NPR 08-07:Experiencing a Feeling of Wildness生生不息

Nature writer David Gessner believes you don't have to climb Everest or raft the Amazon to find wildness. It's often found much closer to home, in our backyards and in the experiences of daily life.

I believe in mystery.
I believe in family.
I believe in being who I am.
I believe in the power of failure.
And I believe normal life is extraordinary.
This I Believe.

Today our essay for the series This I Believe comes from Wilmington, North Carolina. David Gessner teaches at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, and he has a close relationship with Nature. Here is our series’ curator, independent producer Jay Allison.

David Gessner has traveled to many exotic places for his books and essays on the natural world. Those travels, inform his belief, but do not define it. That definition comes closer to home, starting on the beaches of Cape¹ Cod², Massachusetts where he spent much of his childhood and where we recorded him reading his essay for This I Believe.

I believe in wildness, both in the natural world and within each of us. As a Nature writer I've traveled all over the world to experience the wild. But some of my own wildest moments have been closer to home, on the same domestic Cape Cod beach I've returned to all my life. In summer this beach is covered with kids, umbrellas and beach balls. But in the winter, the cold clears it of people, and its character changes. From the rocks at the end of the beach I once watched hundreds of snow-white gannets dive from high in the air and plunge³ into the cold winter ocean like living javelins⁴. Then as the birds dove down, I suddenly saw something dive up, a humpback whale breaching⁵ through the same fish the gannets were diving for.

"In wildness is the preservation⁶ of the world," wrote Thoreau. But people often get the quote wrong and use wilderness⁷ instead. While wilderness might be untrammeled land along the Alaskan coast, wildness can happen anywhere, in the jungle or in your backyard. And it's not just a place, it's a feeling. It rises up when you least expect it. In fact, it was while observing my own species, my own family, that I experienced the two wildest moments in my life.

The first happened holding my father's hand while he died. I listened to his final breath, gasping⁸ and fish-like, and I gripped his hand tight enough to feel the last pulsings of his heart. Something rose up in me that day, something deep, animal, unexpected, something that I didn't experience again until nine years later when my daughter Hadley was born. Before Hadley's birth, everyone warned me that my life was about to change, the implication being that it would become tamer. But there was nothing tame about that indelible moment during the C-section when the doctor reached into my wife and a bloody⁹ head appeared, straight up followed by Hadley's full emergence¹⁰, a wild squall of life as her little arms rose over her head in victory. And it was somewhere around then that I felt the great rush come surging up. Sure it was physiological¹¹, goose bumps and tingling¹². But it was also more than that, a wild gushing¹³, both a loss and then a return to self.

I believe that these moments of death and life give us a reconnection to our primal¹⁴ selves, a reminder¹⁵ that there is something wilder, lurking¹⁶ below the everyday, and that having tasted this wildness, we return to our ordinary lives both changed and charged. So while I'll continue to seek out wild places, I know I don't need to travel to the Amazon or Everest to experience the ineffable¹⁷. It is here on Cape Cod, on the domestic beach where I first walked holding my mother's hand and where I later spread my father's ashes that I learned that my wildest moments are often closest to home. And it is where I now bring my daughter Hadley for our daily walk, secretly hoping that the wild will rise up in her when she least expects it.

David Gessner with his essay for This I Believe, recorded on the beach on Cape Cod. At our website, NPR.org/ThisIBelieve, you can find all the essays in our series and send in one of your own. For This I Believe, I'm Jay Allison.

Next Sunday on weekend edition, a This I Believe essay by Michelle Gardner-Quinn , written for a class at the University of Vermont, two days before she was kidnapped and murdered. Her belief is Reverence¹⁸ for All Life.

Support for This I Believe comes from Prudential Retirement¹⁹.

This is NPR, National Public Radio.

1 cape   

n.海角，岬；披肩，短披风

参考例句：

• I long for a trip to the Cape of Good Hope.我渴望到好望角去旅行。
• She was wearing a cape over her dress.她在外套上披着一件披肩。

2 cod   

n.鳕鱼；v.愚弄；哄骗

参考例句：

• They salt down cod for winter use.他们腌鳕鱼留着冬天吃。
• Cod are found in the North Atlantic and the North Sea.北大西洋和北海有鳕鱼。

3 plunge   

v.跳入，(使)投入，(使)陷入；猛冲

参考例句：

• Test pool's water temperature before you plunge in.在你跳入之前你应该测试水温。
• That would plunge them in the broil of the two countries.那将会使他们陷入这两国的争斗之中。

4 javelins   

n.标枪( javelin的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The heavy infantry blocks moved forward, throwing javelins just before the clash. 在正面交火之前，庞大的兵团会整体向前移动并投掷标枪。 来自互联网
• Elite mercenaries, originally from Aragon, armed with javelins and light armour. 加泰罗尼亚标枪兵为精锐雇佣部队，最初来自阿拉贡，装备标枪和轻甲。 来自互联网

5 breaching   

攻破( breach的过去式 )； 破坏，违反

参考例句：

• The company was prosecuted for breaching the Health and Safety Act. 这家公司被控违反《卫生安全条例》。
• Third, an agency can abuse its discretion by breaching certain principles of judge-made law. 第三，行政机关会因违反某些法官制定的法律原则而构成滥用自由裁量权。

6 preservation   

n.保护，维护，保存，保留，保持

参考例句：

• The police are responsible for the preservation of law and order.警察负责维持法律与秩序。
• The picture is in an excellent state of preservation.这幅画保存得极为完好。

7 wilderness   

n.杳无人烟的一片陆地、水等，荒漠

参考例句：

• She drove the herd of cattle through the wilderness.她赶着牛群穿过荒野。
• Education in the wilderness is not a matter of monetary means.荒凉地区的教育不是钱财问题。

8 gasping   

adj. 气喘的, 痉挛的 动词gasp的现在分词

参考例句：

• He was gasping for breath. 他在喘气。
• "Did you need a drink?""Yes, I'm gasping!” “你要喝点什么吗？”“我巴不得能喝点！”

9 bloody   

adj.非常的的；流血的；残忍的；adv.很；vt.血染

参考例句：

• He got a bloody nose in the fight.他在打斗中被打得鼻子流血。
• He is a bloody fool.他是一个十足的笨蛋。

10 emergence   

n.浮现，显现，出现，（植物）突出体

参考例句：

• The last decade saw the emergence of a dynamic economy.最近10年见证了经济增长的姿态。
• Language emerges and develops with the emergence and development of society.语言是随着社会的产生而产生，随着社会的发展而发展的。

11 physiological   

adj.生理学的，生理学上的

参考例句：

• He bought a physiological book.他买了一本生理学方面的书。
• Every individual has a physiological requirement for each nutrient.每个人对每种营养成分都有一种生理上的需要。

12 tingling   

v.有刺痛感( tingle的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• My ears are tingling [humming; ringing; singing]. 我耳鸣。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• My tongue is tingling. 舌头发麻。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

13 gushing   

adj.迸出的；涌出的；喷出的；过分热情的v.喷，涌( gush的现在分词 )；滔滔不绝地说话

参考例句：

• blood gushing from a wound 从伤口冒出的血
• The young mother was gushing over a baby. 那位年轻的母亲正喋喋不休地和婴儿说话。 来自《简明英汉词典》

14 primal   

adj.原始的；最重要的

参考例句：

• Jealousy is a primal emotion.嫉妒是最原始的情感。
• Money was a primal necessity to them.对于他们，钱是主要的需要。

15 reminder   

n.提醒物，纪念品；暗示，提示

参考例句：

• I have had another reminder from the library.我又收到图书馆的催还单。
• It always took a final reminder to get her to pay her share of the rent.总是得发给她一份最后催缴通知，她才付应该交的房租。

16 lurking   

潜在

参考例句：

• Why are you lurking around outside my house? 你在我房子外面鬼鬼祟祟的，想干什么？
• There is a suspicious man lurking in the shadows. 有一可疑的人躲在阴暗中。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

17 ineffable   

adj.无法表达的，不可言喻的

参考例句：

• The beauty of a sunset is ineffable.日落的美是难以形容的。
• She sighed a sigh of ineffable satisfaction,as if her cup of happiness were now full.她发出了一声说不出多么满意的叹息，仿佛她的幸福之杯已经斟满了。

18 reverence   

n.敬畏，尊敬，尊严；Reverence:对某些基督教神职人员的尊称；v.尊敬，敬畏，崇敬

参考例句：

• He was a bishop who was held in reverence by all.他是一位被大家都尊敬的主教。
• We reverence tradition but will not be fettered by it.我们尊重传统，但不被传统所束缚。

19 retirement   

n.退休，退职

参考例句：

• She wanted to enjoy her retirement without being beset by financial worries.她想享受退休生活而不必为金钱担忧。
• I have to put everything away for my retirement.我必须把一切都积蓄起来以便退休后用。