英文原文

每个人都是一种特殊的存在！ 闻道有先后，术业有专攻。人第一声啼哭，便注定是他自己，谁也无法替代。人的潜能，难以想象。人的情感，不必压抑。不要跟自己过不去，处事超然，豁达为人。人生赛场，磨难是最好的熔炉，我们不是匆匆过客。

I listen to people for a living. As a psychologist in the Department of Veterans Affairs, I hear about some of the worst experiences humans have to bear. I have sat face-to-face with a Bataan Death March Survivor, an airman shot down over Germany, a Marine who was at the Chosin Reservoir, veterans from every region of Vietnam, medics and infantry soldiers from Afghanistan and Iraq. I have spoken with people who have been assaulted and brutalized by their own comrades, and parents who’ve had to attend their own children’s funerals.

I have gained a surprising belief from hearing about so much agony: I believe in the power of human resilience. I am continually inspired by the ability of the emotionally wounded to pick themselves up and keep going after enduring the most traumatic circumstances imaginable.

Iraqi veterans describe to me the constant hell of unpredictable IED attacks and invisible snipers. By the time they get home, many can’t drive on the freeway or be in the same room with old friends. One vet described being locked in an emotional cage between numbness and rage.

Emerging from this terrible backdrop, many Iraqi vets have surprised me with their drive to recover and their unpredictable ways of giving back some meaning to their lives. For example, there was a veteran whose most powerful therapeutic experience was helping his grandmother keep her small business running. This cause gave him a reason to care, someone to emotionally connect with and ultimately a reason to get up in the morning.

This might sound like naive optimism when in fact treatment is often long and hard, and not every story has a happy ending. Some days when I go home my head hurts. I feel sad or worried or angry or ineffective. On these days, I have to appeal to my own strategies for self-care, pick myself back up and keep going.

I went to school to learn how to help people get better. Instead, it is often the very people I have spent my career trying to help that remind me how to care for myself. I keep a catalog of them in my head and I try to use this list as a road map, an inspiration and a reminder of what human resilience can achieve.

I make it a point to complement the strength and ingenuity of the people who sit in my office. But the truth is, I don’t think many of them realize the depth of my admiration. Sitting in the room with these people every day allows me to hope that I might also find strength to face future problems. This solid sense of hope is a gift and it is my humble desire to share it with the next person who sits with me.

重点词汇

1.infantry n. 步兵；步兵团

如：Barracks will help You train Your Infantry.
军营将帮助您训练您的步兵。

2.brutalize vt. 残酷地对待；使像野兽般残忍，使变得残酷无情

如：But when an intruder breaks into his home, kills his son and brutalize his wife, Archer's ideal life is shattered.
但好景不常，一名凶徒闯入他的住所爱儿杀害并暴虐他的妻子，就此粉碎了他完美的生活。

3.resilience n. 恢复力；弹力；顺应力

如：But it would be safer not to bet on such resilience.
但把赌注压在这样的弹性上是不安全的做法。

4.imaginable adj. 可能的；可想像的

如：The school offers courses in every subject imaginable.
这所学校开设所有能想到的课程。

5.numbness n. 麻木；麻痹

如：Paresthesias, numbness – may mask the degree of damage.
感觉异常，麻木-可掩盖损伤程度。

6.backdrop n. 背景；背景幕；交流声

7.ingenuity n. 心灵手巧，独创性；精巧；精巧的装置

如：The boy showed ingenuity in making toys out of scraps of discarded wood.
这个男孩表现出聪明才智用剪下来的碎木制作玩具。