雙語散文:呼喚"溫文爾雅"
A Cry for Gentleness
If there’s one thing in this world I can address with a fair amount of confidence and mounds of past experiences, it’s self-improvement ... or rather the pursuit of it. I’ve been chasing down the perfect Deb for years, and while I may have succeeded in some areas (not the perfect part, just some improvement here and there), there are many others in which I have failed miserably. Still, I’ve managed to muddle1 through thus far and so, armed with the knowledge that nothing worthwhile comes without honest effort, and I continue my quest.
如果這世上有一件事能讓我滿懷信心地去追求，並有我自己的大量經歷作依據，那就是自我完善，或者說是對它的追求。我已經對完美的自我追求很多年了，儘管我在某些方面取得了成功(當然談不上完美，只是一些方面的提高和改善)，但我還是在許多方面敗得一塌糊塗。一直以來，帶着世上不存在不勞而獲的信念，我設法應對追求過程中的各種問題，我將繼續我的追尋。
Self-improvement comes in many forms and while physical, mental and emotional development are important (and believe it or not, I’ve worked diligently on all of those for the past half century), the passing years have convinced me that a person’s temperament2 is another important piece of that complicated puzzle we call fulfillment.自我完善有很多種，儘管體魄、精神和情感上的完善很重要(信不信由你，過去的這半個世紀以來我一直在這些方面堅持不懈地努力着)，可是歲月卻讓我確信一個人的性情也是我們稱之爲“成就”這一複雜問題的一個重要方面。
