优秀英语短篇散文：态度决定人生
态度决定人生--选择快乐所以快乐Jerry was the kind of guy you love to hate. He was always in a good mood
and always had something positive to say. When someone would ask him how he was
doing, he would reply, "If I were any better, I would be twins!"
He was a unique manager because he had several waiters who had followed him
around from restaurant to restaurant. The reason the waiters followed Jerry was
because of his attitude. He was a natural motivator. If an employee was having a
bad day, Jerry was there telling the employee how to look on the positive side
of the situation.
Seeing this style really made me curious, so one day I went up to Jerry and
asked him, "I don"t get it! You can"t be a positive person all of the time. How
do you do it?"
Jerry replied, "Each morning I wake up and say to myself, "Jerry, you have
two choices today. You can choose to be in a good mood or you can choose to be
in a bad mood." I choose to be in a good mood. Each time something bad happens,
I can choose to be a victim or I can choose to learn from it. I choose to learn
from it. Every time someone comes to me complaining, I can choose to accept
their complaining or I can point out the positive side of life. I choose the
positive side of life."
"Yeah, right, it"s not that easy," I protested.
"Yes, it is," Jerry said. "Life is all about choices. When you cut away all
the junk, every situation is a choice. You choose how you react to situations.
You choose how people will affect your mood. You choose to be in a good mood or
bad mood. The bottom line: It"s your choice how you live life."
I reflected on what Jerry said. Soon thereafter, I left the restaurant
industry to start my own business. We lost touch, but I often thought about him
when I made a choice about life instead of reacting to it.
Several years later, I heard that Jerry did something you are never
supposed to do in a restaurant business: he left the back door open one morning
and was held up at gunpoint by three armed robbers. While trying to open the
safe(保险柜), his hand, shaking from nervousness, slipped off (忘记，遗漏)the
combination (开启号码锁的号码组合)。 The robbers panicked and shot him.
Luckily, Jerry was found relatively quickly and rushed to the local trauma
(创伤，外伤)center. After 18 hours of surgery and weeks of intensive care, Jerry was
released from the hospital with fragments of the bullets still in his body.
I saw Jerry about six months after the accident. When I asked him how he
was, he replied, "If I were any better, I"d be twins. Wanna see my scars(伤疤)?" I
declined to see his wounds, but did ask him what had gone through his mind as
the robbery took place.
"The first thing that went through my mind was that I should have locked
the back door," Jerry replied. "Then, as I lay on the floor, I remembered that I
had two choices: I could choose to live, or I could choose to die. I chose to
live."
"Weren"t you scared? Did you lose consciousness?" I asked.
Jerry continued, "The paramedics (护理人员)were great. They kept telling me I
was going to be fine. But when they wheeled me into the emergency room and I saw
the expressions on the faces of the doctors and nurses, I got really scared. In
their eyes, I read, "He"s a dead man." "I knew I needed to take action."
"What did you do?" I asked.
"Well, there was a big, burly (魁梧的，结实的)nurse shouting questions at me,"
said Jerry.
"She asked if I was allergic (过敏的)to anything. "Yes," I replied. The
doctors and nurses stopped working as they waited for my reply. I took a deep
breath and yelled, "Bullets!"
Over their laughter, I told them. "I am choosing to live. Operate on me as
if I am alive, not dead."
Jerry lived thanks to the skill of his doctors, but also because of his
amazing attitude. I learned from him that every day we have the choice to live
fully.
Attitude, after all, is everything.
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