5.Quick Fix Society(1263)

Passage Five

Janet Mendell Goldstein is a writer and editor with degrees from Harvard and Pennsylvania. She has taught for 30 years and now helps with books and magazines. Her writings have been in many papers and magazines.

珍妮特·门德尔·戈尔茨坦是一位作家和编辑，拥有哈佛大学和宾夕法尼亚大学的学位。她已经教了30年书了，现在还帮忙做书籍和杂志。她的文章曾在许多报纸和杂志上发表过。

Quick Fix Society

Janet Mendell Goldstein

【1】My husband and I just got back from a week's vacation in West Virginia. Of course, we couldn't wait to get there, so we took the Pennsylvania Turnpike and a couple of interstates. "Look at those gorgeous farms!" my husband exclaimed as pastoral scenery slid by us at 55 mph. "Did you see those cows?" But at 55 mph, it's difficult to see anything; the gorgeous farms look like moving green checkerboards, and the herd of cows is reduced to a few dots in the rear-view mirror.

【2】For four hours, our only real amusement consisted of counting exit signs and wondering what it would feel like to hold still again. Getting there certainly didn't seem like half the fun; in fact, getting there wasn't any fun at all.

【3】So, when it was time to return to our home outside of Philadelphia, I insisted that we take a different route. "Let's explore that countryside," I suggested. The two days it took us to make the return trip were filled with new experiences.

【4】We toured a Civil War battlefield and stood on the little hill that fifteen thousand Confederate soldiers had tried to take on another hot July afternoon, one hundred and twenty-five years ago, not knowing that half of them would get killed in the vain attempt.

【5】We drove slowly through main streets of sleepy Pennsylvania Dutch towns, slowing to twenty miles an hour so as not to crowd the horses and horse carriages on their way to market. We admired toy trains and antique cars in country museums and saved 70 percent in factory outlets.

【6】We stuffed ourselves with spicy salads and homemade bread in an "all-you-can-eat" farmhouse restaurant, then wandered outside to enjoy the sunshine and the herds of cows—no little dots this time—lying in it. And we returned home refreshed, revitalized, and reeducated. This time, getting there had been the fun.

【7】Why is it that the featureless turnpikes and interstates are the routes of choice for so many of us? Why doesn't everybody try slowing down and exploring the countryside? But more and more, the fast lane seems to be the only way for us to go. In fact, most Americans are constantly in a hurry—and not just to get from Point A to Point B. Our country has become a nation in search of the quick fix—in more ways than one.

【8】Now instead of later: Americans understood the principle of deferred gratification. We put a little of each paycheck away "for a rainy day." If we wanted a new sofa or a week at a lakeside cabin, we saved up for it, and the banks helped us out by providing special Christmas Club and vacation Club accounts.

【9】If we lived in the right part of the country, we planted corn and beans and waited patiently for the harvest. If we wanted to be thinner, we simply ate less of our favorite foods and waited for the scale to drop, a pound at a time.

【10】But today we aren't so patient. We take out loans instead of making deposits, or we use our credit card to get that furniture or vacation trip—relax now, pay later. We buy our food, like our clothing, ready-made and off the rack. And if we're in a hurry to lose weight, we try the latest miracle diet, guaranteed to take away ten pounds in ten days... unless we're rich enough to afford liposuction.

【11】Faster instead of slower: Not only do we want it now, we don't even want to be kept waiting for it. This general impatience, the "I-hate-to-wait" attitude, has infected every level of our lives. Instead of standing in line at the bank, we withdraw twenty dollars in as many seconds from an automatic teller machine.

【12】Then we take our fast money to a fast convenience store (why wait in line at the supermarket?), where we buy a frozen dinner all wrapped up and ready to be put into the microwave... unless we don't care to wait even that long and pick up some fast food instead.

【13】And if our fast meal doesn't agree with us, we hurry to the medicine cabinet for—you guessed it—some fast relief. We like fast pictures, so we buy Polaroid cameras. We like fast entertainment, so we record our favorite TV show on the VCR.

【14】We like our information fast, too: messages flashed on a computer screen, documents faxed from your telephone to mine, current events in 90-second bursts on Eyewitness News, history reduced to Bicentennial Minutes. Symbolically, the American eagle now flies for Express Mail. How dare anyone keep America waiting longer than overnight?

【15】Superficially instead of thoroughly: What's more, we don't even want all of it. Once, we lingered over every word of a classic novel or the latest best seller. Today, since faster is better, we read the condensed version or put a tape of the book into our car's tape player to listen to on the way to work. Or we buy the Cliffs Notes, especially if we are students, so we don't have to deal with the book at all.

【16】Once, we listened to every note of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. Today, we don't have the time; instead, we can enjoy 26 seconds of that famous "da-da-da-DUM theme"—and 99 other musical excerpts almost as famous—on our Greatest Moments of the Classics CD. After all, why waste 45 minutes listening to the whole thing when someone else has saved us the trouble of picking out the best parts?

【17】Our magazine articles come to us pre-digested in Reader's Digest. Our news briefings, thanks to USA Today, are more brief than ever. Even our personal relationships have become compressed. Instead of devoting large parts of our days to our loved ones, we replace them with something called "quality time," which, more often than not, is no time at all.

【18】As we rush from book to music to news item to relationship, we do not realize that we are living our lives by the iceberg principle—paying attention only to the top and ignoring the 8/9 that lies just below the surface.

【19】When did it all begin, this urge to do it now, to get it over with, to skim the surface of life? Why are we in such a hurry to save time? And what are we going to do with all the time we save besides, of course, rushing out to save more time? The sad truth is that we don't know how to use the time we save, because all we're good at is saving time... not spending time.

【20】Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying we should go back to growing our own vegetables or making our own clothes. I'm not even advocating a mass movement to cut all our credit cards into little pieces.

【21】But I am saying that all of us need to think more seriously about putting the brakes on our "we-want-it-all-and-we-want-it-now" lifestyle before we speed completely out of control. Let's take the time to read every word of that story, hear every note of that music, and enjoy every subtle change of that countryside. Let's rediscover life in the slow lane.

第五课

速成社会

珍妮特·门德尔·戈尔茨坦

【1】我丈夫和我刚从西弗吉尼亚度假一周回来。当然，我们迫不及待地想去那里，所以我们走了宾夕法尼亚收费公路和几条州际公路。“看那些美丽的农场!”当田园风光以每小时55英里的速度从我们身边滑过时，我丈夫惊呼道。“你看到那些牛了吗?”但在时速55英里时，很难看到任何东西;美丽的农场看起来就像移动的绿色棋盘，牛群在后视镜里变成了几个点。

【2】在那四个小时里，我们唯一真正的娱乐就是数着出口的标志，想着再次站着不动会是什么感觉。到达那里当然不是乐趣的一半;事实上，到达那里一点也不好玩。

【3】因此，当我们要回费城郊外的家时，我坚持要走另一条路线。“我们去看看那个乡村吧。”我建议道。在回程的两天里，我们经历了很多新的事情。

【4】我们参观了南北战争时期的一个战场，站在一座小山上。125年前，在一个炎热的七月午后，一万五千名南方邦联士兵曾试图占领这座小山，他们不知道有一半的士兵会在这次徒劳的尝试中牺牲。

【5】我们慢慢地开车穿过昏昏欲睡的宾夕法尼亚荷兰城镇的主要街道，速度降至每小时20英里，以免拥挤去市场的马匹和马车。我们欣赏乡村博物馆里的玩具火车和古董车，在工厂商店里节省了70%。

【6】我们在一家“随便吃”的农家乐馆里大吃了一顿辣沙拉和自制面包，然后漫步到外面，享受着阳光和牛群，这一次牛群可不是一个个小点。我们回到了家，精神焕发，精神焕发，接受了再教育。这一次，到达那里是很有趣的。

【7】为什么毫无特色的收费公路和州际公路成为我们许多人的选择?为什么大家不试着放慢脚步去探索乡村呢?但越来越多的是，快车道似乎是我们唯一的出路。事实上，大多数美国人总是很匆忙，不仅仅是为了从a地赶到b地。我们的国家已经成为一个在很多方面寻求快速解决办法的国家。

【8】现在而不是以后:美国人懂得延迟满足的原则。我们从每笔薪水中拿出一点，“以备不时之需”。如果我们想买个新沙发，或者想在湖边小木屋住上一周，我们就会为之存钱，银行也会为我们提供特别的圣诞俱乐部和度假俱乐部账户。

【9】如果我们住在这个国家合适的地区，我们就种植玉米和豆类，耐心地等待收获。如果我们想变瘦，我们只需少吃自己喜欢的食物，然后等着体重下降，一次一磅。

【10】但是今天我们没有那么耐心了。我们用贷款代替存款，或者用信用卡买家具或度假旅行,现在放松，以后再付钱。我们买食物，就像买衣服一样，都是现成的。如果我们急于减肥，我们会尝试最新的神奇饮食，保证在十天内减掉十磅……除非我们有钱抽脂。

【11】更快而不是更慢:我们不仅现在就想要它，我们甚至不想再等它了。这种普遍的不耐烦，“我讨厌等待”的态度，已经感染了我们生活的各个层面。我们不用在银行排队，而是在几秒钟内从自动柜员机里取出20美元。

【12】然后我们拿着速食钱去一家便利店(为什么要在超市排队呢?)，在那里我们买了一份冷冻晚餐，包装好，准备放进微波炉里加热……除非我们不愿意等那么久，买些快餐代替。

【13】如果我们的快餐不适合我们，我们就赶紧去药柜,你猜对了,一些快速缓解的药。我们喜欢快拍的照片，所以我们买宝丽来相机。我们喜欢快速娱乐，所以我们把我们最喜欢的电视节目录在录像机上。

【14】我们也喜欢快速获取信息:电脑屏幕上闪现的信息，从你的电话传真到我的电话的文件，“目击者新闻”上90秒的时事报道，两百周年纪念的历史记录。象征意义是，美国鹰现在为快递服务。谁敢让美国人等的时间超过一夜?

【15】表面而非彻底:更重要的是，我们甚至不想要全部。曾经，我们细读经典小说或最新畅销书的每一个字。今天，因为越快越好，我们读这本书的浓缩版，或者把书的磁带放进汽车的录音机里，在上班的路上听。或者我们买《悬崖笔记》，尤其是学生，这样我们就完全不用和书打交道了。

【16】有一次，我们听了贝多芬第五交响曲的每一个音符。今天，我们没有时间;相反，我们可以在我们的“经典时刻”CD上享受26秒的著名的“哒哒哒哒哒”主题，以及99个几乎同样著名的音乐片段。毕竟，当别人为我们省去了挑选最佳部分的麻烦时，为什么要浪费45分钟听完整首歌呢?

【17】我们的杂志文章在《读者文摘》中被预先消化了。感谢《今日美国》，我们的新闻简报比以往任何时候都要简短。甚至我们的人际关系也被压缩了。我们不再把每天的大部分时间花在我们所爱的人身上，而是用所谓的“优质时间”来取代它们，而这些时间往往根本就不是时间。

【18】当我们匆匆浏览书籍、听音乐、看新闻、谈恋爱时，我们没有意识到我们的生活遵循的是“冰山原理”,只注意表面的东西，而忽略了表面以下的东西。

【19】这一切是从什么时候开始的，这种现在就做的冲动，想把事情做完的冲动，想掠过生活的表面的冲动?我们为什么这么急着节省时间呢?当然，除了冲出去节省更多的时间外，我们将如何利用我们节省下来的时间呢?可悲的事实是，我们不知道如何利用我们节省下来的时间，因为我们所擅长的就是节省时间……不花时间。

【20】别误会我。我并不是说我们应该回到自己种蔬菜或自己做衣服的时代。我甚至不是在提倡一场把我们所有的信用卡都切成碎片的群众运动。

【21】但我想说的是，我们所有人都需要更认真地考虑一下，在我们的速度完全失控之前，给我们“什么都想要，现在就想要”的生活方式踩刹车。让我们花时间去读那个故事的每一个字，去听那个音乐的每一个音符，去享受那个乡村的每一个细微的变化。让我们在慢车道上重新发现生活。