TED演讲：不要一悔再悔(11)

 　　So how are we supposed to live with this?  那我们怎么才能面对悔恨？

　　I want to suggest that there's three things that help us to make our peace with regret.  我想提三点建议来让我们平和地面对后悔。

　　And the first of these is to take some comfort in its universality.  第一就是意识到它的普遍性。

　　If you Google regret and tattoo¹, you will get 11.5 million hits.  如果你在谷歌上搜索后悔和纹身，能有1150万条结果。

　　The FDA estimates that of all the Americans who have tattoos², 17 percent of us regret getting them.  品和药物管理局估计全美纹过身的人里大概有百分之十七的人都会后悔。

　　That is Johnny Depp and me and our seven million friends.  包括强尼1德普、我还有七百万陌生朋友。

　　And that's just regret about tattoos. We are all in this together. 而这只不过是后悔纹了身而已。我们都差不多。

　　The second way that we can help make our peace with regret is to laugh at ourselves.  第二点去平和地处理后悔就是学会自嘲 。

　　Now in my case, this really wasn't a problem, because it's actually very easy to laugh at yourself when you're 29 years old and you want your mommy because you don't like your new tattoo.  这对我来说一点都不难，因为你要是29岁了还因为一个不喜欢的新纹身而哭着找妈妈的话，完全可以自嘲一下。

　　But it might seem like a kind of cruel or glib³ suggestion when it comes to these more profound regrets.  虽然有人会觉得这个建议对于真正沉重的后悔来说有点残酷且华而不实。

　　I don't think that's the case though.  我不这么认为。

　　All of us who've experienced regret that contains real pain and real grief understand that humor and even black humor plays a crucial role in helping⁴ us survive.  几乎我们所有人都经历过十分痛苦和懊悔的情况，幽默，甚至黑色幽默能帮助我们度过难关。

　　It connects the poles of our lives back together, the positive and the negative, and it sends a little current of life back into us. 因为它能连接我们生活的两个极端，正极和负极，给我们的生活注入一点电流。

1 tattoo   

n.纹身，(皮肤上的)刺花纹；vt.刺花纹于

参考例句：

• I've decided to get my tattoo removed.我已经决定去掉我身上的纹身。
• He had a tattoo on the back of his hand.他手背上刺有花纹。

2 tattoos   

n.文身( tattoo的名词复数 )；归营鼓；军队夜间表演操；连续有节奏的敲击声v.刺青，文身( tattoo的第三人称单数 )；连续有节奏地敲击；作连续有节奏的敲击

参考例句：

• His arms were covered in tattoos. 他的胳膊上刺满了花纹。
• His arms were covered in tattoos. 他的双臂刺满了纹身。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 glib   

adj.圆滑的，油嘴滑舌的

参考例句：

• His glib talk sounds as sweet as a song.他说的比唱的还好听。
• The fellow has a very glib tongue.这家伙嘴油得很。

4 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。