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時間就是生命，不浪費生命，就不要浪費時間，這種觀點越來越流行。我們什麼都在加速，只為在有限的生命體驗更多。我們迷戀著速度，似乎這是一種生命力的象徵。本期演說者Carl Honoré將和大家分享他的觀點：為什麼說太快了不好，為什麼你害怕慢下來。
Carl Honore是一位作家、思考家和行動家。他認為現代社會中，我們對速度的強調侵蝕了健康、生產力和生活質量。Carl認為我們需要一場關於「快與慢」的反思。慢下來，花時間與家人與自己相處，能更好地掌握節奏，做事更得心應手。
中英文演講稿
What I'd like to start off with is an observation, which is that if I've learned anything over the last year, it's that the supreme irony of publishing a book about slowness is that you have to go around promoting it really fast. I seem to spend most of my time these days zipping from city to city, studio to studio, interview to interview, serving up the book in really tiny bite-size chunks. Because everyone these days wants to know how to slow down, but they want to know how to slow down really quickly. So ... so I did a spot on CNN the other day where I actually spent more time in makeup than I did talking on air. And I think that -- that's not really surprising though, is it? Because that's kind of the world that we live in now, a world stuck in fast-forward.
在演講開始，我願意先講一個事情， 如果說去年有什麼讓我印象深刻， 就是極具諷刺意味的 出版一本號召將速度慢下來的書，你卻不得不超快速的四處推銷它。我這些日子花了大部分時間， 在城市、演播室以及 訪談節目之間奔走， 但實際用來宣傳書的時間卻少的可憐。因為現在每個人 都想知道該如何放慢速度， 然而，他們卻想要知道如何超快速的放慢速度。所以... 前不久我在CNN上了一個通告 在那，我上電視的時間還沒有化妝的時間長 而我想這還真算不上讓人吃驚的事，對吧？因為我們現在所處的，就是一個這樣的世界 一個沉溺於追求快速前進的世界。
A world obsessed with speed, with doing everything faster, with cramming more and more into less and less time. Every moment of the day feels like a race against the clock. To borrow a phrase from Carrie Fisher, which is in my bio there; I'll just toss it out again -- "These days even instant gratification takes too long." (Laughter) And if you think about how we to try to make things better, what do we do? No, we speed them up, don't we? So we used to dial; now we speed dial. We used to read; now we speed read. We used to walk; now we speed walk. And of course, we used to date and now we speed date. And even things that are by their very nature slow -- we try and speed them up too. So I was in New York recently, and I walked past a gym that had an advertisement in the window for a new course, a new evening course. And it was for, you guessed it, speed yoga. So this -- the perfect solution for time-starved professionals who want to, you know, salute the sun, but only want to give over about 20 minutes to it. I mean, these are sort of the extreme examples, and they're amusing and good to laugh at.
一個迷戀速度的世界， 做每一件事情都追求更快，往越來越少的時間裡 填鴨進更多的東西。每一天每一刻都感覺像 在和時間賽跑 引用凱利.費雪（美國影星）的一句話，這句話 在我的自傳裡面有寫，我只是再次引用 「現在大家連瞬間得到的快感（高潮）都嫌太久。」 另外 假如讓你想我們怎樣才能將事情做得更好，會有什麼主意？我們會加速做事情，不是麼？所以，以前我們撥電話；現在我們快撥。以前我們閱讀；現在我們快讀。以前我們走路，現在我們快走。當然還有，以前我們約會，現在我們速食約會。即使是那些本身就需要慢慢做的事情 我們也千方百計加速做。我最近在紐約，路過一家健身館 他們櫥窗上有一個新課程的廣告，是個晚間課程。你猜得到嗎，是關於快速瑜伽的。這個就是為超級沒時間的上班族們提供的最佳解決方案 這些人，想要練習（瑜伽）拜日式 但卻只想花大約20分鐘在這上面。我想，這些都是有點兒極端的例子，而且都有些意思，可以當笑話聽。
But there's a very serious point, and I think that in the headlong dash of daily life, we often lose sight of the damage that this roadrunner form of living does to us. We're so marinated in the culture of speed that we almost fail to notice the toll it takes on every aspect of our lives -- on our health, our diet, our work, our relationships, the environment and our community. And sometimes it takes a wake-up call, doesn't it, to alert us to the fact that we're hurrying through our lives, instead of actually living them; that we're living the fast life, instead of the good life. And I think for many people, that wake-up call takes the form of an illness. You know, a burnout, or eventually the body says, "I can't take it anymore," and throws in the towel. Or maybe a relationship goes up in smoke because we haven't had the time, or the patience, or the tranquility, to be with the other person, to listen to them.
但是，這些例子也說明了一個非常嚴肅的問題， 在每天匆匆忙忙的生活中， 我們常常看不到 這種競走式的生活方式給我們帶來的傷害。我們已經在速食文化中淫浸得太深了 以至於我們幾乎覺察不到它讓 我們在生活方方面面所付出的代價。對我們的健康，飲食，工作 人際關係，環境以及生活的社區都產生了消極的影響。而有時候只要 一聲警示來 提醒我們正在匆忙地度過我們的生命， 而不是真正有意義的過生活；提醒我們 我們在過快日子，而不是在過好日子。而我認為對很多人而言，那個警示鈴 常常是以疾病的形式出現。疾病突然爆發，最後身體對你說 「我再也受不了了。」然後就垮了。也許這個警示會在一場戀愛化為泡影后出現 失敗是因為我們抑或沒有時間，抑或沒有耐心， 或是不能安靜地 陪著另一半，傾聽他們的述說。
And my wake-up call came when I started reading bedtime stories to my son, and I found that at the end of day, I would go into his room and I just couldn't slow down -- you know, I'd be speed reading "The Cat In The Hat." I'd be -- you know, I'd be skipping lines here, paragraphs there, sometimes a whole page, and of course, my little boy knew the book inside out, so we would quarrel. And what should have been the most relaxing, the most intimate, the most tender moment of the day, when a dad sits down to read to his son, became instead this kind of gladiatorial battle of wills, a clash between my speed and his slowness. And this went on for some time, until I caught myself scanning a newspaper article with timesaving tips for fast people. And one of them made reference to a series of books called "The One-Minute Bedtime Story." And I wince saying those words now, but my first reaction at the time was very different. My first reflex was to say, "Hallelujah -- what a great idea! This is exactly what I'm looking for to speed up bedtime even more." But thankfully, a light bulb went on over my head, and my next reaction was very different, and I took a step back, and I thought, "Whoa -- you know, has it really come to this? Am I really in such a hurry that I'm prepared to fob off my son with a sound byte at the end of the day?" And I put away the newspaper -- and I was getting on a plane -- and I sat there, and I did something I hadn't done for a long time -- which is I did nothing. I just thought, and I thought long and hard. And by the time I got off that plane, I'd decided I wanted to do something about it. I wanted to investigate this whole roadrunner culture, and what it was doing to me and to everyone else.
而我的警示鈴是在我開始 為我兒子念睡前故事的時候響起的， 我發現在一天結束之時， 我走進他的房間，就是不能把自己的速度慢下來 我會很快的念《戴帽子的貓》 我會這兒跳過幾句， 那兒概括幾句，有時幾句話概括一整頁的內容 當然，我的小兒子對這本書倒背如流，所以我們就會爭起來。當一個爸爸坐下來，為他的兒子讀故事， 這本最應該是一天中最放鬆，最親密， 最親切柔軟的時刻， 反而變成了這種角鬥士般關於意志的爭鬥；變成了他要快我要... 不，是我要快他要慢而引起的衝突 而且這種情況持續了一段時間， 直到我讀了報紙上的一篇文章 是為追求快速的人提供的省時竅門。其中一個竅門引用了一系列叢書作參考，叫做 「一分鐘的床前故事。」 而我，現在真不願意承認 但是我那時的第一反應和現在非常的不同。我的第一反應是說， 「哈利路亞——這是個多麼棒的點子！這正好能幫我把床前故事講的更快一些。」 但還好， 我頭腦一清醒，而我的下面的反應就非常不同了， 我退回一步想， 「停下，真的達到這種地步了嗎？我真的忙到這種地步，要 在一天結束的時候，用一分鐘故事來敷衍我兒子？」 然後我把報紙拿開 我那時正在飛機上，我坐在那兒， 做了一件我很久沒做過的事情——那就是我什麼都沒做。我就只是在思考，深思了很久時間。而當我下飛機的時候，我決定我要對此做些什麼。我要研究整個的速食文化， 以及這個文化對我，對其他人都產生了什麼影響。
And I had two questions in my head. The first was, how did we get so fast? And the second is, is it possible, or even desirable, to slow down? Now, if you think about how our world got so accelerated, the usual suspects rear their heads. You think of, you know, urbanization, consumerism, the workplace, technology. But I think if you cut through those forces, you get to what might be the deeper driver, the nub of the question, which is how we think about time itself. In other cultures, time is cyclical. It's seen as moving in great, unhurried circles. It's always renewing and refreshing itself. Whereas in the West, time is linear. It's a finite resource; it's always draining away. You either use it, or lose it. "Time is money," as Benjamin Franklin said. And I think what that does to us psychologically is it creates an equation. Time is scarce, so what do we do? Well -- well, we speed up, don't we? We try and do more and more with less and less time. We turn every moment of every day into a race to the finish line -- a finish line, incidentally, that we never reach, but a finish line nonetheless. And I guess that the question is, is it possible to break free from that mindset? And thankfully, the answer is yes, because what I discovered, when I began looking around, that there is a global backlash against this culture that tells us that faster is always better, and that busier is best.
在我腦海中產生了兩個問題。第一個問題是，我們怎麼變得這麼快的？第二個問題是，有沒有可能慢下來， 或者，我們想慢下來麼？現在，假如你思考 我們的世界是如何變得如此加速向前的，通常都懷疑是下面這些引起的 我們會想到城市化， 消費主義，工廠，技術。但是我想，如果你透過 這些方面，你會思考到可能是更深層的 驅動力問題，這個問題的核心， 就是我們如何看待時間本身。在其它文化中，時間是循環往復的。時間看起來是在巨大的 從容不迫的循環中移動。時間總是在不斷復活，不斷更新。而在西方，時間是直線性的。時間是有限資源， 總是不斷在衰竭。你要麼使用時間，要麼失去時間。就像班傑明·富蘭克林說的那樣，時間就是金錢。我想這句話對我們心理上產生的影響 是這樣的影響——它創造出一個平衡式。時間非常有限，所以我們怎麼辦？於是，我們就加速運轉，不是麼？我們試著用更少的時間做更多的事。我們把每一天的每一刻 都變成向終點線的賽跑。那一終點線，順便說一句，我們卻從未到達過， 但是那仍然還是一條終點線。那麼我想問題是， 有沒有可能從這一習慣性思維中跳出來？還好，答案是「有可能」，因為 當我開始環顧四周，我發現，有一種 全球性的反抗力量存在，反抗這種高速度文化 這種高速度文化告訴我們越快越好，而且越忙越好。
Right across the world, people are doing the unthinkable: they're slowing down, and finding that, although conventional wisdom tells you that if you slow down, you're road kill, the opposite turns out to be true: that by slowing down at the right moments, people find that they do everything better. They eat better; they make love better; they exercise better; they work better; they live better. And, in this kind of cauldron of moments and places and acts of deceleration, lie what a lot of people now refer to as the "International Slow Movement."
在全世界，有人做著意想不到的事：他們放慢節奏，而且發現 儘管習慣思維告訴你，假如你放慢節奏，就會被時代潮流拋棄， 而事實上結果卻相反。在合適的時候放慢節奏， 人們發現他們做什麼都做得更好。他們吃得更好，性生活更和諧，鍛鍊效果更好， 他們工作更棒，生活得也更好。而在這些時刻，這些地方， 這些減速的行動中， 就存在著許多人所說的 國際慢活運動。
Now if you'll permit me a small act of hypocrisy, I'll just give you a very quick overview of what's going on inside the Slow Movement. If you think of food, many of you will have heard of the Slow Food movement. Started in Italy, but has spread across the world, and now has 100,000 members in 50 countries. And it's driven by a very simple and sensible message, which is that we get more pleasure and more health from our food when we cultivate, cook and consume it at a reasonable pace. I think also the explosion of the organic farming movement, and the renaissance of farmers' markets, are other illustrations of the fact that people are desperate to get away from eating and cooking and cultivating their food on an industrial timetable. They want to get back to slower rhythms. And out of the Slow Food movement has grown something called the Slow Cities movement, which has started in Italy, but has spread right across Europe and beyond. And in this, towns begin to rethink how they organize the urban landscape, so that people are encouraged to slow down and smell the roses and connect with one another. So they might curb traffic, or put in a park bench, or some green space.
現在，假如你允許我言行小小的不一致， 我將為你快速的概括一下—— 慢活運動中人們正在做些什麼。若你們關心吃食， 那你們中許多人應該聽過慢食運動。這場運動開始於義大利，但已傳遍全世界， 並且現在已經有100,000成員 遍布50個國家。而且這場運動只是被一個非常簡單和明智的信條所驅使， 那就是，當我們以不緊不慢的速度種植、烹飪還有食用食物的時候， 我們從食物當中， 將獲得更多快樂和健康 我認為有機農業運動的 蓬勃發展，以及農場主市場的復興， 也體現出 人們非常想從 享用、烹飪食物以及種植食物的工業化方式 中逃離出來。他們想要慢些的節奏。而從慢食運動中產生了 被稱之為慢活城市的運動，從義大利開始 卻已經傳遍歐洲和其它地方。而在這一運動中，城市 開始重新考慮如何規劃城市景觀， 能鼓勵人們去——去放慢節奏 去聞聞玫瑰花，而且相互交流。所以他們可能會交通， 或是放置公園長椅，或是設置一些綠地面積。
And in some ways, these changes add up to more than the sum of their parts, because I think when a Slow City becomes officially a Slow City, it's kind of like a philosophical declaration. It's saying to the rest of world, and to the people in that town, that we believe that in the 21st century, slowness has a role to play. In medicine, I think a lot of people are deeply disillusioned with the kind of quick-fix mentality you find in conventional medicine. And millions of them around the world are turning to complementary and alternative forms of medicine, which tend to tap into sort of slower, gentler, more holistic forms of healing. Now, obviously the jury is out on many of these complementary therapies, and I personally doubt that the coffee enema will ever, you know, gain mainstream approval. But other treatments such as acupuncture and massage, and even just relaxation, clearly have some kind of benefit. And blue-chip medical colleges everywhere are starting to study these things to find out how they work, and what we might learn from them.
某種程度上，這些改變能出現一加一大於二的效果。當一座號召慢活的城市變成了一座真正意義上的慢速城市， 就有點像一種哲學理性上的宣言。它是在向世界其它地區宣稱，也是向那座城市的人民宣稱， 宣稱我們相信在21世紀， 慢速將發揮其作用。在醫療方面，我想很多人都深感幻想破滅 對於你在傳統醫療中存在的 那種速效治療想法的幻滅。因此全球數以百萬的人轉向 補充和替代形式的醫療， 這種醫療傾向於使用比較 慢一些，柔和一些，更全面的治療形式。現在，對於許多的補充性治療方法，明顯還沒有最後定論， 且我個人懷疑咖啡灌腸法 也不會得到大眾的認同。但是其他治療方法 比如針灸和按摩，甚至只是放鬆法， 卻明顯的有一定好處。且各處一流的醫學院都正在 開始研究這些治療方法，看它們如何產生效果， 以及我們能從這些方法中學到什麼。
Sex. There's an awful lot of fast sex around, isn't there? I was coming to -- well -- no pun intended there. I was making my way, let's say, slowly to Oxford, and I went through a news agent, and I saw a magazine, a men's magazine, and it said on the front, "How to bring your partner to orgasm in 30 seconds." So, you know, even sex is on a stopwatch these days. Now, you know, I like a quickie as much as the next person, but I think that there's an awful lot to be gained from slow sex -- from slowing down in the bedroom. You know, you tap into that -- those deeper, sort of, psychological, emotional, spiritual currents, and you get a better orgasm with the buildup. You can get more bang for your buck, let's say. I mean, the Pointer Sisters said it most eloquently, didn't they, when they sang the praises of "a lover with a slow hand." Now, we all laughed at Sting a few years ago when he went Tantric, but you fast-forward a few years, and now you find couples of all ages flocking to workshops, or maybe just on their own in their own bedrooms, finding ways to put on the brakes and have better sex. And of course, in Italy where -- I mean, Italians always seem to know where to find their pleasure -- they've launched an official Slow Sex movement.
關於性，四處都有非常多快速的性關係，不是麼？我打算去，好吧——我沒想暗示什麼 我當時正往，這麼說吧，慢慢的往牛津走， 然後我經過一個報刊亭，看到一本雜誌， 一本男性雜誌，在封面上寫著， 「如何在30秒內把你的伴侶帶入性高潮。」 你們看見了，就連性現在也用計秒表數著時間了。現在，我差不多和其他人一樣快速完事， 但我認為從緩慢的性生活中， 在臥室裡放慢速度，我們能收穫非常多。你利用這些更深層的， 有點兒心理的，情感的，精神的電流， 那麼你會得到一個更棒的累積起來的性高潮。讓我們這麼說吧，你可以為你的身體得到更大的快樂。我的意思是，指針姐妹合唱團把這個道理說得最動人，不是麼， 她們為愛人緩慢遊走的手唱讚歌。幾年前我們都嘲笑斯汀（歌手） 學習印度密宗性法（使緩慢持續）的事情 但是如果我們把時鐘撥快幾年，現在你會發現各個年齡層的夫妻 都去參加課程學習，或可能只是 在他們自己的臥室裡尋找方法 來放緩步調，從而擁有更好的性生活。當然，在義大利，我是說，義大利人看起來總是知道 到哪去找樂子 他們已經開展了一場正式的慢速性生活運動。
The workplace. Right across much of the world -- North America being a notable exception -- working hours have been coming down. And Europe is an example of that, and people finding that their quality of life improves as they're working less, and also that their hourly productivity goes up. Now, clearly there are problems with the 35-hour workweek in France -- too much, too soon, too rigid. But other countries in Europe, notably the Nordic countries, are showing that it's possible to have a kick-ass economy without being a workaholic. And Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland now rank among the top six most competitive nations on Earth, and they work the kind of hours that would make the average American weep with envy. And if you go beyond sort of the country level, down at the micro-company level, more and more companies now are realizing that they need to allow their staff either to work fewer hours or just to unplug -- to take a lunch break, or to go sit in a quiet room, to switch off their Blackberrys and laptops -- you at the back -- mobile phones, during the work day or on the weekend, so that they have time to recharge and for the brain to slide into that kind of creative mode of thought.
在日常工作方面 世界大部分地方的 工作時間都已經有所減少 不過北美明顯是個例外。歐洲就是個減少工時的例子， 人們發現他們的生活質量上升了 隨著工作時間的減少，工作時效也 提高了。現在，很明顯的，法國每周35小時 的工作時間存在問題 太多，太快，太死板。但歐洲的其它國家，特別是在北歐國家， 事實表明無須工作成狂，也能擁有一流的經濟，挪威、瑞典、 丹麥以及芬蘭現在 都位列世界六大最具競爭力的國家之列， 並且他們工作時間之短會使得一般的美國人 嫉妒得想哭。而假如你越過這種國家層次， 往下看微觀，公司層次， 現在越來越多的公司意識到 他們有必要讓員工 或者減少工作時間，或者離開工作在 午餐時間休息一下，或者坐在一個安靜的房間裡， 關掉他們的黑莓手機——說你呢，後面那個 手機， 這些在工作日或周末的休息讓他們有時間去充電 有時間讓大腦進入 那種創造性思維模式。
It's not just, though, these days, adults who overwork, though, is it? It's children, too. I'm 37, and my childhood ended in the mid-'80s, and I look at kids now, and I'm just amazed by the way they race around with more homework, more tutoring, more extracurriculars than we would ever have conceived of a generation ago. And some of the most heartrending emails that I get on my website are actually from adolescents hovering on the edge of burnout, pleading with me to write to their parents, to help them slow down, to help them get off this full-throttle treadmill. But thankfully, there is a backlash there in parenting as well, and you're finding that, you know, towns in the United States are now banding together and banning extracurriculars on a particular day of the month, so that people can, you know, decompress and have some family time, and slow down.
然而，現在並不只是 成年人工作超負荷，不是麼？小孩子也是。我37歲，而我80年代中期才結束童年， 而現在我看著孩子們，看著他們趕著做 家庭作業，忙著補習 參加課外活動， 繁忙程度是我們這一代人從沒想過的，我就感到很吃驚。而我在我的網站上收到的最令人 痛心的郵件 事實上就是出自徘徊在疲勞殆盡邊緣的青少年之手 他們懇求我 給他們的家長寫信， 幫助他們放慢節奏，幫助他們擺脫 這超速的運轉。但也謝天謝地，也有一些父母在反思， 大家會發現，美國的城市 現在開始聯合行動，在每個月特定的一天 禁止課外課程，這樣人們就能， 就能釋放壓力，擁有家庭時間，以此放慢步調。
Homework is another thing. There are homework bans springing up all over the developed world in schools which had been piling on the homework for years, and now they're discovering that less can be more. So there was a case up in Scotland recently where a fee-paying, high-achieving private school banned homework for everyone under the age of 13, and the high-achieving parents freaked out and said, "What are you -- you know, our kids will fall" -- the headmaster said, "No, no, your children need to slow down at the end of the day." And just this last month, the exam results came in, and in math, science, marks went up 20 percent on average last year. And I think what's very revealing is that the elite universities, who are often cited as the reason that people drive their kids and hothouse them so much, are starting to notice the caliber of students coming to them is falling. These kids have wonderful marks; they have CVs jammed with extracurriculars, to the point that would make your eyes water. But they lack spark; they lack the ability to think creatively and think outside -- they don't know how to dream. And so what these Ivy League schools, and Oxford and Cambridge and so on, are starting to send a message to parents and students that they need to put on the brakes a little bit. And in Harvard, for instance, they send out a letter to undergraduates -- freshmen -- telling them that they'll get more out of life, and more out of Harvard, if they put on the brakes, if they do less, but give time to things, the time that things need, to enjoy them, to savor them. And even if they sometimes do nothing at all. And that letter is called -- very revealing, I think -- "Slow Down!" -- with an exclamation mark on the end.
家庭作業是另一回事。家庭作業禁令 在發達國家的學校非常普遍， 一些學校以前曾有家庭作業成堆的現象， 而現在他們發現作業數量少，質量可能更好。因此，最近蘇格蘭出現一件實例 有一間蘇格蘭的高學費且高回報的私立學校 對13歲以下的學生 禁止布置家庭作業， 這讓期望很高的父母嚇了一跳並說， 「你們在幹什麼，這樣我們孩子的成績會下降」校長卻說， 「不會，不會，你們的孩子需要在放學後放鬆下來。」 而就在上個月，考試成績出來， 在數學，科學等課程上，分數上升了百分之二十 和去年平均成績比。而我認為非常具有啟發意義的是 進入一流大學常常是家長驅使孩子 努力學習的原因，而這些大學卻發現 他們學生的素質正在下降。這些孩子擁有很棒的成績， 他們的簡歷裡寫滿了參加課外活動的經歷， 多到會讓你看了想哭的程度。然而他們卻缺乏活力，他們缺乏 創造性思考和獨立思考的能力 他們不知道如何想像。因此，這些常春藤高校 以及牛津、劍橋等大學，開始向家長和學生們發出信息 表示家長學生們需要對此做出一些補救行動。以哈佛大學為例，他們向 本科大一新生發出一封信 告訴他們，他們能從日常生活，從哈佛大學收穫更多， 假如他們能減緩過於緊張的步調；假如他們能稍稍放鬆自己， 把時間放在那些有需要的事情上，給予那些事情足夠的時間 好好享受，體味這些事情。而有時候即使他們什麼也不做（也能有很好的效果）。我認為那封信的題目非常具有啟發性，它叫 「放慢速度！」——以一個感嘆號結尾。
So wherever you look, the message, it seems to me, is the same: that less is very often more, that slower is very often better. But that said, of course, it's not that easy to slow down, is it? I mean, you heard that I got a speeding ticket while I was researching my book on the benefits of slowness, and that's true, but that's not all of it. I was actually en route to a dinner held by Slow Food at the time. And if that's not shaming enough, I got that ticket in Italy. And if any of you have ever driven on an Italian highway, you'll have a pretty good idea of how fast I was going.
所以不管你從哪個角度看，這一訊息，在我看來，都是一樣的。少一點常常意味更多， 慢一些意味著更好。然而這樣說，當然， 並不是說放慢速度那麼容易，不是麼？我的意思是，當我正在寫關於「慢有何好處」的書時 拿到一張超速罰單， 這是真的，而且事實還遠不止這樣 那時候，我實際上是在前往 慢食俱樂部組織的一場晚宴途中。如果這還不算丟臉的話，我還是在義大利拿的罰單。如果你們中任何人曾在義大利高速公路上開過車的話， 你肯定知道我當時開得有多快。
But why is it so hard to slow down? I think there are various reasons. One is that speed is fun, you know, speed is sexy. It's all that adrenaline rush. It's hard to give it up. I think there's a kind of metaphysical dimension -- that speed becomes a way of walling ourselves off from the bigger, deeper questions. We fill our head with distraction, with busyness, so that we don't have to ask, am I well? Am I happy? Are my children growing up right? Are politicians making good decisions on my behalf? Another reason -- although I think, perhaps, the most powerful reason -- why we find it hard to slow down is the cultural taboo that we've erected against slowing down. "Slow" is a dirty word in our culture. It's a byword for "lazy," "slacker," for being somebody who gives up. You know, "he's a bit slow." It's actually synonymous with being stupid.
但是為什麼放慢速度如此之難？我認為原因有很多。其一是速度快讓人開心，你們知道的，速度快很性感。這都是腎上腺衝動造成的。很難根除。有一種哲學上的維度—— 在這種維度中，速度成為了把我們自身與 更大、更深層次問題隔離的壁壘。我們腦子裡充滿著讓我們分心和忙碌的事情， 使得我們不需要詢問自己， 我還好麼？我快樂麼？我的孩子這樣成長的方式是正確的麼？政治家們的決定是否代表了我的利益？另一個原因我認為最強有力的原因也許是 之所以這麼難慢下來，是源自文化中的一種行為定式 我們樹立起的文化不允許我們慢下來。緩慢在我們的文化中是個貶義詞。它是懶，懶蟲的代名詞， 是用來說那些做事容易放棄的人的。「他有一點慢。」實際上是說 這個人有點蠢。
I guess what the Slow Movement -- the purpose of the Slow Movement, or its main goal, really, is to tackle that taboo, and to say that yes, sometimes slow is not the answer, that there is such a thing as "bad slow." You know, I got stuck on the M25, which is a ring road around London, recently, and spent three-and-a-half hours there. And I can tell you, that's really bad slow. But the new idea, the sort of revolutionary idea, of the Slow Movement, is that there is such a thing as "good slow," too. And good slow is, you know, taking the time to eat a meal with your family, with the TV switched off. Or taking the time to look at a problem from all angles in the office to make the best decision at work. Or even simply just taking the time to slow down and savor your life.
我想慢活運動的目的 或者說它的主要目標，事實上，就是去破除這種定式 是為了表明 有時候「該死的慢」的原因 並不是在於「慢」本身 我最近有一次被困在 倫敦的M25環線公路上， 而且在那裡困了三個半小時。我可以告訴你， 那才是真正的「該死的慢」 但從另一個角度看 慢活運動所包含的有點顛覆性質的思想 是說，有一種慢是「積極的慢」。積極的慢就是花些時間 和家人吃飯，沒有電視機在旁邊幹擾。或者是在辦公室裡花些時間把事情進行全面地梳理 從而做出最明智的決定 這是從工作角度來說。又或者只是花些時間 慢下來 品味生活。
Now, one of the things that I found most uplifting about all of this stuff that's happened around the book since it came out, is the reaction to it. And I knew that when my book on slowness came out, it would be welcomed by the New Age brigade, but it's also been taken up, with great gusto, by the corporate world -- you know, business press, but also big companies and leadership organizations. Because people at the top of the chain, people like you, I think, are starting to realize that there's too much speed in the system, there's too much busyness, and it's time to find, or get back to that lost art of shifting gears. Another encouraging sign, I think, is that it's not just in the developed world that this idea's been taken up. In the developing world, in countries that are on the verge of making that leap into first world status -- China, Brazil, Thailand, Poland, and so on -- these countries have embraced the idea of the Slow Movement, many people in them, and there's a debate going on in their media, on the streets. Because I think they're looking at the West, and they're saying, "Well, we like that aspect of what you've got, but we're not so sure about that."
我發現自《慢活》一書出版以來 在所有發生的事情中，最令人振奮的 就是人們對這本書的反應。我料想到，當這本關於慢活的書面市， 它會受到新生代的歡迎， 然而，它也同樣被商界 津津樂道。不止那種 商業出版社，另外還有 大公司和組織的領導階層的接納。因為像在座各位，處於領導鏈頂端的人，我想 他們開始意識到，在（組織）系統中 高速運作得有點過頭了， 工作過於忙碌，是時候找回 那種已經遺失的慢速換擋藝術。我覺得另一個令人鼓舞的現象 是不止在發達國家 人們開始接納這種思想。在發展中國家中， 那些即將跨入 第一世界之列的國家——中國，巴西， 泰國、波蘭以及其它一些國家 它們已經開始接受慢活運動的觀點， 在媒體上，在大街小巷 也有關於此觀點的爭論。因為他們關注著西方世界，他們認為， 「嗯，我們對你們在這方面的觀點很感興趣， 但我們不很確定是不是真的可能（做到放慢速度）。」
So all of that said, is it, I guess, is it possible? That's really the main question before us today. Is it possible to slow down? And I'm happy to be able to say to you that the answer is a resounding yes. And I present myself as Exhibit A, a kind of reformed and rehabilitated speed-aholic. I still love speed. You know, I live in London, and I work as a journalist, and I enjoy the buzz and the busyness, and the adrenaline rush that comes from both of those things. I play squash and ice hockey, two very fast sports, and I wouldn't give them up for the world. But I've also, over the last year or so, got in touch with my inner tortoise.
他們所說的這些，確實如此， 這是可能的麼？這確實是如今擺在我們面前的主要問題。是否可能 放慢速度？我很高興我可以告訴你說 這個答案是，完全可能。我自己就是一個實證 一個改過自新並且恢復正常的 曾經的速度狂人。我仍然喜歡快速。我住在倫敦， 而且是個記者， 喜歡忙忙碌碌， 喜歡由此產生的腎上腺素的刺激。我玩壁球，也玩冰球， 這兩種都是非常講究速度的運動，我絕不會放棄這兩種運動。但是在過去的一年多，我 與我內心的慢龜龜進行了交流
And what that means is that I no longer overload myself gratuitously. My default mode is no longer to be a rush-aholic. I no longer hear time's winged chariot drawing near, or at least not as much as I did before. I can actually hear it now, because I see my time is ticking off. And the upshot of all of that is that I actually feel a lot happier, healthier, more productive than I ever have. I feel like I'm living my life rather than actually just racing through it. And perhaps, the most important measure of the success of this is that I feel that my relationships are a lot deeper, richer, stronger.
那意味著 我不去，我不再去 無緣無故的弄得自己負荷過重。我的默認模式不再是 做一個大忙人。我再 也聽不到時間高速戰車催促迫近的聲音， 至少不再像以前我感覺到的那麼多。我現在能聽到這種時間催促的聲音，因為我看到演講時間分分秒秒過去。而所有這些的重點結論是 比起從前的我，我真的感到更快樂，更健康， 更有效率了。我覺得我在享受 我的人生，而不是在匆忙度日。也許，最重要的 衡量慢活成功的標誌是 我感覺到和他人的關係更密切 感情更深了，聯繫更強了。
And for me, I guess, the litmus test for whether this would work, and what it would mean, was always going to be bedtime stories, because that's sort of where the journey began. And there too the news is rosy. You know, at the end of the day, I go into my son's room. I don't wear a watch. I switch off my computer, so I can't hear the email pinging into the basket, and I just slow down to his pace and we read. And because children have their own tempo and internal clock, they don't do quality time, where you schedule 10 minutes for them to open up to you. They need you to move at their rhythm. I find that 10 minutes into a story, you know, my son will suddenly say, "You know, something happened in the playground today that really bothered me." And we'll go off and have a conversation on that. And I now find that bedtime stories used to be a box on my to-do list, something that I dreaded, because it was so slow and I had to get through it quickly. It's become my reward at the end of the day, something I really cherish. And I have a kind of Hollywood ending to my talk this afternoon, which goes a little bit like this:
對我而言，我想衡量這種方式 是否產生作用，以及它的意義最直接的方法 還是要回到我給兒子說睡前故事的事，因為那是這個事情 的開端。而這個結果 很美好。晚上，我走進兒子的臥室。沒戴表，關上了電腦， 這樣我就聽不見有新電子郵件到達的震動聲， 我按著兒子的速度慢下來，我們一起閱讀。因為孩子們有自己的節奏和生物鐘， 他們不管父母們計劃的家庭時間 你計劃10分鐘讓他們對你打開心懷。而他們卻要你跟著他們的節奏來行動。10分鐘進入了故事狀態， 而我兒子卻會忽然說，「你知道嗎， 今天在操場上發生了些事情，真讓我煩惱。」 然後我們就會不講故事了，轉而說說運動場發生了什麼。而我現在發現 它曾經只是一種 一項例行公事，成為我負擔的睡前故事 這件耗時得讓我想趕快完成它的睡前故事 現在變成了在一天結束時對我的獎勵， 成為了我真的，真的很珍惜的事情。我打算用一個好萊塢電影式的故事，結束我今天下午的演講，大致是這樣的：
a few months ago, I was getting ready to go on another book tour, and I had my bags packed. I was downstairs by the front door, and I was waiting for a taxi, and my son came down the stairs and he'd made a card for me. And he was carrying it. He'd gone and stapled two cards, very like these, together, and put a sticker of his favorite character, Tintin, on the front. And he said to me, or he handed this to me, and I read it, and it said, "To Daddy, love Benjamin." And I thought, "Aw, that's really sweet. Is that a good luck on the book tour card?" And he said, "No, no, no, Daddy -- this is a card for being the best story reader in the world." And I thought, "Yeah, you know, this slowing down thing really does work."Thank you very much.
幾個月之前，我準備進行 新一輪新書外地宣傳，行李都已經收拾好了。我就在樓下門口等計程車， 這時我兒子走下樓， 他正拿著為我做的一張卡片。他把兩張卡片釘在一塊，就像這些， 而且貼了他最喜歡的人物貼紙 丁丁（漫畫人物，職業是記者）在卡片上。接著他對我說， 或者這麼說，他把卡片遞給我，接著我讀到， 卡片上寫著，「致爸爸，愛你的班傑明。」 我就想說，「啊，這真是太棒了， 這是不是一張祝我外出順利的好運卡呢？」 然而他說，「不，不是，不是，爸爸，這是一張 送給世界上故事講得最好的人的卡片。」 接著我想，「看來放慢速度真他奶奶的管用啊...」非常感謝在座各位。