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雷雨中的醒悟
Many years ago I was on a bicycle trip through some exceedingly countryside.[注：exceedingly：非常地，异常地；picturesque：如画的，独特的。] Suddenly, dark clouds piled up overhead and rain began to fall, but strange to relate, several hundred yards ahead of me the sun shone brilliantly. Pedaling[注：pedal：踏板。], however, as rapidly as I could, I found it impossible to get into the clear. The clouds with their rain kept advancing faster than I could race forward. I continued this unequal contest for an exhausting[注：exhausting：精疲力尽的。] half hour, before realizing that I could not win my way to the bright area ahead of me.
Then it dawned upon me that I was wasting my strength in unimportant hurry, while paying no attention whatsoever[注：whatsoever：= whatever（语气比whatever强）。] to the landscape for the sake of which I was making the trip. The storm could not last forever and the discomfort was not unendurable[注：unendurable：难以忍受的。]. Indeed, there was much to look at which might otherwise have escaped me. As I gazed about with sharpened appreciation, I saw colors and lines and contours that would have appeared differently under brilliant light.[注：gazed about：凝视；appreciation：Appreciation of something is the recognition and enjoyment of its good qualities；contour：外形，轮廓。] The rain mists which now crowned the wooded hills and the fresh clearness of the different greens were entrancing[注：entrancing：If something or someone entrances you, they cause you to feel delight and wonder, often so that all your attention is taken up and you cannot think about anything else.]. My annoyance at the rain was gone and my eagerness to escape it vanished[注：vanish：=disappear]. It had provided me with a new view and helped me understand that the sources of beauty and satisfaction may be found close at hand within the range of one’s own sensibilities[注：sensibility：Sensibility is the ability to experience deep feelings.].
It made me think, then and later, about other matters to which this incident was related. It helped me realize that there is no sense in my attempting ever to flee from circumstances and conditions which cannot be avoided but which I might bravely meet and frequently mend and often turn to good account. I know that half the battle is won if I can face trouble with courage, disappointment with spirit, and triumph with humility.[注：triumph：胜利，成功；humility：谦卑，谦逊。] It has become ever clearer to me that danger is far from disaster, that defeat may be the forerunner of final victory, and that, in the last analysis, all achievement is perilously[注：perilously：充满危险地，危机四伏地。] fragile unless based on enduring principles of moral conduct.
I have learned that trying to find a carefree world somewhere far off involves me in an endless chase in the course of which the opportunity for happiness and the happiness of attainment are all too I often lost in the chase itself. It has become apparent to me that I cannot wipe out the pains of existence by denying them, blaming them largely or completely on others, or running away from them.
The elements of weakness which mark every person cannot absolve[注：absolve：If a report or investigation absolves someone from blame or responsibility, it formally states that he or she is not guilty or is not to blame. ] me from the burdens and blessings of responsibility for myself and to others. I can magnify but never lessen my problems by ignoring, evading them. or exorcising.[注：magnify：放大，扩大；evade：躲避，逃避；exorcise：If you exorcise a painful or unhappy memory, you succeed in removing it from your mind.] I believe that my perplexities[注：perplexity：The perplexities of something are those things about it which are difficult to understand because they are complex.] and difficulties can be considerably resolved, if not completely overcome, by my own attitudes and actions. I am convinced that there can be no guarantee of my happiness except that I help evoke and enhance it by the work of my hands and the dictates of my heart and the direction of my striving.[注：evoke：唤起（记忆等）；enhance：To enhance something means to improve its value, quality, or attractiveness；strive：If you strive to do something or strive for something, you make a great effort to do it or get it.] I believe that deep faith in God is necessary to keep me and hold mankind uncowed and confident under the vagaries and ordeals of mortal experience, and particularly so in this period of revolutionary storm and travail.[注：uncowed：cow，恐吓，吓到，前缀un-表示否定，uncowed意为不被吓倒；vagary：难以预测的变化；ordeal：苦难，折磨［C］；mortal：凡人的；travail：痛苦，艰难［C］。] If my values receive their sanction and strength from relationship to divine law and acceptance of its ethical imperatives, then nothing can really harm me.[注：sanction：=approval；divine：神的，神圣的；imperative：必要的事，必须完成的事。] “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.”
Many years ago I was on a bicycle trip through some exceedingly countryside.[注：exceedingly：非常地，异常地；picturesque：如画的，独特的。] Suddenly, dark clouds piled up overhead and rain began to fall, but strange to relate, several hundred yards ahead of me the sun shone brilliantly. Pedaling[注：pedal：踏板。], however, as rapidly as I could, I found it impossible to get into the clear. The clouds with their rain kept advancing faster than I could race forward. I continued this unequal contest for an exhausting[注：exhausting：精疲力尽的。] half hour, before realizing that I could not win my way to the bright area ahead of me.
Then it dawned upon me that I was wasting my strength in unimportant hurry, while paying no attention whatsoever[注：whatsoever：= whatever（语气比whatever强）。] to the landscape for the sake of which I was making the trip. The storm could not last forever and the discomfort was not unendurable[注：unendurable：难以忍受的。]. Indeed, there was much to look at which might otherwise have escaped me. As I gazed about with sharpened appreciation, I saw colors and lines and contours that would have appeared differently under brilliant light.[注：gazed about：凝视；appreciation：Appreciation of something is the recognition and enjoyment of its good qualities；contour：外形，轮廓。] The rain mists which now crowned the wooded hills and the fresh clearness of the different greens were entrancing[注：entrancing：If something or someone entrances you, they cause you to feel delight and wonder, often so that all your attention is taken up and you cannot think about anything else.]. My annoyance at the rain was gone and my eagerness to escape it vanished[注：vanish：=disappear]. It had provided me with a new view and helped me understand that the sources of beauty and satisfaction may be found close at hand within the range of one’s own sensibilities[注：sensibility：Sensibility is the ability to experience deep feelings.].
It made me think, then and later, about other matters to which this incident was related. It helped me realize that there is no sense in my attempting ever to flee from circumstances and conditions which cannot be avoided but which I might bravely meet and frequently mend and often turn to good account. I know that half the battle is won if I can face trouble with courage, disappointment with spirit, and triumph with humility.[注：triumph：胜利，成功；humility：谦卑，谦逊。] It has become ever clearer to me that danger is far from disaster, that defeat may be the forerunner of final victory, and that, in the last analysis, all achievement is perilously[注：perilously：充满危险地，危机四伏地。] fragile unless based on enduring principles of moral conduct.
I have learned that trying to find a carefree world somewhere far off involves me in an endless chase in the course of which the opportunity for happiness and the happiness of attainment are all too I often lost in the chase itself. It has become apparent to me that I cannot wipe out the pains of existence by denying them, blaming them largely or completely on others, or running away from them.
The elements of weakness which mark every person cannot absolve[注：absolve：If a report or investigation absolves someone from blame or responsibility, it formally states that he or she is not guilty or is not to blame. ] me from the burdens and blessings of responsibility for myself and to others. I can magnify but never lessen my problems by ignoring, evading them. or exorcising.[注：magnify：放大，扩大；evade：躲避，逃避；exorcise：If you exorcise a painful or unhappy memory, you succeed in removing it from your mind.] I believe that my perplexities[注：perplexity：The perplexities of something are those things about it which are difficult to understand because they are complex.] and difficulties can be considerably resolved, if not completely overcome, by my own attitudes and actions. I am convinced that there can be no guarantee of my happiness except that I help evoke and enhance it by the work of my hands and the dictates of my heart and the direction of my striving.[注：evoke：唤起（记忆等）；enhance：To enhance something means to improve its value, quality, or attractiveness；strive：If you strive to do something or strive for something, you make a great effort to do it or get it.] I believe that deep faith in God is necessary to keep me and hold mankind uncowed and confident under the vagaries and ordeals of mortal experience, and particularly so in this period of revolutionary storm and travail.[注：uncowed：cow，恐吓，吓到，前缀un-表示否定，uncowed意为不被吓倒；vagary：难以预测的变化；ordeal：苦难，折磨［C］；mortal：凡人的；travail：痛苦，艰难［C］。] If my values receive their sanction and strength from relationship to divine law and acceptance of its ethical imperatives, then nothing can really harm me.[注：sanction：=approval；divine：神的，神圣的；imperative：必要的事，必须完成的事。] “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.”