How to Refill an Empty Life
Read the article quickly and answer the following questions.
1. What are the author’s feelings before he has a religion?
2. What effects do you think a religion has on people?
One day about fifteen years ago I suddenly came face to face with myself and realized there was something quite empty about my life. My friends and associates perhaps didn’t see it. By the generally accepted standards, I was “successful”. I was head of a prosperous manufacturing concern and I led what is usually referred to as an “active” life, both socially and in business. But it didn’t seem to me to be adding up to anything. I was going around in circles. I worked hard, played hard, and pretty soon I discovered I was hitting the highballs harder than I needed. I wasn’t a candidate for Alcoholics Anonymous, but to be honest with myself I had to admit I was drinking more than was good for me. It may have been out of sheer boredom.
I began to wonder what to do. It occurred to me that I might have gotten myself too tightly wrapped up in my job, to the sacrifice of the basic but nonmaterialistic values of life. It struck me abruptly that I was being quite selfish, that my major interest in people was in what they meant to me, what they represented as business contacts or employees, not what I might mean to them. I remembered that as my mother sent me to Sunday school as a boy, and encouraged me to sing in the church choi, she used to tell me that the value of what she called a good Christian background was in having something to tie to. I put in a little thought recalling the Golden Rule and some of the other first principles of Christianity. I began to get interested in YMCA work.
It happened that just at this time we were having some bitter fights with the union at our plant. Then one day it occurred to me: What really is their point of view, and why? I began to see a basis for their suspicions, their often chip-on-shoulder point of view, and I determined to do something about it.
We endeavored to apply―literally apply―Christian principles to our dealings with employees, to practice, for example, something of the Golden Rule. The men’s response, once they were convinced we were sincere, was remarkable. The effort has paid for its pains, and I don’t mean in dollars. I mean in dividends of human dignity, of a man’s pride in his job and in the company, knowing that he is no longer just a cog but a live personal part of it and that it doesn’t matter whether he belongs to a certain church or whether the pigmentation of his skin is skin is light or dark.
But I can speak with most authority on how this change of attitude affected me and my personal outlook on life. Perhaps, again, many of my friends did not notice the difference.
But I noticed it. That feeling of emptiness, into which I was pouring cocktails out of boredom, was filling up instead with a purpose: to live a full life with an awareness and an appreciation of other people. I do not pretend for a second that I have suddenly become a paragon. My faults are still legion and I know them.
But it seems to me better to have a little religion and practice it than think piously and do nothing about it. I feel better adjusted, more mature than I ever have in my life before. I have no fear. I say this not boastfully but in all humility. The actual application of Christian principles has changed my life.
大约15年前的一天，我在面对自己时，突然觉得自己的生活很空虚。也许这是朋友和同事所无法理解的。按照公认的标准来看，我是一位“成功者”。我领导着一个生意不错的制造公司，是社交界及商界中的“活跃分子”。然而，对我而言，这些并没有太大的意义。我始终都在圈内转来转去。我努力工作，尽情享乐，但很快就发现自己饮酒过度。虽然我并不准备加入嗜酒者互诫协会，但说真的，我不得不承认自己喝了太多的酒。也许，这是因为我的生活实在太无聊了。
于是，我开始想着去做点什么。突然，我想到或许是由于自己将过多的精力投入工作，却付出了失去最基本精神生活价值的代价。我顿时明白，自己一向都很自私，我只对别人对我意味着什么，作为我的生意伙伴或员工会为我带来什么价值感兴趣，而不在意我对他们而言意义何在。记得孩提时，母亲常告诉我，一位虔诚信徒的人生价值在于他拥有精神的寄托。当时，她还送我去主日学校学习，并鼓励我参加教堂唱诗班。我努力在脑海中回想着《圣经》中的金箴和基督教义中一些最重要的信条。于是，我开始对基督教青年会的工作感兴趣了。
凑巧的是，那时我们与工厂工会之间发生了一些尖锐的摩擦。后来的一天，我突然想到：他们真正的观点是什么，为什么会这样？我开始明白他们为何会对我们产生怀疑，并常持敌对态度，于是我决定采取相应的行动。
在处理与员工间的问题时，我们试图将基督教的信条应用甚至照搬到其中，比如说，将金箴中的某些忠告付诸于行动。当人们相信我们的诚意，自然就会作出良好的回应。这种做法痛苦却有所回报。我所说的回报并非金钱，而是人的尊严，是使一个人为他的工作与公司而骄傲。他明白，自己不再是一个微不足道的小齿轮，而是公司中生动鲜活的一分子，公司不会在乎他属于哪个教会，或是肤色深浅。
然而，我可以肯定地说，我和我的人生观正是因这种态度而发生了转变。也许，对于我的变化，多数朋友并没有发现。
但是，我自己注意到了。曾经用酗酒来排遣的空虚感，如今已不复存在，取而代之的是明确的目标：充实地生活，关注并尊重他人的存在。我并不装做自己立刻成为一个典范，我明白自己依然缺点重重。
但是，在我看来，与其不予行动地虔诚思考，不如拥有一点宗教信仰并将其付诸实践。我感觉，相比以前，自己得到了更好的调整，也更为成熟了。我无所畏惧。我之所以这么说，并非吹嘘，而是满怀谦卑。我的生活也因将基督教信条付诸于实践而发生了改变。
Ace in the Hole
Keywords and expressions
1. endeavor
作动词：尝试，试图
作名词：努力，尽力
近义词：apply oneself，struggle，try one’s best
例：1. We should all endeavor to be more considerate of others.
我们都应该努力多为别人着想。
2. Thus, students should endeavor to identify only the main points
and ideas being presented and to write them down in outline form.
因此，学生应该努力分辨讲课的要点和讲师提出的意见并以概要的
方式写出来。
3. Marry is earnest in his endeavors.
玛丽热心努力。
Chunks in Practice
Translate the following sentences into English or Chinese.
1. 在我看来，与其不予行动地虔诚思考，不如拥有一点宗教信仰并将其付诸实践。
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2. It occurred to me that I might have gotten myself too tightly wrapped up in my job, to the sacrifice of the basic but nonmaterialistic values of life.
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Now a Try
In your opinion, how to refill an empty life?
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