TED英文演讲：勇气和恐惧间的美丽平衡

Cara E. Yar Khan被诊断出患有让肌肉退化的罕见基因疾病后，别人告诉她不要有太大的野心和梦想。她不理会这些建议，反而持继追求她最大的野心。在这场动人的演说中，她分享她的哲学，如何去实现梦想，让勇气与恐惧共存。

演讲者：卡拉·e·亚拉·汗（Cara E. Yar Khan）

残疾活动家，国际人权倡导者，30岁时，她被诊断出患有一种罕见的肌肉萎缩症。尽管如此，她仍然过着积极的生活，打破了对残疾人的刻板印象，并致力于促进残疾人融入社会的各个方面。

TED视频

https://v.qq.com/txp/iframe/player.html?width=500&height=375&auto=0&vid=y3045gmbzt6

TED演讲稿

When we're young, we're innocently brave, and we fearlessly dream about what our lives might be like. Maybe you wanted to be an astronaut or a rocket scientist. Maybe you dreamed of traveling to every continent. Since I was very young, I dreamed of working for the United Nations in some of the most difficult countries in the world. And thanks to a lot of courage that dream came true.

我们年轻时勇敢得很天真，会无惧地梦想可以过着怎样的生活。也许你想要当航天员或火箭科学家。也许你梦想到各大洲旅行。我从小时候开始，就梦想为联合国工作，到世界上一些最艰困的国家去。因为大量的勇气，这个梦想成真了。
But here's the thing about courage: it doesn't just appear whenever we need it. It's the result of tough reflection and real work, involving the balance between fear and bravery. Without fear, we'll do foolish things. And without courage, we'll never step into the unknown. The balance of the two is where the magic lies, and it's a balance we all deal with every day.但，关于勇气，有一个重点：它并不是在我们需要它时就会出现。它是认真反思和付出努力的结果，和恐惧与勇敢之间的平衡有关。若没有恐惧，我们会做出蠢事。若没有勇气，我们永远不会踏入未知领域。两者之间的平衡就是魔法的所在，那也是我们每天都必须要处理的平衡。
First, a word about my fancy wheels. I haven't always used a wheelchair. I grew up like many of you, running, jumping and dancing. I love to dance. However, in my mid-twenties, I began to experience a series of inexplicable falls. And a few years later, I was diagnosed with a recessive genetic condition called hereditary inclusion body myopathy, or HIBM. 首先，先谈聊聊我这酷炫的轮子。我并不是一直都需要坐轮椅的。我的成长过程和多数人一样，会跑、会跳、会跳舞。我爱跳舞。然而，大约二十五岁时，我开始会不断地无故摔跤。几年后，我被诊断出一种隐性的基因疾病，叫做遗传性包涵体肌病，简称 HIBM。It's a progressive muscle wasting disease that affects all of my muscles from head to toe. HIBM is very rare. In the United States there are less than 200 people diagnosed. To date, there is no proved treatment or cure, and within 10 to 15 years of its onset, HIBM typically leads to quadriplegia, which is why I now use a wheelchair.它是一种渐进性肌肉萎缩疾病，会影响我从头到脚所有的肌肉。HIBM 非常罕见。在美国，被诊断出这种疾病的人不到两百人。至今，仍然没有证明有效的治疗方式，且，通常，在 HIBM 出现后的十到十五年内就会导致四肢瘫痪，这就是我现在需要轮椅的原因。
When I was first diagnosed, everything changed. It was frightening news because I had no experience with chronic illness or disabilities. And I had no idea how the disease might progress. But what was most disheartening was to listen to other people advise me to limit my ambitions and dreams, and to change my expectations of what to expect from life. 我刚被诊断出来时，一切都改变了。那是很骇人的消息，因为我没有任何慢性疾病或残障的经历。我完全不知道这种疾病会怎么发展。但，最让人沮丧的，是听到其他人建议我不要有那么大的野心和梦想，并要我调整对于人生的期许。"You should quit your international career." "No one will marry you this way." "You would be selfish to have children." The fact that someone who wasn't me was putting limitations on my dreams and ambitions was preposterous. And unacceptable. So I ignored them.「你应该要辞掉你的国际职涯。」「你这样是嫁不出去的。」「你如果生孩子就太自私了。」别人把限制加在我的梦想和野心上，这实在很荒谬。且我无法接受。所以我没有理他们。
I did get married. And I decided for myself not to have children. And I continued my career with the United Nations after my diagnosis, going to work for two years in Angola, a country recovering from 27 years of brutal civil war. However, it would be another five years until I officially declared my diagnosis to my employer. 我确实结婚了。我自己决定不要生孩子。在我被诊断出来之后，我仍继续在联合国的职涯，有两年在安哥拉工作，这个国家正在从二十七年的残酷内战中恢复。然而，又再过了五年之后，我才正式向我的雇主宣布我的诊断。Because I was afraid that they would question my capacity to manage and I'd lose my job. I was working in countries where polio had been common, so when I overheard someone say that they thought I might have survived polio, I thought my secret was safe. No one asked why I was limping. So I didn't say anything.因为我很害怕他们会质疑我继续工作的能力，而我就会失去工作。在我工作所去的国家里，小儿麻痹症很常见，所以，当我听到有人说他们认为我可能是小儿麻痹症的幸存者，我以为我的秘密很安全。没有人问我为什么跛脚。所以我也什么都没说。
It took me over a decade to internalize the severity of HIBM, even as basic tasks and functions became increasingly difficult. Yet, I continued to pursue my dream of working all over the world, and was even appointed as a disability focal point for UNICEF in Haiti, where I served for two years after the devastating 2010 earthquake. 我花了十年的时间，才把 HIBM 的严重性给内化，即使在这过程中，基本的工作和功能都变得越来越困难。但，我持继追逐在世界各地工作的梦想，我甚至被指派为海地联合国儿童基金会的残障大使，在 2010 年严重的地震之后，我在那里服务了两年。And then my work brought me to the United States. And even as the disease progressed significantly and I needed leg braces and a walker to get around, I still longed for adventure. And this time, I started dreaming of a grand outdoor adventure. And what's more grand than the Grand Canyon?接着，我的工作带我来到美国。即使疾病的进展十分显著，我需要用腿支架和助行器才能四处行走，我仍然渴望冒险。这次，我开始梦想要来一场宏大的户外冒险。有什么比大峡谷更宏大呢？
Did you know that for every five million people who visit the Rim only one percent go down to the canyon's base? I wanted to be a part of that one percent. The only thing is --你们可知道吗，每五百万名造访过大峡谷边缘的人当中只有 1% 曾经下到峡谷的底部？我想要成为那 1% 的一员。只是——
The only thing is that the Grand Canyon isn't exactly accessible. I was going to need some assistance to get down the 5,000-foot descent of vertical loose terrain. Now, when I face obstacles, fear doesn't necessarily immediately set in because I assume that one way or another, I'll figure it out. And in this case, my thought was, well, if I can't walk down, I could learn to ride a horse. So that's what I did.只是，大峡谷并不容易进入。我会需要一些协助，才能从垂直的不规则地形向下走五千英呎。当我面对阻碍时，恐惧不见得马上会出现，因为我的假设是，不论如何，我总会想出办法。在这个例子中，我的想法是，如果我不能走下去，我可以学骑马。所以我就这么做了。
And with that fateful decision began a four-year commitment, tossing back and forth between fear and courage to undertake a 12-day expedition. Four days on horseback to cross Grand Canyon rim to rim, and eight days rafting 150 miles of the Colorado River, all with a film crew in tow. 这个命运的决定让我开始了四年的投入，在恐惧和勇气之间来来回回，就为了进行十二天的远征。从大峡谷的一缘到另一缘，骑马要花四天的时间，乘筏在科罗拉多河上划行一百五十英里，要花八天的时间，一路有个拍摄小组跟着我。Spoiler alert -- we made it. But not without showing me how my deepest fear can somehow manifest a mirror response of equal courage. On April 13, 2018, sitting eight feet above the ground, riding a mustang horse named Sheriff, my first impression of Grand Canyon was one of shock and terror. Who knew I had a fear of heights.爆雷警告——我们成功了。但过程中我也了解到我最深的恐惧如何能以某种方式带出同等强大的相映勇气。2018 年四月十三日，坐在离地面八英呎的地方，骑着一匹叫做「警长」的野马，我对大峡谷的第一印象是一种带着震惊和恐怖的印象。谁会知道我竟然怕高。
But there was no giving up now. I mustered up every ounce of courage inside me to not let my fear get the best of me. Embarking on the South Rim, all I could do to keep myself composed was to breathe deeply, stare up into the clouds and focus on my team's voices. But then, in the first hour, disaster struck. 但这时已经不能放弃了。我把体内的每一分勇气都挤出来，不要让我的恐惧击败我。从南缘开始，要维持沉着，我唯一能做的就是深呼吸，把视线向上盯着云，专注在团队队友的声音。但，在第一个小时，灾难发生了。Unable to hold myself upright in the saddle, going down an oversized step, I flung forward and smacked my face on the back of the horse's head. There was panic, my head hurt fiercely, but the path was too narrow for us to dismount. 我无法在马鞍上保持直立，从非常高的地方下去时，我向前扑倒，我的脸撞上马头的后侧。我慌了，我的头非常痛，但路径太狭窄，我们无法下马。Only at the halfway point at 2,300 feet, at least another two hours down, could we stop and remove my helmet and see the egg-sized bump protruding from my forehead. For all of that planning and gear, how is it that we didn't even have an ice pack?一直要到中途两千三百英呎处，也就是至少再向下走两小时，我们才能停下来，御下我的头盔，看到我额头上冒出一个和鸡蛋一样大的肿块。我们有这么多计划，这么多装备，为什么我们却没有带冰块？
Luckily for all of us, the swelling came outwards, and would drain into my face as two fantastic black eyes which is an amazing way to look in a documentary film.我们都很幸运，肿胀是向外的，以两个黑眼圈的方式呈现在我的脸上，放在纪录片中，看起来还挺有特色的。
This was not an easy, peaceful journey, and yet, that was exactly the point. Even though I was afraid to get back into the saddle, I got back in. The descent alone to the canyon floor took a total of 10 hours and that was just day one of four riding.这段旅程并不轻松、平静，但，那正是重点所在。虽然我害怕再回到马鞍上，我还是上去了。光是要下到峡谷的底部，总共就花了十小时，且那只是四天乘骑的第一天。
Next came the mighty rapids. The Colorado River in the Grand Canyon has some of the highest white water in the country. And just to be prepared in case we should capsize, we'd practice having me swim through a smaller rapid. And it's safe to say it wasn't glamorous.下一关是强大的急流。大峡谷的科罗拉多河有着全国最急的湍流。为了万一翻覆做好准备，我们做过练习，让我游过小型湍流。可以说，这场面不很迷人。
I took my breath in the wrong part of the wave, choked on river water and was unable to steer myself. Yes, it was scary, but it was also fantastic. Waterfalls, slick canyons and a couple billion years of bedrock that seemed to change color throughout the day. The Grand Canyon is true wilderness and worthy of all of its accolades.我在波浪中换气时选错了时机，呛到了河水，无法控制我自己的行进方向。是的，那很可怕，但也很棒。瀑布、光滑的峡谷，还有几十亿年的岩床，在一天当中似乎会改变颜色。大峡谷是真正的野外，对它的每一分盛赞都名符其实。
The expedition, all that planning and the trip itself, showed me a level of fear I had never experienced before. But more importantly, it showed me how boldly courageous I can be. My Grand Canyon journey was not easy. This was not a vision of an Amazonian woman effortlessly making her way through epic scenery. This was me crying, exhausted and beat up with two black eyes. It was scary, it was stressful, it was exhilarating.这趟远征，所有的计划和旅程本身，让我见识到未曾经历过的恐惧程度。但，更重要的是，它也让我看到，我能够多么勇敢。我的大峡谷旅程并不轻松。当时的景象并不是亚马逊族女战士毫不费力地一路穿越史诗般的风景。而是我在哭泣、筋疲力尽，还带着两个黑眼圈。这段经历很可怕，压力很大，很让人振奋。
Now that the trip is over, it's easy to be blasé about what we achieved. I know I want to raft the river again. This time, all 277 miles of it.现在，在旅程结束后，很容易就能平静地诉说我们的成就。我知道我想要再次乘筏渡河。这次，要完成全程 277 英里。
But I also know that I would never do the horseback-riding part again.但我也知道我永远不会再做骑马的那部分了。
It's just too dangerous. And that's my real point. I'm not just here to show you my film footage. I'm here to remind us all that life is really just a lesson in finding the balance between fear and courage. And understanding what is and what isn't a good idea.那太危险了。那就是我的重点。我不只是来这里给大家看我的影片。我来这里是要提醒大家，人生其实只是关于在恐惧与勇气间找到平衡的一课。还有了解什么是或不是个好主意。
Life is already scary, so for our dreams to come true, we need to be brave. In facing my fears and finding the courage to push through them, I swear my life has been extraordinary. So live big and try to let your courage outweigh your fear. You never know where it might take you.人生已经很吓人了。所以，若要实现我们的梦想，我们必须要勇敢。在面对我的恐惧及找到勇气将恐惧推开的过程中，我发誓，我的人生变得十分不凡。所以，大胆去活，试着让你的勇气超越你的恐惧。你永远不会知道它会带你到哪里。
Thank you.谢谢。
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