Whether it is losing a loved one or a job, facing foreclosure or serious illness, people need courage to face what life throws in their path on a daily basis. To explore what courage is and how it can help people transform their lives, authors Nina Lesowitz and Mary Beth Sammons interviewed dozens of courageous people from all walks of life and across the globe.
无论是失去亲人、工作或房子，还是身患重病，人们每天都需要勇气去面对生活中遇到的各种挑战。为了探索勇气究竟是什么，它是如何帮助人们改变生活的，作家尼娜·莱索维兹和玛丽·贝斯·萨蒙斯采访了全球各行各业的几十位勇士。
They share their findings in their new book, "The Courage Companion."
并且通过她们的新书《勇气陪伴--如何带着真正的能力生活》分享了他们的发现。
Rising to the challenge
Sammons knows exactly how it feels when challenges in life arise unexpectedly and all at once.
萨蒙斯完全知道，当各种挑战一起不期而至时，是一种什么感受。
"I was employed full-time as a vice president at a company and our company was sold," Sammons says. "So I lost the stability of the full-time job. I also lost my father. So it was a sad moment. I also have three children. All those things together, you have to just keep going. So I feel like I had no choice but to find the courage to just get up and keep going and find something new."
她说：“我曾经有一份全职工作，而且是一家公司的副总。但是，我们的公司被卖掉，我失去了稳定的工作，失去了父亲，而且有3个孩子需要照顾。这是一个悲伤的时刻。所有这些加在一起，但我不得不继续朝前走。我别无选择，只有寻找勇气站起来，寻找新的目标。”
Among the new things Sammons found was a job working for an inner city school in Chicago, Illinois. There, she says, she was inspired by a courageous African-American grandmother. For years, Lucille Jackson battled gangs and extreme violence in her community to provide hope for her 17-year-old grandson.
萨蒙斯在芝加哥市中心一所学校里找到了一份工作。她在那里受到一位勇敢的非洲裔祖母卢西尔·杰克逊的启发。杰克逊为了给她17岁的孙子带来希望，多年来一直和社区里的黑帮和极端暴力进行斗争。
"She has lost everything," she says. "She has seen three of her children die of cancer or be killed in this dangerous neighborhood, yet she's determined that her grandson Michael will beat the odds and be the first person in the family that will graduate from high school."
萨蒙斯说：“她什么都没了。她眼看着自己的3个孩子死于癌症或在这个危险的社区里被人打死。但是，她坚信，她的孙子迈克尔一定会战胜重重困难，成为这个家族中第一个从高中毕业的人。”
'The Courage Companion'
Jackson is one of dozens of courageous people profiled in "The Courage Companion: How to Live Life with True Power," which Sammons co-authored with her friend Nina Lesowitz.
杰克逊是萨蒙斯和她的朋友尼娜·莱索维兹合写的《勇气陪伴--如何带着真正的能力生活》一书所描述的几十位勇士中的一位。
The book also includes the story of Romel Joseph, the blind Haitian violinist who captured worldwide attention after last year's earthquake destroyed his music school in Port-au-Prince.
书中还讲述了海地盲人小提琴家罗梅尔·约瑟夫的故事。去年的大地震摧毁了他在太子港的音乐学校，约瑟夫本人也引起全世界的关注。
"He was trapped inside for 17 hours," Sammons explains. "His wife actually died. She was trapped in the building as well, and she did not get out. He kept himself alive by singing the music he loves so much in his head, playing it over and over. When he got out, he was injured and went to a hospital. He's back in Haiti, trying to rebuild his school."
萨蒙斯说：“他被困在楼里17个小时。他的妻子也被困在里面，而且没有能活着出来。约瑟夫靠着反复在脑海中颂唱他所非常喜欢的歌曲而活了下来。他获救之后，被送进医院疗伤。现在，他又回到海地，打算重建他的学校。”
Some people were profiled for their fight against injustice despite threats, harassment and violence, in places like South Africa, Nepal and Iran.
还有一些人在南非、尼泊尔和伊朗等国家，面对各种威胁、骚扰和暴力，仍然敢于同不公正行为做斗争，他们的事迹也被记载在《勇气陪伴--如何带着真正的能力生活》一书中。
Reacting to tragedy
Others rise above their personal misfortune and help others. When her boyfriend committed suicide a few years ago, Amanda Coggin, a writer in San Francisco, California, decided to do what she could to prevent similar tragedies.
萨蒙斯说，还有一些人能够超越自己的不幸去帮助别人。加州旧金山的作家阿曼达·考金就是一个例子。几年前，她的男友自杀后，她决定竭尽全力避免类似的悲剧发生。
"There have been some organizations that I've connected with," Coggin says. "The first one is Challenge Day. They are based here in California. They go into high schools and do day-long sessions with kids to get to the bottom of the bullying and teasing and issues that are happening with kids, whether it is high pressure schools or what's happening in kids' families. It was something I was naturally drawn to before I knew it would be my best suicide prevention work."
考金说：“我和一些组织取得了联系，其中一个是设在加州的‘挑战日’。他们去高中，和学生们进行一整天的交流，分析学校里霸凌和戏弄等问题的根源，是不是因为学校压力太大，还是因为学生家庭因素，导致了这些问题的发生。我很自然被这些工作所吸引。然后我确定，这是我能从事的最好的防止自杀的工作。”
Helping others was also the best way for Maddy Oden to help herself. When her daughter died after being given a drug to induce labor, Oden began speaking out against the risks of medical intervention and the use of certain drugs during childbirth.
对马迪·奥登来说，帮助他人也是帮助自己的最佳办法。当她的女儿因服用药物催产而丧生后，她便开始直言不讳地批评医学介入，并提醒人们分娩时使用某些催产药的危险性。
"Something inside me said this is not going to happen to anyone else," Oden recalls. "I proceeded to do what I do, which is form a non-profit organization that's educational for pregnant women to empower them around the issues of childbirth and pregnancy."
奥登说：“我心里有一个声音说，不能再让这种事发生在别人身上了。我坚持做我现在做的事，成立了一个非盈利教育组织，增进妇女对生产和怀孕等问题的了解。”
Facing fear
The book also introduces us to Lt. Heidi Kraft, who served as a clinical psychologist in the U.S. Navy. She sees courage not as the lack of fear, but rather the ability to face it. When Kraft was deployed to Iraq in 2004, her twin son and daughter were only 15 months old.
在《勇气陪伴》一书中，我们还结识了海蒂·克拉夫特中尉。她在美国海军担任临床心理医生。她告诉萨蒙斯，勇气并不是没有恐惧，而是临危不惧的能力。2004年，她被派驻伊拉克时，她的双胞胎儿女才15个月大。
"There was an actual, real possibility that I'd never see their second birthday," Kraft says. "And, as a mother, I sort of panicked. I almost remember feeling frozen, with fear. I had to put that away. I had to take my feelings as a mother and just move them to a place I couldn't touch and focus on being a provider and an officer, a friend, the roles that were required from me at that moment. I knew my patents needed me, I knew my people needed me."
克拉夫特说：“当时，我的的确确有可能不能为他们庆祝两岁生日了。作为母亲，我恐慌了。我被恐惧紧紧抓住。但是，我必须把这个感觉放在一边，必须放下我作为母亲的感受，把它们放到一个我无法触摸的地方，专心于我作为心理医生、军官和朋友的工作，这些是我必须履行的职责。我知道，我的病人需要我，我的战友需要我。”
Kraft wrote about her experience in a book titled, "Rule Number Two: Lessons I Learned in a Combat Hospital." She says dangerous situations are not all bad. They often transform one's life.
克拉夫特在名为《第二条规则：我在战地医院学到的东西》一书中记述了她的经历。她说，危险境况未必都是坏事，它们往往能改变人的一生。
"I learned so much from our 19-, 20-, 21-year-olds that we ask to do much for our country and the loyalty they have for one another, for their mission, even in the face of injury and fear," she says. "It changed everything for me. I know for a fact that I grew, as a psychologist, as a mother, as an officer, as a wife, as a friend and as a woman. It's given me a perspective on what's important in almost every phase of my life."
克拉夫特说：“我从这些19到21岁的士兵身上学到了很多。他们为国家做出了巨大贡献，即使面对受伤和恐惧，他们对战友和作战任务都表现出无比的忠诚，这些改变了我的一切。我确确实实知道，作为心理医生、母亲、军官、妻子、朋友和女人，我成长了。这段经历使我认识到在我生命的几乎每个阶段，什么才是最重要的。”
Courage Companion co-author Sammons says the conclusion she and Nina Lesowitz came to after interviewing Kraft and so many others is that courage means different things in different situations. But, as she notes in her book, it remains the true power we need to live a full life, make a difference and pursue our dreams.
《勇气陪伴--如何带着真正的能力生活》的共同作者萨蒙斯说，她和莱索维兹在采访了包括克拉夫特在内的很多勇士之后所得出的结论是，勇气在不同的情况下，含义亦不尽相同。但是，我们如果想生活的充实，对世界有所影响，并追求自己的梦想，勇气仍旧是我们 |