Most of us look away when we pass strangers. It is the expectional person who stops to help the woman maneuvering her kids and groceries up the staircase. We rarely give up in line or on the subway or bus. Locked into our automobiles, we prefer gridlock to giving way.
当我们与陌生人擦肩而过时，多数人往往把目光移开。如果有人停下来帮妇女哄她的小孩和帮她把食品搬上楼梯，反而会被人看成另类。无论是排队还是乘地铁或公共汽车，我们很少让位于他人。坐在自己的汽车里，我们宁愿堵塞交通也不愿给人让路。
These daily encounters, when they are angry or alien, diminish our lives. When they are pleasant, we feel buoyed. Yet when we sit at home and make resolutions, we think about what we can accomplish in private spaces：home, work. Too many have given up the belief that they control the shared, the public world.
这些日常接触，如果气冲冲的或是使人反感的，那便会减少我们生活的乐趣，如果它们令人舒畅，那便会使我们精神振奋。然而，当我们坐在家里做出各种决定的时分，我们考虑的仅是在个人天地--家庭和工作里可以完成的目标。太多的人已经放弃了他们也管理着共享的、公共的世界这一信念。
As individuals we can change the contour of a day, the mood of a moment, the way people feel. The demolition and reconstruction of public life is the result of personal decisions made every day：the decision to give up a seat on the bus;the decision to be patient or pleasant against all odds;the decision to let that jerk take a left-hand turn from a right-hand lane without rolling down the window and calling him a jerk.
作为众人的一员，我们可以改变一天的面貌，一时的情绪，以及人们对某件事的感觉。公共生活的毁坏和重建是人们每日所做的种种个人决定的综合结果。这些决定包括：公共汽车上让座，面对逆境而能容忍或具有乐观精神;让那个笨蛋从右车道往左拐而不摇下车窗骂他蠢货。
