美国国家公共电台 NPR--May's 'Enchantment' aims to reawaken our innate sense of wonder and awe

May's 'Enchantment¹' aims to reawaken our innate² sense of wonder and awe³

Transcript⁴

NPR's Rachel Martin speaks with author Katherine May about her latest book, Enchantment: Awakening⁵ Wonder in an Anxious Age.

LEILA FADEL, HOST:

We're going to listen in on a conversation now about finding magic in the everyday. Our friend and former co-host Rachel Martin spoke⁶ with author Katherine May about her new book, "Enchantment: Awakening Wonder In An Anxious Age."

RACHEL MARTIN, BYLINE⁷: What does it mean to you to be enchanted⁸?

KATHERINE MAY: "Enchantment" for me was this project to find ways to feel my connection with the world around me again and to reignite a sense of fascination⁹ with it, of awe, the kind of awe that I felt as a child that came so easily to me, which I really had lost contact with.

MARTIN: Katherine May remembers being enchanted easily as a child.

MAY: I used to spend a lot of time sitting in my back garden, smashing rocks open with a hammer. I mean, we didn't have iPads in those days. Like, life was hard.

(LAUGHTER)

MARTIN: Very enchanting¹⁰ activity.

MAY: Yeah. You know, like, every 10th or 20th stone would have, like, a little geode of crystals inside it.

MARTIN: Ah.

MAY: And that was absolutely magical to me. You know, how this - I could uncover this little, tiny cave that was millions of years old and which nobody had ever seen before. And I guess there's that time when everything feels heightened, and everything feels very possible. And I think we almost deliberately¹¹ shut that down as we get older.

MARTIN: For May, cultivating enchantment is intrinsically linked to her spiritual life.

MAY: Actually, it's something I've come to quite late. I mean, I've always felt very resistant¹² to any kind of a spiritual discussion at all. Like, I've always seen myself as a really practical person who only makes decisions on scientific terms. And I think for a long time now, I've realized that that doesn't fulfill¹³ every part of me, that in many ways, it actually involves squashing down some of my perception and telling myself very carefully that that's not something that's my domain¹⁴, that that's something that other people do and not me and that I'm too sensible and practical for this kind of thing. And it's a very soothing¹⁵ thing to do to allow yourself to feel very tiny in a big universe and to spend some time reflecting on the things that you find beautiful or awe-inspiring.

MARTIN: The notion of God is complicated, right? But for many of us, it's the word, the term, the idea that we use to connote something bigger. What does that mean to you?

MAY: Oh, I'd love to be able to answer that question. If only (laughter). And I - in fact, that's the vulnerable core of this book for me - is approaching this huge, three-letter word, God, which I've never felt a connection with in any definition that I've been given. And yet as I've gone through life, I've also felt like there is something there in those quiet moments, in those worshipful moments, in those prayerful moments. I feel contact with a consciousness that isn't mine or rather is bigger than mine.

MARTIN: Do you pray?

MAY: Yeah, I do. And I always have, actually. It's something I learned to do when I was at school. And I've never stopped.

MARTIN: Really?

MAY: And I'm - for the longest time I haven't known who I'm talking to.

(LAUGHTER)

MARTIN: That's one question. Like I went to, you know, a religious school growing up, and prayer was kind of the deal. As an adult, I will admit that it feels, like, silly to me. Like, I can't get over my own self-consciousness. You have faced some of that, too?

MAY: Oh, my goodness. So much of that. I realized I had this urge in me to pray. And yet I felt silly about every single instance of trying to do it. I was really troubled by how I'd been taught to pray, which was kind of to ask for stuff in lots of ways.

MARTIN: Right.

MAY: And I spent a long time reflecting on it, and I was writing about it one day, and this line - I mean, sometimes lines appear in my notebook. I don't think they come from my own wisdom, to be honest. They seem really external to me. But the line was, ask nothing of God. That made sense to me. The act of prayerfulness was an act of kind of trying to share what was in my mind and my heart because to me, what this greater being could do was know me in a way that no one else could know me. And that was when it began to make sense.

MARTIN: To that end, can you tell me about the well? Because that anecdote¹⁶ feels prayerful in a way.

MAY: Yes (laughter). So I'm lucky enough to live near Canterbury. And while I was writing the book, a friend of mine told me that she'd found this well, this pilgrim's well, that she'd been visiting. And she took me to see it. It's a thousand years old, probably, and it's hidden behind a giant, overgrown rose bush. And so we came to this beautiful stone surrounding with this beautiful, still pool of water. And then there were several steps down to that pool, this perfect, little environment for reflection and literal reflection because you get down there, and you see your face reflected in the pool. And I found that I was filled with this feeling of of deep peace down there but also that I could take myself in whatever state I came there and to to be prayerful.

MARTIN: What was especially profound for me in reading that part is the responsibility that you have, that the individual has to make the meaning, right? Like, the well won't do it for you.

MAY: Yeah, no. And that's the change that I had to undergo and that I do think loads of us would benefit from undergoing - is this dropping of wanting to be told the answers because they're just not there. There are no answers, and simple answers quickly turn into horrible, generalized strictures on our lives as soon as we start taking them in. And the learning for us is to sit with mystery.

MARTIN: The book is called "Enchantment: Awakening Wonder In An Anxious Age." It's written by Katherine May. Katherine, what a pleasure to talk with you about these things. Thank you so much.

MAY: Oh, thank you. That was so lovely.

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1 enchantment   

n.迷惑，妖术，魅力

参考例句：

• The beauty of the scene filled us with enchantment.风景的秀丽令我们陶醉。
• The countryside lay as under some dread enchantment.乡村好像躺在某种可怖的魔法之下。

2 innate   

adj.天生的，固有的，天赋的

参考例句：

• You obviously have an innate talent for music.你显然有天生的音乐才能。
• Correct ideas are not innate in the mind.人的正确思想不是自己头脑中固有的。

3 awe   

n.敬畏，惊惧；vt.使敬畏，使惊惧

参考例句：

• The sight filled us with awe.这景色使我们大为惊叹。
• The approaching tornado struck awe in our hearts.正在逼近的龙卷风使我们惊恐万分。

4 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

5 awakening   

n.觉醒，醒悟 adj.觉醒中的；唤醒的

参考例句：

• the awakening of interest in the environment 对环境产生的兴趣
• People are gradually awakening to their rights. 人们正逐渐意识到自己的权利。

6 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

7 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

8 enchanted   

adj. 被施魔法的，陶醉的，入迷的 动词enchant的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• She was enchanted by the flowers you sent her. 她非常喜欢你送给她的花。
• He was enchanted by the idea. 他为这个主意而欣喜若狂。

9 fascination   

n.令人着迷的事物，魅力，迷恋

参考例句：

• He had a deep fascination with all forms of transport.他对所有的运输工具都很着迷。
• His letters have been a source of fascination to a wide audience.广大观众一直迷恋于他的来信。

10 enchanting   

a.讨人喜欢的

参考例句：

• His smile, at once enchanting and melancholy, is just his father's. 他那种既迷人又有些忧郁的微笑，活脱儿象他父亲。
• Its interior was an enchanting place that both lured and frightened me. 它的里头是个吸引人的地方，我又向往又害怕。

11 deliberately   

adv.审慎地；蓄意地；故意地

参考例句：

• The girl gave the show away deliberately.女孩故意泄露秘密。
• They deliberately shifted off the argument.他们故意回避这个论点。

12 resistant   

adj.(to)抵抗的，有抵抗力的

参考例句：

• Many pests are resistant to the insecticide.许多害虫对这种杀虫剂有抵抗力。
• They imposed their government by force on the resistant population.他们以武力把自己的统治强加在持反抗态度的人民头上。

13 fulfill   

vt.履行，实现，完成；满足，使满意

参考例句：

• If you make a promise you should fulfill it.如果你许诺了，你就要履行你的诺言。
• This company should be able to fulfill our requirements.这家公司应该能够满足我们的要求。

14 domain   

n.(活动等)领域，范围；领地，势力范围

参考例句：

• This information should be in the public domain.这一消息应该为公众所知。
• This question comes into the domain of philosophy.这一问题属于哲学范畴。

15 soothing   

adj.慰藉的；使人宽心的；镇静的

参考例句：

• Put on some nice soothing music.播放一些柔和舒缓的音乐。
• His casual, relaxed manner was very soothing.他随意而放松的举动让人很快便平静下来。

16 anecdote   

n.轶事，趣闻，短故事

参考例句：

• He departed from the text to tell an anecdote.他偏离课文讲起了一则轶事。
• It had never been more than a family anecdote.那不过是个家庭趣谈罢了。