Thoughts for a new year
Most of us look away when we pass strangers. It is the expectional person who sTOPs to help the woman maneuvering1 her kids and groceries up the staircase. We rarely give up in line or on the subway or bus. Locked into our automobiles2, we prefer gridlock to giving way.
新年沉思
当大家与陌生人擦肩而过时，多数人总是把目光移开。如果有人停下来帮妇女哄她的孩子和帮她把食品搬上楼梯，反而会让人看成另类。无论是排队还是乘地铁或公共汽车，大家极少让坐落于别人。坐在我们的汽车里，大家宁可堵塞交通也不愿给人让路。
These daily encounters, when they are angry or alien, diminish our lives. When they are pleasant, we feel buoyed3. Yet when we sit at home and make resolutions, we think about what we can accomplish in private spaces：home, work. Too many have given up the belief that they control the shared, the public world.这类平时接触，如果气冲冲的或是使人反感的，那便会降低大家生活的乐趣，如果它们让人愉快，那便会使大家精神振奋。然而，当大家坐在家做出各种决定的时候，大家考虑的只是在个人天地--家庭和工作里可以达成的目的。太多的人已经舍弃了他们也管理着共享的、公共的世界这一信念。
As inpiduals we can change the contour of a day, the mood of a moment, the way people feel. The demolition4 and reconstruction5 of public life is the result of personal decisions made every day：the decision to give up a seat on the bus；the decision to be patient or pleasant against all odds；the decision to let that jerk take a left－hand turn from a right－hand lane without rolling down the window and calling him a jerk.
作为众人的一员，大家可以改变一天的面貌，一时的情绪，与大家对某件事的感觉。公共生活的毁坏和重建是大家每天所做的种种个人决定的综合结果。这类决定包含：公共汽车上让座，面对逆境而能容忍或具备乐观精神；让那个笨蛋从右车道往左拐而不摇下车窗骂他蠢货。
It's the resolution to be a civil, social creature. This may be a peak period for the battle against the spread of a waistline and creeping cholesterol6. But it is also within our will power to fight the spread of urban rudeness and creeping hostility7. Civility doesn't sTOP nuclear holocaust8 and doesn't put a roof over the head of the homeless. But it makes a difference in the shape of a community, as surely as lifting weights can make a difference in the shape of a human torso.
这是做一个文明的、社会的人的决定。今天或许是大家为降低腰节和减少胆固醇而斗争的高峰期。然而，反对城市野蛮行为和人际敌对态度的蔓延，也是大家只须愿做就能做到的事。有礼貌不可以制止核战争，也不可以为无家可归者提供栖身之所，但它的确能改变一个社会群体的面貌，犹如举重定能改变一个人的体形一样。
