行动主义者：挣脱束缚自己的枷锁

行动主义者卡罗琳·凯西以披露一个惊人的事实开始，讲述了她非凡的人生（无剧透）。在这一挑战认知的演讲中，凯西要我们所有人超越那些我们也许会认为存在的限制。

演讲者：Caroline casey 卡罗琳·凯西

演讲题目：Looking past limits

Can any of you remember what you wanted to be when you were 17? Do you know what I wanted to be? I wanted to be a biker chick. (Laughter) I wanted to race cars, and I wanted to be a cowgirl, and I wanted to be Mowgli from "The Jungle Book." Because they were all about being free, the wind in your hair -- just to be free. And on my seventeenth birthday, my parents, knowing how much I loved speed, gave me one driving lesson for my seventeenth birthday. Not that we could have afforded I drive, but to give me the dream of driving.

各位中有人能回忆起在17岁时想做什么样的人么？知道我的想法么？我想成为一个摩托飞车女。（笑声）我想赛车，我想成为一个女牛仔，我想成为“森林王子”里的莫格利。因为我说的这些都与处于自由状态相关——风在你的头发中穿越——只要自由。在我17岁生日时，我父母，他们知道我有多爱速度，送给我一个驾校课程作为我17岁生日礼物。并不是说我们能负担得起我开车，只是给我一个驾驶的梦想。

And on my seventeenth birthday, I accompanied my little sister in complete innocence, as I always had all my life -- my visually impaired sister -- to go to see an eye specialist. Because big sisters are always supposed to support their little sisters. And my little sister wanted to be a pilot -- God help her. So I used to get my eyes tested just for fun.

在我17岁生日时，我陪同我天真无邪的妹妹,正如我在一生中一直拥有的——我那有视觉障碍的妹妹——去看眼科医生。因为姐姐总是应该支持她们的妹妹。我的小妹妹想成为一名飞行员——上帝保佑她。我过去曾检查眼睛只是为了好玩。

And on my seventeenth birthday, after my fake eye exam, the eye specialist just noticed it happened to be my birthday. And he said, "So what are you going to do to celebrate?" And I took that driving lesson, and I said, "I'm going to learn how to drive." And then there was a silence -- one of those awful silences when you know something's wrong. And he turned to my mother, and he said, "You haven't told her yet?" On my seventeenth birthday, as Janis Ian would best say, I learned the truth at 17. I am, and have been since birth, legally blind.

在我17岁生日时，在我做完冒充的眼科检查之后，眼科医生注意到那天是我生日。他说道，“你打算怎么庆祝生日？”我已经收到了那份驾校课程礼物，于是我说道，“我打算去学开车。”接着是一片寂静——当你意识到有什么不对劲时这是一种可怕的寂静。他转向我的母亲，说道，“你还没告诉她？”在我17岁生日，正如詹尼斯·伊恩最可能会说的，在17岁我发现了真相：我自从出生以来，就是法律上的盲人。

And you know, how on earth did I get to 17 and not know that? Well, if anybody says country music isn't powerful, let me tell you this: I got there because my father's passion for Johnny Cash and a song, "A Boy Named Sue." I'm the eldest of three. I was born in 1971. And very shortly after my birth, my parents found out I had a condition called ocular albinism. And what the hell does that mean to you?

要知道，我究竟是怎么长到17岁的而且还不知道这件事？如果有任何人说乡村音乐影响力不强大，让我告诉你们这个：我爱上乡村音乐是因为我父亲热爱约翰尼·卡什和那首“一个名叫苏的男孩”。我是三孩子中年纪最大的。我生于1971年。在我出生后不久，我父母发现我患有眼白化病。各位知道这意味着什么吗？

So let me just tell you, the great part of all of this? I can't see this clock and I can't see the timing, so holy God, woohoo! (Laughter) I might buy some more time. But more importantly, let me tell you -- I'm going to come up really close here. Don't freak out, Pat. Hey. See this hand? Beyond this hand is a world of Vaseline. Every man in this room, even you, Steve, is George Clooney. (Laughter)

我来告诉你们其中最重要的部分？我看不见这个钟，看不见时间，神圣的上帝啊！我也许能再多争取些时间。但更重要的是，我告诉各位——我将很快提到这些。别紧张。嘿。看到这只手了么？在这手后面是一片模糊的世界。屋子内的每个男人，即使是你，史蒂夫都是乔治·克鲁尼。（笑声）

And every woman, you are so beautiful. And when I want to look beautiful, I step three feet away from the mirror, and I don't have to see these lines etched in my face from all the squinting I've done all my life from all the dark lights.

每一位女性，都非常美丽。当我想看看美丽时，我站在镜子前三英尺，我一辈子都无法眯着眼从昏暗的灯光下看见我脸部的轮廓。

The really strange part is that, at three and a half, just before I was going to school, my parents made a bizarre, unusual and incredibly brave decision. No special needs schools. No labels. No limitations. My ability and my potential. And they decided to tell me that I could see. So just like Johnny Cash's Sue, a boy given a girl's name, I would grow up and learn from experience how to be tough and how to survive, when they were no longer there to protect me, or just take it all away.

真正奇怪的是在三岁半时，就在我要去上学之前，我父母做出了一个奇异的、不寻常的、难以置信地勇敢的决定。不去特种学校。不被贴上标签。不受限制。我的能力和我的潜力。他们决定告诉我我能看见。就像约翰尼·卡什的苏，一个有着女孩名字的男孩，我将长大并从经历中学习如何坚强如何生存当他们不能再保护我，或是带走一切时。

But more significantly, they gave me the ability to believe, totally, to believe that I could. And so when I heard that eye specialist tell me all the things, a big fat "no," everybody imagines I was devastated. And don't get me wrong, because when I first heard it -- aside from the fact that I thought he was insane -- I got that thump in my chest, just that "huh?"

但更重要的是，他们给予了我信任的能力，完全信任自己能够做到。因此，当我听到眼科医生告诉我所有的事情时，一个巨大的“不”，所有人都认为我被击垮了。别误会我，因为我第一次听到这些时——除了我觉得他疯了以外——感觉我胸口受到重击——只发出“啊。”

But very quickly I recovered. It was like that. The first thing I thought about was my mom, who was crying over beside me. And I swear to God, I walked out of his office, "I will drive. I will drive. You're mad. I'll drive. I know I can drive."

但很快我就恢复了。就这样。我首先想到的是我妈妈在为我哭泣。我向上帝发誓，我走出医生的办公室，“我要开车。我要开车。你疯了。我要开车，我知道我能。”

And with the same dogged determination that my father had bred into me since I was such a child—he taught me how to sail, knowing I could never see where I was going, I could never see the shore, and I couldn't see the sails, and I couldn't see the destination. But he told me to believe and feel the wind in my face. And that wind in my face made me believe that he was mad and I would drive.

带着我父亲从我还是孩子时就注入给我的同样顽强的决心——他教我如何航海，尽管他知道我无法辨别方向，无法看到海岸，无法看到帆，无法看到目的地。但他告诉我要相信和感觉吹拂过我脸庞的风。吹拂过我脸庞的风让我相信他疯了并且我能驾驶。

And for the next 11 years, I swore nobody would ever find out that I couldn't see, because I didn't want to be a failure, and I didn't want to be weak. And I believed I could do it. So I rammed through life as only a Casey can do. And I was an archeologist, and then I broke things.

在随后的11年间，我发誓没人曾发觉我看不见，因为我不想成为一名失败者，我不想成为弱者。我相信我能做到。我只是在做凯西能做到的。我曾是名考古学家，接着我打碎了东西。接着我管理一家餐馆，我又摔碎了东西。

And then I managed a restaurant, and then I slipped on things. And then I was a masseuse. And then I was a landscape gardener. And then I went to business school. And you know, disabled people are hugely educated. And then I went in and I got a global consulting job with Accenture. And they didn't even know. And it's extraordinary how far belief can take you.

接着成了一名女按摩师。接着我成了一名庭园美化师。接着我去了商学院上学。残障人士接受了很多教育。接着我加入了埃森哲并有了一份全球性的咨询工作。他们并不知道我的眼睛有问题。信仰能带你走这么远真是太非凡了。

In 1999, two and a half years into that job, something happened. Wonderfully, my eyes decided, enough. And temporarily, very unexpectedly, they dropped. And I'm in one of the most competitive environments in the world, where you work hard, play hard, you gotta be the best, you gotta be the best. And two years in, I really could see very little. And I found myself in front of an HR manager in 1999, saying something I never imagined that I would say.

在1999年，获得这一工作两年半之后，事情发生了——精彩的事，我的双眼决定不干了。暂时性的，非常出乎意料，它们罢工了。我处于世界上最具竞争性的环境之中，在这种环境中，需要努力工作、不择手段、必须做到最好、必须做到最好。过了两年，我确实只能看见一点点。我发现自己来到一位人力资源经理的面前这是1999年说一些我从未想过自己会说的话。

I was 28 years old. I had built a persona all around what I could and couldn't do. And I simply said, "I'm sorry. I can't see, and I need help." Asking for help can be incredibly difficult. And you all know what it is. You don't need to have a disability to know that. We all know how hard it is to admit weakness and failure. And it's frightening, isn't it? But all that belief had fueled me so long.

我28岁了。我在我能做什么和我不能做什么之间制作了一个面具。我只是说，“我很抱歉。我看不见，我需要帮助。”寻求帮助可能会难以置信地困难。大家都能理解；并不需要身患某项残疾就能了解到。我们都知道承认软弱和失败有多么困难。这令人恐惧，不是么？但所有的信仰让我坚持了很久。

And can I tell you, operating in the sighted world when you can't see, it's kind of difficult—it really is. Can I tell you, airports are a disaster. Oh, for the love of God. And please, any designers out there? OK, designers, please put up your hands, even though I can't even see you. I always end up in the gents' toilets. And there's nothing wrong with my sense of smell.

我能告诉各位，当你生活在一个视觉世界时，你却对此看不见，这有点困难——确实是这样。我可以告诉各位，去机场会是场灾难。哦，看在上帝的份上。拜托，在场的每一位设计师。设计师们，请伸出你们的手，即使这样我也看不到你们。我总是误入男士盥洗室。我的嗅觉没任何问题。

But can I just tell you, the little sign for a gents' toilet or a ladies' toilet is determined by a triangle. Have you ever tried to see that if you have Vaseline in front of your eyes? It's such a small thing, right? And you know how exhausting it can be to try to be perfect when you're not, or to be somebody that you aren't?

但我只是想告诉你们，那个标明了男士盥洗室或女士盥洗室的小标志是一个三角形。你们有没有试过眼前有一层凡士林的情况下看看这些标志？真是太小了，不是么？各位知道，当你并不完美时尝试做到完美，或做一个不是自己的人，这是多么的让人筋疲力尽啊？

And so after admitting I couldn't see to HR, they sent me off to an eye specialist. And I had no idea that this man was going to change my life. But before I got to him, I was so lost. I had no idea who I was anymore. And that eye specialist, he didn't bother testing my eyes. God no, it was therapy. And he asked me several questions, of which many were, "Why? Why are you fighting so hard not to be yourself? And do you love what you do, Caroline?"

因此在我给人力资源经理承认我看不见之后，他们送我去看眼科医生。我还没有意识到这个人将会改变我的一生。但在我见他之前，我非常不知所措。我不知道我到底是谁。而那名眼科医生，他没有对我的眼睛做检查。上帝啊，没有，那是治疗。他问了我几个问题，问题大多是，“为什么？为什么你这么努力地抗争而不是做你自己？你喜欢你所做的么，卡洛琳？”

And you know, when you go to a global consulting firm, they put a chip in your head, and you're like, "I love Accenture. I love Accenture. I love my job. I love Accenture. I love Accenture. I love Accenture. I love my job. I love Accenture." (Laughter) To leave would be failure. And he said, "Do you love it?" I couldn't even speak I was so choked up. I just was so —how do I tell him? And then he said to me, "What did you want to be when you were little?"

各位知道，当进入一家全球性的咨询公司时，他们会在你脑子里放一块芯片，并且你喜欢这样，“我爱埃森哲。我爱埃森哲。我爱我的工作。我爱埃森哲。我爱埃森哲。我爱我的工作。我爱埃森哲。”离开就是失败。他问道，“你爱它么？”我太激动了，根本无法开口。我太激动了——我怎么跟他说呢？接着他对我说，“你小时候想成为什么样的人？”

Now listen, I wasn't going to say to him, "Well, I wanted to race cars and motorbikes." Hardly appropriate at this moment in time. He thought I was mad enough anyway. And as I left his office, he called me back and he said, "I think it's time. I think it's time to stop fighting and do something different." And that door closed. And that silence just outside a doctor's office, that many of us know. And my chest ached. And I had no idea where I was going. I had no idea. But I did know the game was up.

听我说，我还不打算告诉他，“嗯，我想开车和骑摩托。”很难描述那一时刻的情形。他会认为我有够疯狂。我离开他的办公室时，他叫住我说到，“我想是时候了。我想是时候停止内心的抗争并做点不同的事情了。”那扇门关上了。医生的办公室外一片寂静，正如我们很多人都知道的那样。我胸口觉得疼痛。我不知道要去哪儿。完全不知道。但我知道一切都结束了。

And I went home, and, because the pain in my chest ached so much, I thought, "I'll go out for a run." Really not a very sensible thing to do. And I went on a run that I know so well. I know this run so well, by the back of my hand. I always run it perfectly fine. I count the steps and the lampposts and all those things that visually impaired people have a tendency to have a lot of meetings with.

我回到家，胸口疼的非常厉害，我想到，“我要出去跑跑步。”这不是什么非常明智的做法。我非常熟悉跑步。非常熟悉，通过我的手背熟悉的。我总是跑的非常好。我数着步数、街灯柱和其他一些有视觉障碍的人容易碰到的东西。

And there was a rock that I always missed. And I'd never fallen on it, never. And there I was crying away, and smash, bash on my rock. Broken, fallen over on this rock in the middle of March in 2000, typical Irish weather on a Wednesday—gray, snot, tears everywhere, ridiculously self-pitying.

那儿有块我总是会避过的石头。我从未摔倒在它上面，从来没有。我边哭边跑猛的撞到那块石头上。砰的一下，摔倒在这块石头上，那是2000年的三月中——一个周三，典型的爱尔兰天气——世界灰暗，涕泪横流——可笑地自怨自艾。

And I was floored, and I was broken, and I was angry. And I didn't know what to do. And I sat there for quite some time going, "How am I going to get off this rock and go home? Because who am I going to be? What am I going to be?" And I thought about my dad, and I thought, "Good God, I'm so not Sue now." And I kept thinking over and over in my mind, what had happened? Where did it go wrong? Why didn't I understand? And you know, the extraordinary part of it is I just simply had no answers. I had lost my belief. Look where my belief had brought me to. And now I had lost it. And now I really couldn't see. I was crumpled.

我差点晕过去，我被击倒了，我很生气。我不知道该做什么。我坐在那儿好一会儿，“我怎么才能离开这块石头回家？我要成为谁？”我要成为什么？”我想到了我爸爸，我想，“上帝啊，我现在不是苏了。”我就在那儿想啊想啊，发生了什么？我做错了什么？为什么我不明白？最特别的地方是，我没有答案；我失去了自己的信仰。看看我的信仰把我带到了哪儿。现在我失去了它。现在我真的看不见了。我倒下了。

And then I remember thinking about that eye specialist asking me, "What do you want to be? What do you want to be? What did you want to be when you were little? Do you love what you do? Do something different. What do you want to be? Do something different. What do you want to be?" And really slowly, slowly, slowly, it happened. And it did happen this way. And then the minute it came, it blew up in my head and bashed in my heart—something different.

然后我想到了眼科医生问我的问题，“你想成为什么样的人？你想成为什么样的人？你小时候想成为什么样的人？你喜欢你所做的么？做点不同的事情吧。你想成为什么样的人？做点不同的事情吧。你想成为什么样的人？”非常非常慢地，事情发生了。以这种方式发生了。它出现的时候就像在我脑袋里爆炸冲进我心里，不同的事情。

"Well, how about Mowgli from 'The Jungle Book'? You don't get more different than that." And the moment, and I mean the moment, the moment that hit me, I swear to God, it was like woo hoo! You know— something to believe in. And nobody can tell me no. Yes, you can say I can't be an archeologist. But you can't tell me, no, I can't be Mowgli, because guess what? Nobody's ever done it before, so I'm going to go do it. And it doesn't matter whether I'm a boy or a girl, I'm just going to scoot.

“嗯，“森林王子”里的莫格利怎么样？不会有比这更不同的了。”这一刻，我说这一刻是指我想通的那一刻，我向上帝发誓，我松了口气！有了我可以相信的事。没人能告诉我不。是的，你可以说我成为不了一名考古学家。但你不能告诉我，我不能成为莫格利，你猜是因为什么？之前从来没人这么做过，所以我打算去做。无论我是男是女，我就是要去试试。

And so I got off that rock, and, oh my God, did I run home. And I sprinted home, and I didn't fall, and I didn't crash. And I ran up the stairs, and there was one of my favorite books of all time, "Travels on My Elephant" by Mark Shand—I don't know if any of you know it. And I grabbed this book off, and I'm sitting on the couch going, "I know what I'm going to do. I know how to be Mowgli. I'm going to go across India on the back of an elephant. I'm going to be an elephant handler."

我离开了那块石头，哦，上帝，我跑回了家。我奋力跑回家，没有摔倒，没有撞到什么东西。我跑上楼梯，那儿总是放着本我喜欢的书，马克·山德所著的“骑大象走印度”（繁体中文译名）——不知道各位知不知道这本书。我抓起这本书，坐到沙发上，接着想，“我知道我要做什么。我知道怎么能成为莫格利。我要坐在大象的背上穿越印度。我要成为一名大象驾驭者。”

And I had no idea how I was going to be an elephant handler. From global management consultant to elephant handler. I had no idea how. I had no idea how you hire an elephant, get an elephant. I didn't speak Hindi. I'd never been to India. Hadn't a clue. But I knew I would. Because, when you make a decision at the right time and the right place, God, that universe makes it happen for you.

我不知道怎么才能成为一名大象驾驭者。从全球管理顾问到大象驾驭者。我不知道该怎么做。我不知道怎么去雇一头大象，怎么去得到一头大象。我不会说北印度语。我从未去过印度——毫无头绪。但我知道我行。因为，当在正确的地方正确的时间做出决定时，上帝，一切都会水到渠成的。

Nine months later, after that day on snot rock, I had the only blind date in my life with a seven and a half foot elephant called Kanchi. And together we would trek a thousand kilometers across India. (Applause) The most powerful thing of all, it's not that I didn't achieve before then. Oh my God, I did.

在那块石头上痛哭的九个月后，我迎来了人生中的第一次约会，对方是一头七英尺半高的大象，名叫完治。我们将一起跋涉一千公里穿越印度。（掌声）其中最棒的事情是，不是我之前从未做到过，而是——哦，上帝，我做到了。

But you know, I was believing in the wrong thing. Because I wasn't believing in me, really me, all the bits of me—all the bits of all of us. Do you know how much of us all pretend to be somebody we're not? And you know what, when you really believe in yourself and everything about you, it's extraordinary what happens.

但各位知道，我所相信的是错误的。因为我不是相信自己——真实的自己，我的每一部分——我们所有人的每一部分。各位知道我们中有多少人在装扮成一个不是我们的人么？你知道吗，当你真的相信自己，相信你所有的一切时，所发生的一切将非同凡响。

And you know what, that trip, that thousand kilometers, it raised enough money for 6,000 cataract eye operations. Six thousand people got to see because of that. When I came home off that elephant, do you know what the most amazing part was? I chucked in my job at Accenture. I left, and I became a social entrepreneur, and I set up an organization with Mark Shand called Elephant Family, which deals with Asian elephant conservation.

你知道吗，那一千公里的旅程中，筹到的钱足够做六千次白内障眼科手术。六千人将能因此复明。当我离开那头大象时，各位知道最神奇的是什么么？我辞去了在埃森哲的工作。我离开了，我成为了一名社会企业家，我与马克·山德一起建立了一个名为大象之家的组织，致力于亚洲象的保护。

And I set up Kanchi, because my organization was always going to be named after my elephant, because disability is like the elephant in the room. And I wanted to make you see it in a positive way -- no charity, no pity. But I wanted to work only and truly with business and media leadership to totally reframe disability in a way that was exciting and possible. It was extraordinary. That's what I wanted to do. And I never thought about noes anymore, or not seeing, or any of that kind of nothing. It just seemed that it was possible.

我成立了名为完治的组织，因为我的组织总是以我的大象命名，因为残障就像是在房子里的大象。我希望让你们以积极的方式看待它——不带施舍，不带怜悯。但我想只以并真正的以商业和媒体领导力用一种令人激动的可行的方式来完全重建残障。这非同凡响。这就是我想做的。我从未再想过别的，没想过看不见，或者任何这类事情。这看起来是可行的。

And you know, the oddest part is, when I was on my way traveling here to TED, I'll be honest, I was petrified. And I speak, but this is an amazing audience, and what am I doing here? But as I was traveling here, you'll be very happy to know, I did use my white symbol stick cane, because it's really good to skip queues in the airport. And I got my way here being happily proud that I couldn't see. And the one thing is that a really good friend of mine, he texted me on the way over, knowing I was scared. Even though I present confident, I was scared. He said, "Be you." And so here I am. This is me, all of me.

要知道，最古怪的是，当我在来这儿参加TED的路上时，说实话，我有点吓呆了。我要演讲，有那么棒的听众，我在这儿做什么？但我来这儿的路上，你们会很高兴的知道，我用了我的白色手杖，因为在机场它能帮我免于排队。因我无法看见而开心自豪地来到这里。还有件事儿，一名我真正的好朋友，在中途他短信我，他知道我感到害怕。尽管我表现的很自信，但我很害怕。他说，“做你自己。”因此我到这儿来了。这就是我，全部的我。

And I have learned, you know what, cars and motorbikes and elephants, that's not freedom. Being absolutely true to yourself is freedom. And I never needed eyes to see—never. I simply needed vision and belief.

我学习到，你知道吗，汽车、摩托和大象，都不是自由的。做绝对真实的自己，才是自由的。我不在需要眼睛来看——绝不。我仅需要愿景和信仰。

And if you truly believe—and I mean believe from the bottom of your heart -- you can make change happen. And we need to make it happen, because every single one of us—woman, man, gay, straight, disabled, perfect, normal, whatever—everyone of us must be the very best of ourselves. I no longer want anybody to be invisible. We all have to be included. And stop with the labels, the limiting. Losing of labels, because we are not jam jars. We are extraordinary, different, wonderful people.

如果你真正地相信——我是说发自内心地相信——你就能促使变化发生。我们需要让它发生，因为我们中的每个人——女人，男人，同性恋，异性恋，残障的，完美的，正常的，不论是什么——我们中每个人必须是最好的自己。我不再希望任何人是隐形的。我们都要参与其中。停止给自己贴标签，设限制——抛开标签。因为我们不是果酱罐；我们是非凡的、与众不同的、精彩的人。

Thank you.

谢谢。

来源：TED演讲

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