人物：我们对自己很满意

 "We're Happy with Who We Are" "我们对自己很满意"

In the new documentary "Far from the Tree", Leah Smith and Joe Stramondo talk about family love, living with dwarfism—and how raising 2 average-size kids is everything they'd hoped for. 在最新的纪录片《远离大树》中，利亚·史密斯和乔·斯特拉蒙多谈到了亲情，侏儒症的生活，以及抚养两个正常身材的孩子是他们的一切希望。

Leah Smith and her husband, Joe Stramondo, are sitting outside their San Diego apartment watching their 6-week-old son Silas snooze in his stroller while his 2-year-old sister Hazel is at preschool. 利亚·史密斯(Leah Smith)和她的丈夫乔·斯特拉蒙多(Joe Stramondo)正坐在圣地亚哥的公寓外，看着6周大的儿子塞拉斯(Silas)坐在婴儿车里打盹，而他两岁的姐姐黑兹尔(Hazel)正在上幼儿园。

The couple, who both have a form of dwarfism, are laughing as they try to explain how their height—or lack thereof—isn't the hardship some seem to think. 这对夫妻都患有侏儒症，他们笑着解释自己的身高——或者身高不足——并不是一些人想的那么困难。

"I don't leave the house thinking, 'How am I going to reach the milk at the grocery store?'" Smith says. “我出门的时候不会想，‘我怎么才能拿到杂货店的牛奶?’”史密斯说。

"I'll climb the shelves if I have to. I was doing it when I was nine months pregnant!"  Adds Stramondo: "Yeah, scaling the bread aisle¹, trying to get those bagels down ... life is good!" “如果有必要的话，我会爬上架子。”“怀孕九个月的时候，我还在做这个！”斯特拉蒙多补充道:“是的，爬上面包架，试着把百吉饼弄下来……生活是美好的!”

That's something Leah and Joe learned early on, growing up with average-size parents who refused to let them be defined by their dwarfism. 这是利亚和乔在很小的时候就学会的，他们的父母都是正常身材，不让他们用侏儒症来定义自己。

"We were both raised with high expectations that we could and should live a decent life, just like anyone else," says Stramondo, 36, an assistant professor of philosophy at San Diego State University. “我们在成长过程中都被寄予很高的期望，我们可以也应该像其他人一样过上体面的生活。”36岁的斯特拉蒙多(Stramondo)是圣地亚哥州立大学(San Diego State University)的哲学副教授。

That same mandate² is at the heart of "Far from the Tree", a new documentary based on Andrew Solomon's award-winning 2012 book of the same name. 《远离大树》(Far from the Tree)也有同样的主题。这部新纪录片根据安德鲁·所罗门(Andrew Solomon) 2012年获奖的同名小说改编而成。

In addition to Leah and Joe, the film explores how four other families—facing a range of challenges including Down syndrome³, autism and a son who committed murder—cope with both the hardships and rewards of raising a child whose life is different from what their parents expected. 除了利亚和乔，这部电影还探讨了其他四个家庭如何面对孩子与父母期望不同的苦与甜——他们面临着一系列的挑战，包括唐氏综合症、自闭症和一个犯下杀人罪的儿子。

"There's a real need to understand people who have what's categorized as an illness and to look at the resilience and dynamism of parental⁴ love," says Solomon. 所罗门说:“我们确实需要了解那些被认为有疾病的人，并看看父母的爱有多么坚韧不拔。”

"It seems like a particularly urgent time for the film's message of compassion⁵ and celebration of people who are different from the mainstream⁶." “电影传达了对那些与主流不同的人的同情与赞扬，当下这个时代，传达这些似乎十分紧迫。”

Smith and Stramondo were well-versed in life's challenges when their paths crossed in 2008 at a Little People of America conference in Detroit. 2008年，史密斯和斯特拉蒙多在底特律举行的美国小人物团体(Little People of America)大会上相遇，此时两人对生活中的挑战了如指掌。

"I'd read his profile on Myspace. It was fascinating, and I told myself, 'This guy is someone I need to meet,'" says Smith, 37. 我在Myspace上看到过他的资料。很有趣，我告诉自己，‘这个人是我需要见的人，’”37岁的史密斯说。

"When I saw him wheel by (in his wheelchair), I ran after him and caught him." “当我看到他坐在轮椅上经过时，我就跟在他后面，把他抓住了。”

Six years later, as the two were finishing up their graduate degrees—Smith has a master's in public policy and Stramondoa Ph.D. in philosophy—they eloped. 六年后，两人即将拿到他们的研究生学位——史密斯的公共政策硕士学位和斯特拉蒙多的哲学博士学位——他们私奔了。

By 2016 Smith was pregnant with Hazel, who's already towering over her 3-ft.-tall dad. 到2016年，史密斯已经怀上了黑兹尔，现在她已经比她3英尺的爸爸高了。

These days they're juggling⁷ a busy life, between taking care of the kids (who are both average size), Stramondo's work at the university and Smith's job managing #Live On, a social-media campaign aimed at reducing suicide rates among the disabled. 如今，他们在忙碌的生活中挣扎，要照顾孩子(都是正常身材)，斯特拉蒙多在大学里的工作，史密斯要管理“活下去”(#Live On)的工作，这是一项旨在降低残疾人自杀率的社交媒体活动。

"The assumption was that we would want a child that was average height, that we wouldn't want this for a child," says Stramondo. 斯特拉蒙多说:“我们的设想是，我们想要一个正常身高的孩子，我们不想孩子也这样。”

Adds Smith: "But why wouldn't we? We have a damn good life. We're happy people." 史密斯补充道:“但我们为什么不呢？我们的生活太好了。我们是幸福的人。”

1 aisle   

n.（教堂、教室、戏院等里的）过道，通道

参考例句：

• The aisle was crammed with people.过道上挤满了人。
• The girl ushered me along the aisle to my seat.引座小姐带领我沿着通道到我的座位上去。

2 mandate   

n.托管地；命令，指示

参考例句：

• The President had a clear mandate to end the war.总统得到明确的授权结束那场战争。
• The General Election gave him no such mandate.大选并未授予他这种权力。

3 syndrome   

n.综合病症；并存特性

参考例句：

• The Institute says that an unidentified virus is to blame for the syndrome. 该研究所表示,引起这种综合症的是一种尚未确认的病毒。
• Results indicated that 11 fetuses had Down syndrome. 结果表明有11个胎儿患有唐氏综合征。

4 parental   

adj.父母的；父的；母的

参考例句：

• He encourages parental involvement in the running of school.他鼓励学生家长参与学校的管理。
• Children always revolt against parental disciplines.孩子们总是反抗父母的管束。

5 compassion   

n.同情，怜悯

参考例句：

• He could not help having compassion for the poor creature.他情不自禁地怜悯起那个可怜的人来。
• Her heart was filled with compassion for the motherless children.她对于没有母亲的孩子们充满了怜悯心。

6 mainstream   

n.（思想或行为的）主流；adj.主流的

参考例句：

• Their views lie outside the mainstream of current medical opinion.他们的观点不属于当今医学界观点的主流。
• Polls are still largely reflects the mainstream sentiment.民调还在很大程度上反映了社会主流情绪。

7 juggling   

n. 欺骗, 杂耍(=jugglery) adj. 欺骗的, 欺诈的 动词juggle的现在分词

参考例句：

• He was charged with some dishonest juggling with the accounts. 他被指控用欺骗手段窜改账目。
• The accountant went to prison for juggling his firm's accounts. 会计因涂改公司的帐目而入狱。