I Live Four Lives at a Time （下）

英语自学网

　　I Live Four Lives at a Time (下)
        　　编者按：
        　　我的尝试和成败得失熔铸成一个坚定的信念——绝非仅我一人试图理解与尊重他人。我相信合作与相互关爱正是人类的本性。
        　　I Live Four Lives at a Time
        　　by Alice Thompson
        　　My job itself is a reaffirmation of that by which I live. Very early in my working life, I was a small cog in a big firm. Emerging from a tiny job, I found a strange frightening world. Superficially, everyone was friendly. But beneath the surface were raging suspicion, distrust; the hand ever ready to ward off—or deliver—the knife in the back. For years I thought I was in a world of monstrous people. Then I began to know the company’s president. What he had been I have no way of knowing. But at seventy, he was suspicious, distrusting, sure that no one was telling him the truth. He had developed a technique of pitting all of us against each other. Able to see the distortion he caused, I youthfully declared that if I every ran a business, it would be on the reverse principle.
        　　我的人生信条在工作中也得到了印证。从业之初，我只是一家大公司的无名小卒。我从低微的职位慢慢晋升，发现公司是个十分古怪而可怕的世界。每个人表面上和和气气，暗中却相互猜忌，人人自危，既怕自己背后射来暗箭，又想伺机捅人一刀。几年下来，我觉得公司里每个人都是魔鬼，后来才发现这一切都是总裁一手造成的。他从前为人如何我无从得知，但年已七旬的他满腹狐疑，不相信任何人，觉得所有人都在欺骗他，便运用手段挑起员工之间的争斗。明白了他何以能使人心扭曲，年轻的我暗下决心，他年我若自行创业，一定运用完全相反的原则。
        　　For the last two years, I have had that opportunity, and had the joy of watching people—widely different people, too—learn to understand each other, accept each other, feel mutually responsible.
        　　两年前我终于有机会自立门户，有了观察人的工作。我看到各种不同的人如何学会相互理解和接受，对彼此尽责。
        　　My trials and errors have really synthesized into one great belief, which is that I am not alone in my desire to reach my fellow man. I believe the human race is inherently cooperative and concerned about its brother.
        　　我的尝试和成败得失熔铸成一个坚定的信念——绝非仅我一人试图理解与尊重他人。我相信合作与相互关爱正是人类的本性。
        　　附注：
        　　艾丽斯·汤普森夫人：是《十七岁》杂志的发行人及总编，她是美国国家级杂志发行人中第一位、也是唯一的一位女性。