音味有你 | 活得如何，是一种选择

Outside the Bible, these six words are the most famous in all the literature of the world. They were spoken by Hamlet when he was thinking aloud, and they are the most famous words in Shakespeare because Hamlet was speaking not only for himself but also for every thinking man and woman. To be or not to be, to live or not to live, to live richly and abundantly and eagerly, or to live dully and meanly and scarcely. A philosopher once wanted to know whether he was alive or not, which is a good question for everyone to put to himself occasionally. He answered it by saying: "I think, therefore I am."

But the best definition of existence I ever saw was one given by another philosopher who said: "To be is to be in relations." If this is true, then the more relations a living thing has, the more it is alive. To live abundantly means simply to increase the range and intensity of our relations. Unfortunately we are so constituted that we get to love our routine. But apart from our regular occupation how much are we alive? If you are interested only in your regular occupation, you are alive only to that extent. So far as other things are concerned--poetry and prose, music, pictures, sports, unselfish friendships, politics, international affairs--you are dead.

To be or not to be--to live intensely and richly, merely to exist, that depends on ourselves. Let's widen and intensify our relations. While we live, let us live!

生存还是毁灭。除《圣经》以外，这六个字是整个世界文学中最著名的六个字。这六个字是哈姆雷特喃喃自语时所说的，而这六个字也是莎士比亚作品中最有名的几个字，因为哈姆雷特不仅道出了自己的心声，也道出了所有在思考的人的心声。生存还是毁灭——是活下去还是不要活下去，是要生活得丰富充实、兴致勃勃，还是生活得枯燥委琐、贫乏无味。一位哲人曾想弄清自己是否在活着，其实这个问题我们每个人都应该不时地扪心自问。他对这个问题的答案是：我思，故我在。

但是我所见过的关于生存最好的定义却出自另一位哲学家：“生活即是联系。”如果这句话不假，那么一个生物拥有的联系越多，它就越有活力。所谓要活得丰富也即是要扩大和加强我们的各种联系。不幸的是，我们天生就容易陷入自己的陈规旧套。试问除去我们的日常事务，我们在多大程度上是活着的？如果你只对日常事务感兴趣，那你的生命也就局限于那个范围之内。就其他事物而言——诗歌、散文、音乐、美术、体育、无私的友谊、政治、国际事务等等——你只是一个木头人。

生存与毁灭——是活得热烈而丰富，还是活得像行尸走肉，那都取决于我们自己。让我们扩大并加强我们的联系吧。活着就要精彩！