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境遇犹如床垫，躺在上面很舒服，压在下面就会闷得喘不过气来。 

 佚名 

Circumstances are like a mattress: When we are on top, we rest in comfort; when we are underneath, we are smothered.

Anonymous

I think it was 1982. I know it was October. A friend *had business dealings in the city of Reno, Nevada, and I was asked to accompany her on an overnight trip. While she conducted her business, I was aimlessly wandering down Virginia Street, headed into a most gloriously beautiful sunset. I had an urge to speak to someone on the street to share that beauty, but I couldn’t make eye contact with anyone. It seemed everyone was shuffling along looking at their feet.

 我想那是1982年10月间。有个朋友去内华达州瑞诺市出差，约我陪她去，要在那儿住一晚。她去办她的事去了，我就沿着弗吉尼亚街无目的地漫步走着，迎面而来的是一片灿烂绚丽的落日景色。我非常想和街上行人共享这一美景，但我望别人时别人却不望我，似乎每个人都眼睛望着脚拖着步子走。 

I took the next-best action6. Quickly I ducked into a department store and asked the lady behind the counter if she could come outside for just a minute. She looked at me as though I were from some other planet and said, “Well ...”

 我只好退而求其次。我迅速走进一家百货店向柜台后面的女售货员说请她出来一会儿。她打量我就好像我是从另一星球来的，然后说：“那好吧……” 

I said, “It will only take a moment.” Seemingly against her better judgment, she moved toward the door.

When she got outside I said to her, “Just look at that sunset! Nobody out here was looking at it and I just had to share it with someone.”

For a few seconds we just looked. Then I said, “God’s in his heaven and all’s fight with the world.’’ I thanked her for coming out to see it; she went back inside and I left. It felt good to share the beauty.

我说：“只要一会儿。”她看起来并不以为然，但还是向门边走来。

她出来时我向她说：“你看那落日！我只是很想和人共享这一美景，可这儿谁都不看。”

我们就这样望了一会儿，然后我说：“上帝在天，世上一切安好。”我谢谢她出来和我共享；她进去后我就走了。和人共享美景的感觉真好。

I forgot about the episode.

Four years later my situation had altered considerably. I had come to the end of a twenty-year marriage. I was alone and on my own for the first time in my life and in drastically reduced circumstances. I lived in a trailer park which, at the time, I considered a real come-down, and I had to do my wash in the communal laundry room.

后来我把这事忘了。

4年后我的境况发生了很大变化。20年的婚姻终结了。我这辈子头一次感到孤立无援，一切要靠自己，生活状况大大恶化。我住在拖车式活动房屋，当时我认为真是陷入屈辱的底层了，我还不得不到公共洗衣房去洗衣服。

One day, while my clothes were going around, I picked up a Unity Magazine and read an article about a woman who had been in similar circumstances. She had come to the end of a marriage, moved to a strange community, and the only job she could find was one she disliked: cosmetic sales in a department store. We had a lot in common. She was as bummed out as I was.

 有一天我在洗衣房等着衣服在机器中运行的时候，偶然拿起一本名为《团结杂志》的刊物，读到里面的一篇文章，讲的是一位和我境遇相似的妇女。她也遇到婚变离异了，搬到一个陌生的社区。她所能找到的惟一工作是她所不喜欢的——在一家百货店卖化妆品。我们有很多共同点。她和我一样灰心丧气。  

Then something happened to her that changed everything. She said a woman came into her department store and asked her to step outside to look at a sunset. The stranger had said, “God’s in his heaven and all’s right with the world,” and she had realized the truth in that statement and that she simply had not been seeing it. From that moment on, she turned her life around.

后来发生了一件事改变了她的一切。她说有一个女人走进她的百货店要她出去看一眼落日。那个陌生人还说：“上帝在天，世上一切安好。”她认识到这话的真谛，可是在这以前她却一直不明白。从那一刻起她的生活整个儿改观了。 

(EDITORS’15 NOTE: Sherry returned to the laundry room but the magazine was gone. She wrote Unity Magazine, but they were moving when they received her letter and couldn’t help. She wants the woman in Reno to know that she has done the same thing for her. The gift has come full circle.)

 ﹝编者按：雪莉后来洗衣房时那本杂志已经不见了。她给《团结杂志》写信，可是杂志社收信时正在搬家无法帮助她。她希望瑞诺的那位妇女知道自己也给了别人帮助，做了和她同样的事。礼物绕了一大圈，回到了本人手中。﹞​​​​

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