An Identity of One's Own 活出個(gè)性
In the eternal universe, every human being has a one-off chance to live---his existence is unique and irretrievable, for the mold with which he was made, as Rousseau said, was broken by God immediately afterwards.
在茫茫宇宙間，每個(gè)人都只有一次生存的機(jī)會(huì)，都是一個(gè)獨(dú)一無二、不可重復(fù)的存在。正像盧梭所說的，上帝把你造出來后，就把那個(gè)屬于你的特定的模子打碎了。
Fame, wealth and knowledge are merely worldly possessions that are within the reach of anybody striving for them. But your experience of and feelings about life are your own and not to be shared. No one can live your life over again after your death. A full awareness of this will point out to you that the most important thing in your existence is your distinctive individuality or something special of yours. What really counts is not your worldly success but your peculiar insight into the meaning of life and your commitment to it, which add luster to your personality.
名聲、財(cái)產(chǎn)、知識(shí)等等是身外之物，人人都可求而得之，但沒有人能夠代替你感受人生。你死之后，沒有人能夠代替你再活一次。如果你真正意識(shí)到了這一點(diǎn)，你就會(huì)明白，活在世上，最重要的事就是活出你自己的特色和滋味來。你的人生是否有意義，衡量的標(biāo)準(zhǔn)不是外在的成功，而是你對(duì)人生意義的獨(dú)特領(lǐng)悟和堅(jiān)守，從而使你的自我閃放出個(gè)性的光華。
It is not easy to be what one really is. There is many a person in the world who can be identified as anything ---either his job, his status or his social role---that shows no trace about his individuality. It does do him justice to say that he has no identity of his own, if he doesn't know his own mind and all his things are either arranged by others or done on others' suggestions; if his life, always occupied by external things, is completely void of an inner world. You won't be able to find anything whatever, from head to heart, that truly belongs to him. He is, indeed, no more than a shadow cast by somebody else or a machine capable of doing business.
真正成為自己不是一件容易的事。世上有許多人，你說他是什么都行，例如是一種職業(yè)，一個(gè)身份，一個(gè)角色，惟獨(dú)不是他自己。如果一個(gè)人總是按別人的意見生活，沒有自己的獨(dú)立思索，總是為外在事務(wù)忙碌，沒有自己的內(nèi)心生活，那么，說他不是他自己就一點(diǎn)兒也沒有冤枉他。因?yàn)榇_確實(shí)實(shí)，從他的頭腦到他的心靈，你在其中已經(jīng)找不到絲毫真正屬于他自己的東西了，他只是別人的一個(gè)影子和事務(wù)的一架機(jī)器罷了。