2006年NPR美国国家公共电台九月-We Never Go Away

Welcome to This I believe, an NPR series presenting the personal philosophies of remarkable¹ men and women from all walks of life.
I believe in honor, faith, and service.
I believe that a little outrage² can take you a long way.
I believe in freedom of speech.
I believe in empathy.
I believe in truth.
I believe in the ingredients of love.
This I believe.

Throughout our series, This I Believe, we've heard people from all over the country and from all walks of life. Today's essayist didn't have to go far to turn in his submission³. He is Dennis Downey, a poet and performer from Falmouth, Massachusetts, and he lives near our series' curator, independent producer, Jay Allison.

Most of the essays sent to us, about 15,000 so far, come as text via the Internet, but this one was delivered in person by hand on an audio cassette. The sentences, such as they are, came to us by ear. They might be a little hard to understand on the page but by ear the meaning can be felt. Here is Dennis Downey with his essay for This I Believe.

I believe in genes⁵ and a forward flow of time and in all things visible and invisible. Smaller than a light microscope sees, a gene⁴ is a genie⁶, is a ghost, is one-half of each of us given by one-half of each parent. And each of us comes from 2 parents, each of whom came from 2 parents, each of whom came from 2 parents. In an endless crisscross of streams of time and person's going backwards⁷. And each of us is as in our own incarnation. A soul inside a body for some reason, a fire, a flame, a soul. What we desire, that we desire, lighter⁸ than the flesh, the soul's the glow of us. The soul is the particular glow that the genes make when they make. It's the soul that stands the body up and gets it moving forward. Everybody's soul is on a journey.

I believe we live in a solar system that we go around the sun, the sun, and that the sun is a giant ball of flame. I believe that most of the energy for everything on earth comes from the sun except for the energies of the Earth itself, because the Earth itself is also on fire, inside, in the center, at its core. We know this from volcanoes, that there is a fire going on inside of the earth. We stand on an earth that is a boiling ball of iron, on fire in space, spinning at its core as it circles the source of sunshine. And each generation is short, a mutation⁹, first we're a child, then an adult, then a parent in turn to a child, then an old person, hopefully.

With change, constant change all around us, always throughout. Who wears what, who is in charge, what music sounds good. And I believe that a book is a box because a book carries something from some one person to another. And because it is used and can be used to carry ideas across time, which is how ideas build up. And each of us is not only our own lives unwinding forward, but also a part of and in service to the larger life for the tribe, which in turn is in service to the larger life of the species, which in turn is in service to a larger life source lost in a bath of stars that is a galaxy¹⁰ scattered¹¹ in the hugeness of the universe. We are not lost when we die, we never go away. Why would we go away, when we're gone, we come back.

Dennis Downey with his essay for This I Believe, Downey dropped off his tape with us, because he lives nearby but we invite you to send us your essay over the Internet, no matter where you live at NPR.org. For This I Believe, I'm Jay Allison.

Next Monday on morning edition, a This I Believe Essay from Bengeover Juosio Belaflect. Support for This I Believe comes from Capella University. You are listening to All Things Considered from NPR News.

This I Believe is produced for NPR by This I Believe Incorporated and Atlantic Public Media, for more essays in the series, please visit NPR.org/ThisIBelieve.
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genie
a magical creature in old Arabian stories that will do what you want when you call it
criss-cross [countable]
a pattern made up of a lot of straight lines that cross each other
see also zigzag¹² Inside the box was a crisscross of wires.
crisscross adjective a crisscross pattern of streets
incarnation
[uncountable and countable] the state of living in the form of a particular person or animal. According to some religions, people have several different incarnations
see also reincarnation She believes she was an Egyptian queen in a previous incarnation .
unwind
1
[intransitive] to relax and stop feeling anxious
a beautiful country hotel that is the perfect place to unwind
2
[intransitive and transitive] to undo¹³ something that has been wrapped around something else, or to become undone¹⁴ after being wrapped around something
She started to unwind her scarf.

1 remarkable   

adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的

参考例句：

• She has made remarkable headway in her writing skills.她在写作技巧方面有了长足进步。
• These cars are remarkable for the quietness of their engines.这些汽车因发动机没有噪音而不同凡响。

2 outrage   

n.暴行，侮辱，愤怒；vt.凌辱，激怒

参考例句：

• When he heard the news he reacted with a sense of outrage.他得悉此事时义愤填膺。
• We should never forget the outrage committed by the Japanese invaders.我们永远都不应该忘记日本侵略者犯下的暴行。

3 submission   

n.服从，投降；温顺，谦虚；提出

参考例句：

• The defeated general showed his submission by giving up his sword.战败将军缴剑表示投降。
• No enemy can frighten us into submission.任何敌人的恐吓都不能使我们屈服。

4 gene   

n.遗传因子，基因

参考例句：

• A single gene may have many effects.单一基因可能具有很多种效应。
• The targeting of gene therapy has been paid close attention.其中基因治疗的靶向性是值得密切关注的问题之一。

5 genes   

n.基因( gene的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• You have good genes from your parents, so you should live a long time. 你从父母那儿获得优良的基因，所以能够活得很长。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Differences will help to reveal the functions of the genes. 它们间的差异将会帮助我们揭开基因多种功能。 来自英汉非文学 - 生命科学 - 生物技术的世纪

6 genie   

n.妖怪，神怪

参考例句：

• Now the genie of his darkest and weakest side was speaking.他心灵中最阴暗最软弱的部分有一个精灵在说话。
• He had to turn to the Genie of the Ring for help.他不得不向戒指神求助。

7 backwards   

adv.往回地，向原处，倒，相反，前后倒置地

参考例句：

• He turned on the light and began to pace backwards and forwards.他打开电灯并开始走来走去。
• All the girls fell over backwards to get the party ready.姑娘们迫不及待地为聚会做准备。

8 lighter   

n.打火机，点火器；驳船；v.用驳船运送；light的比较级

参考例句：

• The portrait was touched up so as to make it lighter.这张画经过润色，色调明朗了一些。
• The lighter works off the car battery.引燃器利用汽车蓄电池打火。

9 mutation   

n.变化，变异，转变

参考例句：

• People who have this mutation need less sleep than others.有这种突变的人需要的睡眠比其他人少。
• So far the discussion has centered entirely around mutation in the strict sense.到目前为止，严格来讲，讨论完全集中于围绕突变问题上。

10 galaxy   

n.星系；银河系；一群(杰出或著名的人物)

参考例句：

• The earth is one of the planets in the Galaxy.地球是银河系中的星球之一。
• The company has a galaxy of talent.该公司拥有一批优秀的人才。

11 scattered   

adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的

参考例句：

• Gathering up his scattered papers,he pushed them into his case.他把散乱的文件收拾起来，塞进文件夹里。

12 zigzag   

n.曲折，之字形；adj.曲折的，锯齿形的；adv.曲折地，成锯齿形地；vt.使曲折；vi.曲折前行

参考例句：

• The lightning made a zigzag in the sky.闪电在天空划出一道Z字形。
• The path runs zigzag up the hill.小径向山顶蜿蜒盘旋。

13 undo   

vt.解开，松开；取消，撤销

参考例句：

• His pride will undo him some day.他的傲慢总有一天会毁了他。
• I managed secretly to undo a corner of the parcel.我悄悄地设法解开了包裹的一角。

14 undone   

a.未做完的，未完成的

参考例句：

• He left nothing undone that needed attention.所有需要注意的事他都注意到了。