人生如此艰辛，以至于有时候我们怀疑自己是不是被耍了。生命同时充满了令人心碎的甜蜜和美丽，令人绝望的贫困，以及洪水、婴儿、粉刺和莫扎特，全都缠绕在一起。我不认为这是一个理想的体系。
Number two: almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes -- including you.
第二：如果你把插头拔掉几分钟，几乎所有事情都能恢复运转——你们也是。
Three: there is almost nothing outside of you that will help in any kind of lasting way, unless you're waiting for an organ. You can't buy, achieve or date serenity and peace of mind. This is the most horrible truth, and I so resent it.
第三：几乎不存在什么外在的力量，可以长久的帮助你自己，除非你在等器官移植。你无法买到或获取心灵的安宁。这是最可怕的事实，我非常憎恨它。
But it's an inside job, and we can't arrange peace or lasting improvement for the people we love most in the world. They have to find their own ways, their own answers. You can't run alongside your grown children with sunscreen and ChapStick on their hero's journey.
但这是一项自身的工作，我们无法为世上最爱的人去安排一份宁静或持续的改善。他们必须找到自己的路和自己的答案。你不能在孩子成为英雄的征程中替他们挡风遮雨。
You have to release them. It's disrespectful not to. And if it's someone else's problem, you probably don't have the answer, anyway.
你必须给他们自由。不这么做就是不尊重他们。更何况当别人遇到问题的时候，你可能也不知道到底该怎么办。
Our help is usually not very helpful. Our help is often toxic. And help is the sunny side of control. Stop helping so much. Don't get your help and goodness all over everybody.
我们的帮助常常没什么用，往往还是有害的。所谓“帮助”就是“控制”的褒义词。别老是帮忙啦。别再老是施以你的援手和友善。
This brings us to number four: everyone is screwed up, broken, clingy and scared, even the people who seem to have it most together. They are much more like you than you would believe, so try not to compare your insides to other people's outsides.
这也牵引出第四条：每个人都是糟糕的、破碎的、依赖的、胆小的，甚至有的人同时拥有这些负面情绪，要相信他们其实和你差不多，所以不要拿自己的内在与别人的外表比较。
It will only make you worse than you already are. Also, you can't save, fix or rescue any of them or get anyone sober. What helped me get clean and sober 30 years ago was the catastrophe of my behavior and thinking.
这只会让你感到雪上加霜。同时，你无法拯救他们，或是让他们认清事实。30年前帮助我变得清醒的是我行为和思想带来的巨大灾难。
So I asked some sober friends for help, and I turned to a higher power. One acronym for God is the "gift of desperation," G-O-D, or as a sober friend put it, by the end I was deteriorating faster than I could lower my standards.
当时我请求一些理智的朋友帮我，我也求助于更强大的力量。“上帝”一词可以看做是“绝望中的礼物”的缩写，G-O-D,或者像一个清醒的朋友说的，到头来，我堕落的速度比我降低底线的速度还要快。
So God might mean, in this case, "me running out of any more good ideas."
所以在这种情况下，“上帝”的意思是，“我已经没什么好主意了。”
While fixing and saving and trying to rescue is futile, radical self-care is quantum, and it radiates out from you into the atmosphere like a little fresh air. It's a huge gift to the world. When people respond by saying, "Well, isn't she full of herself,"
当修复、挽救、和拯救都变成徒劳，积极的自我保护就是量子，这种力量被你激发后飘散在空气中，就像新鲜空气一样。这是给世界的一份大礼。当人们回应说，“好吧，她是不是太自我了？”
just smile obliquely like Mona Lisa and make both of you a nice cup of tea. Being full of affection for one's goofy, self-centered, cranky, annoying self is home. It's where world peace begins.
只要像蒙娜丽莎一样微微一笑，然后给彼此都倒杯好茶就好。能包容一个人的憨傻、自我中心、暴躁、讨厌是家。家是让世界和平开始的地方。
Number five: chocolate with 75 percent cacao is not actually a food.
第五：可可含量75%的巧克力不可以称作是食物。
Its best use is as a bait in snake traps or to balance the legs of wobbly chairs. It was never meant to be considered an edible.
它的最佳用途是作为蛇陷阱里的诱饵或者用来垫椅子腿来防止晃动。它从未被认为是可以食用的。
Number six -- writing. Every writer you know writes really terrible first drafts, but they keep their butt in the chair. That's the secret of life. That's probably the main difference between you and them. They just do it.
第六--写作。你认识的每一个作家，初稿写得都很糟糕，但他们会坚持钉坐在椅子上。这就是生活的秘密。这也许就是你们之间的主要区别。他们想做就去做了。
They do it by prearrangement with themselves. They do it as a debt of honor. They tell stories that come through them one day at a time, little by little. When my older brother was in fourth grade, he had a term paper on birds due the next day, and he hadn't started.
他们在做之前就预先准备好了。他们把这当做一种义务。他们讲述自己曾经历过的故事，一天一点、一点一点地讲出来。在我哥哥上四年级的时候，有次有一篇关于鸟类的学期论文，第二天就要交，然而他还没有开始写。
So my dad sat down with him with an Audubon book, paper, pencils and brads -- for those of you who have gotten a little less young and remember brads -- and he said to my brother, "Just take it bird by bird, buddy. Just read about pelicans and then write about pelicans in your own voice.
于是我爸爸在他身旁坐下来，拿着一本Audubon的书、一些纸张、铅笔和两脚钉——知道两脚钉的都不再年轻了吧——然后他对我哥哥说，“一只鸟一只鸟的写，孩子。先读一些关于鹈鹕的东西，然后用你自己的理解把鹈鹕的知识写下来。
And then find out about chickadees, and tell us about them in your own voice. And then geese." So the two most important things about writing are:
接着找到山雀，然后用你自己的理解告诉我们山雀的知识。再然后是鹅。”所以写作最重要的两点：
bird by bird and really god-awful first drafts. If you don't know where to start, remember that every single thing that happened to you is yours, and you get to tell it. If people wanted you to write more warmly about them, they should've behaved better.
一只鸟一只鸟的写和惨不忍睹的初稿。如果你不知道从哪开始，记得那些发生在你身上的事，它们每件都属于你，你就直接说出来。如果人们希望你把他们写得更温和一些，那他们应该表现得更好。
You're going to feel like hell if you wake up someday and you never wrote the stuff that is tugging on the sleeves of your heart: your stories, memories, visions and songs -- your truth,
也许某天你清醒了会觉得糟糕透了，因为你发现你从来没写过那些一直牵扯着你的内心的东西，比如你的故事，回忆，幻想，与歌曲-- 你的真实，
your version of things -- in your own voice. That's really all you have to offer us, and that's also why you were born.
你对事物的看法－－用你自己的声音，那些都是你必须要带给我们的东西，也是你生命的意义。
Seven: publication and temporary creative successes are something you have to recover from. They kill as many people as not. They will hurt, damage and change you in ways you cannot imagine.
第七：你必须要从出版发行和短暂创造出的成就中恢复过来。这些名利杀死了迷失其中的人。它们会以你无法想象的方式伤害你、改变你。
The most degraded and evil people I've ever known are male writers who've had huge best sellers. And yet, returning to number one, that all truth is paradox, it's also a miracle to get your work published, to get your stories read and heard.
我所认识的最堕落和邪恶的人是一些出版过超级畅销书的男作家。这又说回第一点：所有事都是有对立面的。把你的作品出版当然也是一个奇迹，可以让你的故事被世人阅读和听闻。
Just try to bust yourself gently of the fantasy that publication will heal you, that it will fill the Swiss-cheesy holes inside of you. It can't. It won't. But writing can. So can singing in a choir or a bluegrass band.
但要努力让自己从出版发行的幻想中抽身，你以为出版发行可以治愈你，可以填满你内心一个个如同瑞士干酪的洞。它不能。它也不会。但是写作本身可以。在合唱团或蓝草乐队唱歌也可以。
So can painting community murals or birding or fostering old dogs that no one else will.
在社区作壁画或观鸟也可以。或者养一条其他人都不想养的老狗，也可以治愈你。
Number eight: families. Families are hard, hard, hard, no matter how cherished and astonishing they may also be. Again, see number one.
第八：家庭。无论家人有多么珍贵和精彩，家庭生活都是难、难、难。参见第一条。
At family gatherings where you suddenly feel homicidal or suicidal -- remember that in all cases, it's a miracle that any of us, specifically, were conceived and born.
如果在家庭聚会上，你突然很想杀人或自杀-- 记住，在所有情况下，我们每一个人的孕育和诞生都是一个奇迹。
Earth is forgiveness school. It begins with forgiving yourself, and then you might as well start at the dinner table. That way, you can do this work in comfortable pants.
地球是一个教会我们宽恕的学校。从原谅自己开始，你最好从坐在餐桌前开始。这样，你还能穿着舒服的裤子来做这件事。
When William Blake said that we are here to learn to endure the beams of love, he knew that your family would be an intimate part of this, even as you want to run screaming for your cute little life. But I promise you are up to it. You can do it, Cinderella, you can do it, and you will be amazed.
当William Blake说，我们在这世上是要学会承受爱的光芒，他想说，你的家人会成为密不可分的一部分，即使你要为了你可爱的人生尖叫奔跑，但我保证，你能行。你能做到，灰姑娘，你能做到，然后你会感到大为惊奇。
Nine: food. Try to do a little better. I think you know what I mean.
第九：食物。试着做得更好一些。我想你明白我的意思。
Number 10 -- grace. Grace is spiritual WD-40, or water wings. The mystery of grace is that God loves Henry Kissinger and Vladimir Putin and me exactly as much as He or She loves your new grandchild. Go figure.
第十-- 恩泽。恩泽是精神上的WD-40或者是游泳圈。恩泽的神秘之处在于，上帝爱Henry Kissinger和Vladimir Putin，也爱我，就像他或她也爱你们刚出生的小孙子。想想看吧！
The movement of grace is what changes us, heals us and heals our world. To summon grace, say, "Help," and then buckle up. Grace finds you exactly where you are, but it doesn't leave you where it found you.
是恩泽改变了我们，治愈了我们，它也治愈了我们的世界。想要受到恩泽，就说“救命“，然后系好安全带。恩泽会在你需要的时候出现，但它不会将你遗弃那里。
And grace won't look like Casper the Friendly Ghost, regrettably. But the phone will ring or the mail will come and then against all odds, you'll get your sense of humor about yourself back. Laughter really is carbonated holiness.
遗憾的是，恩泽不会像鬼马小精灵一样。但是电话会响的，邮件会来的，尽管困难重重，你会得到属于你自己的幽默感。笑声真的是含着二氧化碳的圣洁。
It helps us breathe again and again and gives us back to ourselves, and this gives us faith in life and each other. And remember -- grace always bats last.
它帮助我们一次又一次地呼吸让我们回归最真的自我，这也带给我们对生活和彼此的信心。记住，恩泽总是与我们相伴。
Eleven: God just means goodness. It's really not all that scary. It means the divine or a loving, animating intelligence, or, as we learned from the great "Deteriorata," "the cosmic muffin." A good name for God is: "Not me."
十一：上帝就是善良。他真的不那么可怕。它意味着神圣或是慈爱的，朝气蓬勃的智慧，就像我们从伟大的Deteriorata中知道的，宇宙中的松饼。上帝的美名是:“不是我。”
Emerson said that the happiest person on Earth is the one who learns from nature the lessons of worship. So go outside a lot and look up.
Emerson曾说：地球上最幸福的人，是那个从自然中学会了尊敬的人。所以到外面去走走，抬头看看。
My pastor said you can trap bees on the bottom of mason jars without lids because they don't look up, so they just walk around bitterly bumping into the glass walls. Go outside. Look up. Secret of life.
我的牧师说你可以将蜜蜂困在无盖玻璃瓶的底部，因为它们不会抬头看，所以它们只会四处碰壁。走出去，抬头看看，这是生活的秘密。
And finally: death. Number 12. Wow and yikes. It's so hard to bear when the few people you cannot live without die. You'll never get over these losses, and no matter what the culture says, you're not supposed to.
最后，死亡。第十二。哇，天哪。有时候至亲的人死去真的难以承受，你永远无法从悲痛中平复，无论老话怎么说，你不应该如此。
We Christians like to think of death as a major change of address, but in any case, the person will live again fully in your heart if you don't seal it off. Like Leonard Cohen said, "There are cracks in everything, and that's how the light gets in."
我们基督徒喜欢把死亡想象成只是更换了住址，但无论如何，如果你不把心门封锁，这个人就还将活在你的心中。就像Leonard Cohen说的，“万物皆有裂痕，那将是光照进来的地方。“
And that's how we feel our people again fully alive. Also, the people will make you laugh out loud at the most inconvenient times, and that's the great good news.
那也将会是我们感到重获新生的地方。而且，有些人会让你在不适宜的时候，开怀大笑，那是个超赞的好消息。
But their absence will also be a lifelong nightmare of homesickness for you. Grief and friends, time and tears will heal you to some extent. Tears will bathe and baptize and hydrate and moisturize you and the ground on which you walk.
但他们的缺席也将是你一生的思乡之梦。悲伤和朋友，时间和眼泪，会在一定程度上治愈你。眼泪将沐浴、洗礼、和滋润你以及你一路走来的土地。
Do you know the first thing that God says to Moses? He says, "Take off your shoes." Because this is holy ground, all evidence to the contrary. It's hard to believe, but it's the truest thing I know.
你知道上帝对摩西说的第一件事吗？他说：“脱下你的鞋子。”因为你所站之地是圣地，事实都是相反的。很难相信，但这是我所知道的最真实的事情。
When you're a little bit older, like my tiny personal self, you realize that death is as sacred as birth. And don't worry -- get on with your life. Almost every single death is easy and gentle with the very best people surrounding you for as long as you need.
当你再年长一点，像我这般，你会意识到死亡和出生一样神圣。也别担心，继续你的生活。只要你需要与周围的亲人一起面对死亡，那么死亡将会是简单而温柔的。
You won't be alone. They'll help you cross over to whatever awaits us. As Ram Dass said, "When all is said and done, we're really just all walking each other home."
你不会孤单的。不论等待我们的是什么他们都会帮你一同度过。正如Ram Dass所说，“说到底，我们只是互相把对方送回家。”
I think that's it, but if I think of anything else, I'll let you know. Thank you. Thank you.
我想说的就是这些，但如果我想到别的东西，我会告诉你们的，谢谢你们。
I was very surprised to be asked to come, because it is not my realm, technology or design or entertainment. I mean, my realm is sort of faith and writing and kind of lurching along together.
能被邀请到这里我很惊喜，因为这儿不是我的领域，技术、设计或娱乐（TED的核心主题）。我的意思是，我更擅长谈论信仰和写作，以及相互协作之类的话题。
And I was surprised, but they said I could give a talk, and I said I'd love to.
所以我很惊讶，但是当他们告诉我可以做个演讲，我说我很愿意。
(Video) If you don't know where to start, remember that every single thing that happened to you is yours and you get to tell it.
（视频声）如果你不知道从哪里开始，记住发生在你身上的每件事都是你的，你得把它说出来。
Anne Lamott: People are very frightened and feel really doomed in America these days, and I just wanted to help people get their sense of humor about it and to realize how much isn't a problem.
演讲者：当今的美国人们都很害怕，觉得自己真的完蛋了，我只是想帮助人们获得幽默感，明白这不是一个多大的问题。
If you take an action, take a really healthy or loving or friendly action, you'll have loving and friendly feelings.
如果你采取行动，采取一个真正明智、友好善意的行动你就会感觉到友爱和友好。
美国作家Anne Lamott(安. 拉莫特)生于1954年，被誉为“人民作家”。她观察事物的视角独特，有很多金句。例如，她说过，“随着年龄和阅历的增长，你会渐渐明白，死亡跟出生一样，是一件非常神圣的事情，那只是一段早已预约的旅途，那只是给自己换了一个永久地址而已”。“我从不放弃希望的原因是，几乎一切都是如此令人绝望”。“我们无法知道自己是何时怀上孩子的，无法知道自己的兄弟姐妹何时即将为人父母，无法充分认识到能与年轻一代共享一段历史(拥有共同的血脉、共同的基因或共同的幽默)有多棒。这就意味着，我们来到地球上逗留了一段岁月，其实就是为了与孩子在一起，就好比古埃及人与其金字塔的关系一样”。“我写作，因为上帝赐予了我写作才华，让我以写作帮助世人。”
她生于旧金山，父亲Kenneth Lamott也是作家。当她父亲被诊断出得了脑瘤后，她为父亲创作了第一部小说Hard Laughter。她有一个儿子，生于1989年;有一个孙子，生于2009年。
1999年问世的一部纪录片Bird by Bird with Annie: A Film Portrait of Writer Anne Lamott记载了她的生活。由于这部纪录片的影响，也由于她在Facebook等媒体上有众多粉丝，她常被称为“人民作家”。2010年，由于其文学成就和影响力，她被列入“加州名人堂”。
关于自己的写作，她写道：
“我试图写的书就是我自己喜欢碰到的那种类型的书：诚实，关注实实在在的生活，关注人类的心灵，关注精神升华，关注家庭，关注奥秘，关注奇迹，关注让我发笑的疯狂。当我读到这样的书的时候，我感到充实，因能够与这样的作家为伴而感受到深深的慰藉：他们会与我们分享真相，会把灯光调亮一点点。我就试图撰写这样的书。对我来说，书是良药”。
我本来想介绍她“完美主义是创造的大敌”的观点，这是她在1995年发表的著作Bird by Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life中表述的。她说，“完美主义是压迫者的声音”。后来我发现，该书已被朱耘译为中文，书名为《关于写作：一只鸟接着一只鸟》，2013年由商务印书馆出版。以下是网上查到的介绍文字。
关于此书的标题，她写道：
“三十年前，我的哥哥十岁，第二天得交一篇鸟类报告。虽然他之前有三个月的时间写这份作业，却一直没有进展。当时他坐在餐桌前，周围散置着作业簿、铅笔和一本本未打开的鸟类书籍。面对眼前的艰巨任务，他不知如何着手，简直快哭出来了。后来身为作家的父亲在他身旁坐下，把手放在他肩上说：‘一只鸟接着一只鸟，伙伴。只要一只鸟接着一只乌，按部就班地写。’”
多年来，安·拉莫特把这个故事谨记在心，写作的时候，以及给写作班的学生上课时，她总把它当成一个鼓励;并且，转而赠予我们一份献礼：《关于写作：一只鸟接着一只鸟》——一本循序渐进、教导如何写作和处理写作过程中各种状况的指南。
这本书鼓励作家将个人经历融入写作中，同时也教给他们这样做的技巧。作家布洛德瑞克说：“每个热爱写作的人，都应该要有像拉莫特这样的朋友!”
想第一时间接收英文演讲视频？把“精彩英文演讲”设置为星标就对了！操作办法就是：进入公众号——点击右上角的●●●——找到“设为星标”点击即可。