Among the many jobs that Richard from Texas has held in his life—and I know I'm leaving a lot of them out—are oil-field worker; eighteen-wheeler truck driver; the first authorized dealer of Birkenstocks in the Dakotas; sack-shaker in a midwestern landfill (I'm sorry, but I really don't have time to explain what a "sack-shaker" is); highway construction worker; used-car salesman; soldier in Vietnam; "commodities broker" (that commodity generally being Mexican narcotics); junkie and alcoholic (if you can call this a profession); then reformed junkie and alcoholic (a much more respectable profession); hippie farmer on a commune; radio voice-over announcer; and, finally, successful dealer in high-end medical equipment (until his marriage fell apart and he gave the whole business to his ex and got left "scratchin' my broke white ass again"). Now he renovates old houses in Austin.
德州理查一生干过许多职业——我知道自己还漏掉许多——包括：炼油厂工人；十八轮卡车司机；达科塔州第一个勃肯鞋（Birkenstocks）总代理；中西部某垃圾填埋场的甩袋人（sack-shaker；抱歉，我没时间说明什么是“甩袋人”）；高速公路建筑工人；二手车销售员；越战士兵；“商品掮客”（商品大致是墨西哥毒品）；吸毒者兼酗酒者（若可称为职业）；而后成为洗心革面的吸毒者兼酗酒者（这职业体面得多）；某社区的嬉皮农夫；广播旁白员；最后，高级医疗用品的成功销售商（直到婚姻失败后，他把事业给了他的前妻。）现在他在奥斯汀（Austin）为人翻修旧房子。

"Never did have much of a career path," he says. "Never could do anything but the hustle."
“不曾有过什么生涯路线，”他说，“除了劳碌奔波外，一无所能。”

Richard from Texas is not a guy who worries about a lot of stuff. I wouldn't call him a neurotic person, no sir. But I am a bit neurotic, and that's why I've come to adore him. Richard's presence at this Ashram becomes my great and amusing sense of security. His giant ambling confidence hushes down all my inherent nervousness and reminds me that everything really is going to be OK. (And if not OK, then at least comic.) Remember the cartoon rooster Foghorn Leghorn? Well, Richard is kind of like that, and I become his chatty little sidekick, the Chickenhawk. In Richard's own words: "Me and Groceries, we steady be laughin' the whole damn time."
德州理查不是担太多心的家伙。他可不是神经质的人，一点也不。不过我是有点神经质的人，因此崇拜起他来。理查来到道场，为我带来大而有趣的安全感。他从容不迫的自信，安抚了我与生俱来的紧张兮兮，提醒我一切都会没事。（或至少会是喜剧。）可记得卡通里的莱亨鸡（Foghorn Leghorn）？理查有点像它，而我成了它身边碎嘴子的助手小鹰。引用理查说的一段话：“我和食品杂货，一天到晚都在笑。”

Groceries.
食品杂货。

That's the nickname Richard has given me. He bestowed it upon me the first night we met, when he noticed how much I could eat. I tried to defend myself ("I was purposefully eating with discipline and intention!") but the name stuck.
这是理查给我取的绰号。他在我们第一次见面的晚上，献给我这个绰号，因为他留意到我吃得不少。我想为自己辩护（“我是有纪律、有目的而蓄意地吃！”），但这名字从此固定下来。

Maybe Richard from Texas doesn't seem like a typical Yogi. Though my time in India has cautioned me against deciding what a typical Yogi is. (Don't get me started on the dairy farmer from rural Ireland I met here the other day, or the former nun from South Africa.) Richard came to this Yoga through an ex-girlfriend, who drove him up from Texas to the Ashram in New York to hear the Guru speak. Richard says, "I thought the Ashram was the weirdest thing I ever saw, and I was wondering where the room was where you have to give 'em all your money and turn over the deed to your house and car, but that never did happen . . ."
或许德州理查不太像典型的瑜伽人士。尽管我在印度的日子奉劝我莫去断言什么是典型的瑜伽人士（别让我开始扯到前几天在这儿遇上的爱尔兰酪农，或南非来的前修女。）理查透过前任女友参与瑜伽，她载他从德州前往位于纽约的道场，听导师演讲。理查说：“当时我认为道场是我见过的最诡异的东西。我心想，那个会让你缴出所有的钱、车契和房契的房间在哪里？不过却从未遇上这种情况……”

After that experience, which was about ten years ago, Richard found himself praying all the time. His prayer was always the same. He kept begging God, "Please, please, please open my heart." That was all he wanted—an open heart. And he would always finish the prayer for an open heart by asking God, "And please send me a sign when the event has occurred." Now he says, recollecting that time, "Be careful what you pray for, Groceries, cuz you just might get it." After a few months of praying constantly for an open heart, what do you think Richard got? That's right—emergency open-heart surgery. His chest was literally cracked open, his ribs cleaved away from each other to allow some daylight to finally reach into his heart, as though God were saying, "How's that for a sign?" So now Richard is always cautious with his prayers, he tells me. "Whenever I pray for anything these days, I always wrap it up by saying, 'Oh, and God? Please be gentle with me, OK?' "
那回的体验——大约十年前——之后，理查发现自己随时在祈祷。他的祷词始终相同。他不断请求神：“拜托、拜托，请打开我的心。”他要一个开阔的心怀。他总是请神“在事情发生那一刻给我信号”，作为祈求开阔心怀的结束语。他回忆起那段时期，说：“食品杂货，当心你祈求的东西，因为很有可能如愿以偿。”经常祈求开阔心怀，如此持续几个月后，你猜猜理查求得了什么？没错——紧急开心手术。他确实被剖膛开肚，肋骨被分开，让足够的光线终于能进入他的心，仿佛神在说：“这信号不错吧？”因此现在理查总是十分谨慎祈祷，他告诉我：“近来我无论祈求什么事 ，最后总是说‘喔，神哪，请温柔待我，好吗？’”