英语晨读TED演讲系列：快乐藏在哪里(3)

But I still needed to know: What is it about these things that makes them so joyful? I had pictures of them up on my studio wall, and every day, I would come in and try to make sense of it. And then one day, something just clicked. I saw all these patterns: round things ... pops of bright color ... symmetrical shapes ... a sense of abundance and multiplicity ... a feeling of lightness or elevation. When I saw it this way, I realized that though the feeling of joy is mysterious and elusive, we can access it through tangible, physical attributes, or what designers call aesthetics, a word that comes from the same root as the Greek word "aísthomai," which means, "I feel," "I sense," "I perceive." And since these patterns were telling me that joy begins with the senses, I began calling them "Aesthetics of Joy"; the sensations of joy. And in the wake of this discovery, I noticed something that as I walked around, I began spotting little moments of joy everywhere I went -- a vintage yellow car or a clever piece of street art. It was like I had a pair of rose-colored glasses, and now that I knew what to look for, I was seeing it everywhere. It was like these little moments of joy were hidden in plain sight.

symmetrical  /sɪˈmɛtrɪkəl/ adj. 对称的

abundance  /ə'bʌnd(ə)ns/ n. 丰富

aesthetics  /i:sˈθetɪks/ n. 美学

perceive  /pə'siːv/ v. 察觉，发觉；看待，理解

但我还是需要搞清楚：这些让他们快乐的事物到底是怎么回事？我把这些照片挂在工作室的墙上，每天我都会去那里，想弄清楚原因。突然有一天，我恍然大悟。我发现了某些规律：圆形的东西，绚丽的色彩，对称的形状，丰富和多样性， 明亮或者在高空的感觉。 用这种方式来观察的时候， 我发现尽管快乐的感觉有点神秘,又难以捕捉，但我们可以通过一些 可触摸的、物理的特性来得到它， 或者用设计师的话说，通过审美，这个词来源于希腊语的 同根词“aisthomai”， 意思是我感觉，我感受，我察觉。这些规律告诉我们，快乐来源于感觉，我于是称之为“快乐审美”，也就是对于快乐的感知。伴随着这个发现，我开始注意身边的一些事情，留意那些让我快乐的瞬间，无论我身处何处—— 一辆复古的黄色小汽车，一件巧妙的街头艺术。我觉得自己就像戴着一副粉红眼镜， 知道自己在找什么之后，我在哪儿都能找到快乐。这些快乐的小瞬间就藏在我们眼皮底下。

And at the same time, I had another realization, that if these are the things that bring us joy, then why does so much of the world look like this?

Why do we go to work here? Why do we send our kids to schools that look like this? Why do our cities look like this? And this is most acute for the places that house the people that are most vulnerable among us: nursing homes, hospitals, homeless shelters, housing projects. How did we end up in a world that looks like this?

vulnerable  /'vʌlnərəbəl/ adj. 易受伤害的

与此同时，我还发现，如果刚刚提到的这些东西能带给我们快乐，那为什么很多地方看起来是这样的？

为什么我们要去这样的地方上班？为什么我们要把孩子送到这样的地方上学？ 为什么我们的城市是这样的？而下面这些地方是最糟糕的，因为我们中间最脆弱的那些人住在这里：疗养院，医院，收容所，住宅项目。为什么我们的世界会变成这个样子？

We all start out joyful, but as we get older, being colorful or exuberant opens us up to judgment. Adults who exhibit genuine joy are often dismissed as childish or too feminine or unserious or self-indulgent, and so we hold ourselves back from joy, and we end up in a world that looks like this.

feminine  /'femɪnɪn/ adj. 女性的

self-indulgent  /'selfin'dʌldʒənt/ adj. 自我放纵的

我们小时候都非常快乐，但随着年龄的增长，太过色彩绚丽或者热情洋溢会让我们遭受非议。成年人如果展现出纯粹的快乐，经常就会被误解为孩子气，或者太女性化，或者不够严肃， 或者有些自我放纵，于是我们开始远离快乐，于是我们的世界就变成了这个样子。