Words are living things, the very bodies in which ideas and emotions become materialized.By the power of the word, to an extraordinary extent, we can influence what happens to our lives.
There is a famous old story about an optimist and a pessimist. A half glass of water was placed before them for their inspection, and they were asked to describe what they saw.
"I see," said the optimist cheerfully," a glass that is half full."
"I see," said the pessimist with a heavy sigh,"a glass that is half empty."
There could hardly be a better example of the power that lies in words, and of how word-choice can come to influence our whole mood and outlook. If we say often enough how full things are-whether water glasses or whatever else-we grow more and more into a fullness of our own. If we say often enough how empty things are, we can make our life-adventure an emptiness indeed.
語言是具有生命的東西,是思想和情感實現(xiàn)具體物質化體現(xiàn)的軀殼。一旦一個思想或是情感被化作語言,它便獲得了比之前所擁有的強大無數(shù)倍的力量和說服力。它現(xiàn)在是一個東西,而不再是只能在想象中被說出,被聽到,被看到的了。通過語言的力量,在極大的程度來講,我們可以影響人生中發(fā)生的事情。
有一個關于一個樂觀者和一個悲觀者的著名而古老的故事。半杯水擺放在他們面前讓他們審視,并且要求他們描述自己看到了什么。
“我看到,”樂觀者高興的說,“一杯半滿的水。”“我看見,”悲觀者深深地嘆息著說,“一杯空了一半的水。”
這是關于語言的力量和如何點亮我們的心情與前途的最好例證。“滿”是一個表示宏大,愉悅的詞匯,而“空”卻表示的是貧乏與孤獨。如果我們足夠經(jīng)常的去說事物是多么飽滿,極致,我們就會越來越發(fā)展出自己宏大極品的人生。如果經(jīng)常去說事物是多么貧乏,我們會使得一生的冒險真的變得貧乏可悲。