Doing Well by Doing Good

　　By William R. Brody from www.inspirationpeak.com

　　Excerpted from a speech delivered by Mr. Brody to the graduating class of John Hopkins University on May 26, 2005.

　　

　　There is a man who I‘d like to tell you about. His name is Sandy Greenberg. In his youth, Sandy was a very good student, but he came from a poor family. And so he went to Columbia University on a scholarship and there he met his roommate who also was receiving financial aid.

　　Now while he was a sophomore at Columbia University, Sandy contracted an eye disease that eventually proved to be glaucoma. But the trouble was, it wasn‘t detected early enough, and as a result he became legally blind. I ask you all to imagine for a moment having been sighted all your life, and then all of a sudden being faced, in a very competitive school, with losing so much sight you could no longer read. This is what happened to Sandy Greenberg.

　　But something else happened to Sandy that may surprise you. Sandy said that when he lost his sight, his roommate would read his textbooks to him, every night.

　　So I‘m going to put you in that position, in a competitive school like Columbia, or Johns Hopkins. If your roommate had a serious disability, would you take the time to read textbooks to him every night, knowing the more you spend time reading textbooks to your roommate, perhaps the less well you might do with your other activities? That's not as easy a question as it first appears.

　　But luckily for Sandy, his roommate did. And as a result, Sandy went on to graduate with honors. He got a Fulbright Scholarship, and he went off to study at Oxford. He was still quite poor, but he said he had managed to save about five hundred dollars as he went along.

　　His roommate, meanwhile, also went on to graduate school. One day, Sandy got a call from him at Oxford. And his former roommate said, "Sandy I‘m really unhappy. I really don‘t like being in graduate school, and I don‘t want to do this."

　　So Sandy asked, "Well what do you want to do?"

　　And his roommate told him, "Sandy, I really love to sing. I have a high school friend who plays the guitar. And we would really like to try our hand in the music business. But we need to make a promo record, and in order to do that I need $500."

　　So Sandy Greenberg told me he took all his life savings and sent it to his roommate. He told me, "You know, what else could I do? He made my life; I needed to help make his life."

　　So, I hope you‘ll remember the power of doing well by doing good. Each of you, in your own lives, will be faced with challenges, with roadblocks, with problems that you didn‘t anticipate or expect. How you are able to deal with adversity will be influenced, to no small extent, by how you deal with others along the way. What you get will depend a lot on what you give. And that's the end of the story of doing well, by doing good.

　　Ah! I almost forgot. You probably are wanting to know who Sandy's roommate was. I think you've heard of him. Sandy's roommate was a fellow by the name of Art Garfunkel, and he teamed up with another musician by the name of Paul Simon. That $500 helped them cut a record that eventually became "The Sounds of Silence." Recently, we had the pleasure of going to Sandy's daughter's wedding, and it was Art Garfunkel who sang as Sandy walked his daughter down the aisle.

　　When you get to be my age (which, for some of you, is really old, though it doesn‘t seem so old to me anymore), you will find yourself beginning to ask, did my life make a difference?

　　That's the day of personal reckoning. And I think the only way to face it is to consider, every day of your life: How can I do something for somebody else? How can I give back to others? It may be teaching, it may be becoming a doctor, you may be successful in business - no matter what your career path, there will always be the opportunity to give back. The chance will present itself to be giving of your time, giving of your money, but mostly, to be giving of yourselves, of your own heart and soul.



My hope today, as you commence to new beginnings, is you will always keep your eyes open for those opportunities to give and embrace them as your best sure way of doing well.

　　为善者诸事顺

　　By William R. Brody 邹红云 译

　　我想给你们讲一个人。他叫桑迪•格林伯格。年轻时桑迪是个很优秀的学生，但他家境贫寒。因此他是靠奖学金上了哥伦比亚大学，在那里他遇见了同样也接受经济资助的室友。

　　桑迪在读大学二年级时得了眼疾，最终确诊为青光眼。可问题是，由于没有及早发现，他结果成了法定的盲人。我请你们大家想象一下这样的境况：一向眼睛都看得见的你，在一个竞争性很强的学校里，突然视力下降厉害，再也无法看书。 这就是当时落到桑迪•格林伯格身上的灾难。

　　但是桑迪碰到的另一件事可能会使你们惊讶。桑迪说，他失去视力时，他的室友每天晚上都会念那些课本给他听。

　　现在我请你们设身处地地想一想，在象哥伦比亚或约翰•霍普金斯这样的一所颇具竞争性的学校里，如果你的室友得了严重的残疾，你会每天晚上花时间给他念课本？你明知念课本给室友听的工夫花得越多，你其它方面的活动就可能会没那么出色，你还会这么做？这个问题不象乍看起来那么简单。

　　但是桑迪很幸运，他的室友就这么做了。桑迪最终以优等成绩毕业，他获得了富尔布赖特奖学金，前往牛津学习。尽管他仍很穷，但他说自己还是设法慢慢攒下了五百美元。

　　与此同时，他的室友也上了研究生院。一天，桑迪在牛津接到了他的电话。他昔日的室友说：“桑迪，我现在真的不快活。我真不喜欢呆在研究生院里，我不想干这活。”

　　于是，桑迪就问：“那你想干什么？”

　　室友告诉他：“桑迪，我真的非常喜欢唱歌。我有个中学里的朋友会弹吉他。我俩真想在音乐这一行当里一试身手。可是我们得做一张宣传唱片，为此，我需要500美元。”

　　于是，桑迪告诉我，他拿出自己所有的生活积蓄，将这笔钱寄给了室友。他告诉我，“你知道，我还能做什么呢？他造就了我的生活；我需要在他造就自己生活时帮他一把。”

　　因而，我希望你们将记住为善者诸事顺这句话的力量。你们每个人在自己的生活中都会面临各种不曾料到或不想碰到的挑战、阻碍或难题。你应对逆境本领如何，将与你一贯以来待人如何有很大关系。你得到的东西将大大地取决于你的付出。这就是这个关于为善者诸事顺的故事的结局。

　　呵！我差一点忘了。你们可能正想知道桑迪的室友是谁。我想你们都听说过他。桑迪的室友这伙计名叫阿特•加芬克尔，他和另一个名叫保罗•西蒙的人成立了演唱组。那500美元帮他们所刻的唱片到头来就成了《寂静之声》。最近，我们有幸参加了桑迪女儿的婚礼，桑迪陪女儿走向神坛时是阿特•加芬克尔在唱歌。

　　当你们到我这个岁数时（这个年纪，虽然对我来说似乎已不算老，但在你们中一些人看来，实在是垂垂老矣），你们会发现自己开始扪心自问：我的一生过得有意义吗？

　　那时就到了个人清算的日子。我觉得面对它的唯一办法就是在生活中的每一天都想一想：我怎样才能为别人做些什么？我怎样偿还他人？这可以是教书，可以是当医生，你也可能生意亨通——不管你做什么职业，你总会有机会偿还。机会将出现在你面前，让你付出时间、付出金钱，但主要的是要奉献你自己，奉献你的真心实意。

　　你们将开始新的起点，今天我希望大家以后能一直睁大眼睛寻找那些需要付出的机会，抓住它们，这是你们使自己诸事顺通最稳当的办法。

　　注释：

　　legally blind：法定盲。即法律根据眼科医学的标准所制定的眼盲标准。按American Optometric Association（美国视光协会）的标准，所谓legally blind就是正常人在200英尺之外就能看到的东西，legally blind的人（即使在最佳矫正后）也需要在不超过20英尺的距离才能看清楚，也即20/200的视力；或者每只眼的视角不大于10度，视野异常狭小。物理上讲，光线仍然能够在视网膜上成像，但可用性几乎等于零。（新东方专稿

good,help others is help yourself