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There are bigger waste problems. But when I think about the ozone hole, I find that it helps me to clean up. Thinking globally without acting locally can spin me down into despair.
还有更大的浪费问题。但当我想到臭氧洞时，我觉得它促使我去做清洁工作。想着全局而不从局部做起会让我陷入绝望。
Or into anger. I know that other people somewhere else made decisions that turned our neighborhood, once a good place, into a bad one. Like the alcohol-industry executives who decidedto aim expensive ad campaigns at African-American teens. I know decisions happen that way tothe old-growth forests, too.
抑或会令我发怒。我知道，是其它地方别的什么人做出的决定，才使得曾是我们美好家园的住宅区变成一个糟糕的地方的。比如，是酿酒业的老总们决定花大把的钱瞄准非洲裔美国青少年做广告推销酒的。我知道，同样的命运也降临到原始森林的身上。
I went to a lecture at the Zen Center not far from my house, to hear the head gardener there. She talked about what is to be learned from gingko trees. I've always liked their fan-shaped leaves, bright gold in the fall, but I hadn't known they were ancient, evolved thousands of years ago. They exist nowhere in the wild, she said, but were fostered by monksin gardens in China and Japan. Somehow, gingkos have adapted so that they thrive in cities,in polluted air. They remind me of the kids around here, full of life in spite of everything.
我去离家不远的禅宗中心参加一个讲座，听那儿的首席园艺家讲话。她讲了能向银杏树学些什么。我素来喜欢银杏树在秋天呈金黄色的扇形叶子，但我并不知道它们是千万年前进化而来的古老树木。她说银杏树不是野生的，而是由僧侣在中国和日本的庭院里培育起来的。不知怎的，银杏树很能适应，可在城市里、在污染的空气里茁壮成长。它们让我想起这儿的孩童，不论怎样他们总是充满生命力。
The day after the lecture, I went to the nursery, ready to try planting trees again in the holes in the sidewalk. Now in front of my house are two tiny gingkos, each inside a fortified cage of four strong metal posts and thick wire mesh. To weed them, I kneel on thesidewalk and reach in, trying not to scratch my wrist on the wire.
听讲座后第二天，我去了苗圃，准备再试着在人行道的洞穴里种树。如今在我家屋前栽着两棵小小的银杏树，每棵都被围在由四根结实的金属柱子和厚厚的铁丝网做成的牢固笼子里。为了给它们除草，我跪在人行道上把手伸进去，当心着不让手腕被铁丝网划破。
Kneeling there, I accept on faith that this little tree will do its best to grow according to its own plan. I also believe that every person wants a better life.
我跪在那儿，心中坚信这棵小树会按照自己的方式尽量生长。我也相信每个人都想过更好的生活。
