告訴孩子: 一生要堅持的10件事｜斯坦福大學的畢業演講

告訴孩子: 一生要堅持的10件事｜斯坦福大學的畢業演講

本文來源：綜合整理自親子天下、斯坦福大學官網，轉載請注明出處。

美國斯坦福大學今年畢業典禮，邀請了艾美獎得主、知名的歷史紀錄片導演肯•伯恩斯（Ken Burns）演講，他在20多分鐘的演講中，他勉勵畢業生即便走出校園，依然要保持好奇心和熱情，永遠熱愛科學與藝術，要堅持做個英雄，並且要生兒育女。

在演講中，他說：“堅持熱愛科學與藝術，尤其是藝術。科學幫助我們保衛國家，藝術使我們的國家值得保衛。”

本文是他的演講內容摘譯。

▲艾美獎得主、紀錄片導演肯•伯恩斯（Ken Burns）在斯坦福大學畢業典禮上演講。

現在，讓我對斯坦福大學的畢業生說幾句肺腑之言。

我是4個女兒的父親。如果有人告訴你他們被性侵害，你一定要極其嚴肅地對待此事，聽他們怎麼說（6月初，斯坦福大學學生性侵案被法院輕判，在美國社會引起很大的爭議）。也許，終會有那麼一天，我們會將性侵受害者的聲明，視為跟馬丁·路德·金博士從伯明罕監獄寄出的書信一樣重要。

1. 不要否定一個人。就像我否定某位候選人（暗指總統候選人川普）一樣。但可以否定一件事。

2. 保持好奇心，不要裝酷。每天都要餵養你的靈魂。也不要只執著於某一專業。全能發展，你會更發展得更健康。不要把自己限制在書本堆裡，那只是工具，是手段，但不是終點。

3. 尋找並追隨人生導師，並聽他們的建議。已故劇院導演泰隆•古瑟裡（Tyrone Guthrie）曾說：“我們在尋找大得讓人害怕的點子。”擁抱這些新點子。咬下比你能吞下的更多的東西。

4. 旅行。不要泥足於一個地方。逛逛我們的國家公園，它們表面上的壯麗，也許會令你感到自我的渺小；但大自然高深莫測的內涵，會令你發現自己的偉大。你會受到啟發，你的自我主義會消失，同時你的自我價值會提升。堅持做個英雄。

5. 閱讀。時至今日，書本仍然是人類製造的最偉大的工具——不是電視或智慧手機。

6. 生兒育女，這是在你生命中所能發生最美好的一件事。意味著你有更重要的人需要去擔心。我是說真正的擔心、真正為除了你自己以外的人而擔心。這令人解放和振奮。我是說真的，不信去問問你的父母。

7. 不要失去你的熱情。“熱情”這個英文字源自古希臘文，其字面的意義就是“上帝在我們之中”。

8. 報效你的國家。提醒你的政府：真正的危機會持續不斷地臨到這塊我們所愛的土地上。

9. 堅持熱愛科學與藝術，尤其是藝術。科學幫助我們捍衛國家，藝術使我們的國家值得捍衛。

10. 永遠相信。在我為我的第一部紀錄片《布魯克林大橋》採訪亞瑟•米勒（Arthur Miller，已故劇作家，瑪麗蓮夢露前夫）時，他告訴我：“永遠要相信你也能做出些美麗的東西流傳於世。”

祝你們好運，一帆風順。

........................................

(附英文演講原文)

Let me speak directly to the graduating class. Watch out. Here comes the advice.

Look. I am the father of four daughters. If someone tells you they’ve been sexually assaulted, take it effing seriously. And listen to them! Maybe, some day, we will make the survivor’s eloquent statement as important as Dr. King’s Letter from a Birmingham Jail.

Try not to make the other wrong, as I just did with that “presumptive” nominee. Be for something.

Be curious, not cool. Feed your soul, too. Every day.

Remember, insecurity makes liars of us all. Not just presidential candidates.

Don’t confuse success with excellence. The poet Robert Penn Warren once told me that “careerism is death.”

Do not descend too deeply into specialism either. Educate all of your parts. You will be healthier.

Free yourselves from the limitations of the binary world. It is just a tool. A means, not an end.

Seek out – and have – mentors. Listen to them. The late theatrical director Tyrone Guthrie once said, “We are looking for ideas large enough to be afraid of again.” Embrace those new ideas. Bite off more than you can chew.

Travel. Do not get stuck in one place. Visit our national parks. Their sheer majesty may remind you of your own “atomic insignificance,” as one observer noted, but in the inscrutable ways of Nature, you will feel larger, inspirited, just as the egotist in our midst is diminished by his or her self-regard.

Insist on heroes. And be one.

Read. The book is still the greatest manmade machine of all – not the car, not the TV, not the smartphone.

Make babies. One of the greatest things that will happen to you is that you will have to worry – I mean really worry – about someone other than yourself. It is liberating and exhilarating. I promise. Ask your parents.

Do not lose your enthusiasm. In its Greek etymology, the word enthusiasm means simply, “God in us.”

Serve your country. Insist that we fight the right wars. Convince your government, as Lincoln knew, that the real threat always and still comes from within this favored land. Governments always forget that.

Insist that we support science and the arts, especially the arts. They have nothing to do with the actual defense of our country – they just make our country worth defending.

Believe, as Arthur Miller told me in an interview for my very first film on the Brooklyn Bridge, “believe, that maybe you too could add something that would last and be beautiful.”

And vote. You indelibly underscore your citizenship – and our connection with each other – when you do.

Good luck. And Godspeed.