美国国家公共电台 NPR Invisibilia: When Death Rocks Your World, Maybe You Jump Out Of A Plane

 

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

Good news for all of us who are fans of NPR's Invisibilia - the show about human behavior returns today with a new season of stories about the invisible forces that shape our lives. Today, co-host Hanna Rosin explores what skydiving and death have in common, and it's not what you think.

HANNA ROSIN, BYLINE¹: A few months ago, my mom started talking to me about jumping out of an airplane, my 74-year-old mom. The whole thing started with a loss, the kind of loss that subtracts from your life something so central that you no longer really know who you are. About a year earlier, her husband, my father, was diagnosed with a rare stomach cancer and died within a few weeks. They'd been married for 51 years, and they did everything together. He drove her to the subway every morning. He picked her up in the evening. He made her tea every night. And my mother had no way of understanding her life story without him.

Do you feel - what thoughts about Eli's death were going through your head over and over?

MIRIAM ROSIN: Could I do more? Did we miss anything? Why didn't I just take him and went to another hospital?

H. ROSIN: Month after month, she went on like this, scratching circles into her brain, unable to make her way out.

M. ROSIN: Don't want to eat, I don't want to cook. I don't want to - completely stuck.

H. ROSIN: So when the thing that holds your world together disappears, how do you find your way out of your old story and into a new one? Naturally, I did what you do when you're a journalist and you're looking for answers to tough questions like this one. I called lots of people, and there was this one guy whose answer really clicked. His name is James Pennebaker - he goes by Jamie - and he's a professor of psychology² at UT Austin. He studies words and language...

JAMES PENNEBAKER: And how we can use words to influence our ability to cope with upsetting experiences.

H. ROSIN: The way he thinks about life is we all walk around with a story about ourselves and we're always shifting and editing that story, but then sometimes something happens that knocks out such a big chunk³ of the story that it just doesn't hold together anymore.

PENNEBAKER: But the ability to get on with it is the ability to put this experience into a simpler, perhaps more coherent story.

H. ROSIN: Now, some people can do that with relative ease. They can tell themselves loss is a natural part of life. But then there are the harder cases where people reach this cliff.

PENNEBAKER: Do I change my story about my life, or do I continue persevering⁴ with the old story even though the facts don't fit very well?

H. ROSIN: Jamie wanted to know if he could find clues to the differences between the two groups, the ones who shifted and the ones who circled in place. So several years ago, he came up with a computer program that could measure when people are doing a good job coping with loss, exactly what words are they using and how many times are they using them? In a few different studies, Jamie had people come in and write about what they'd been through, usually for 15 minutes a day, for three or four consecutive⁵ days. And then the computer divided up the words into different categories and catalogued them.

PENNEBAKER: What really jumped out were there were huge differences in pronouns.

H. ROSIN: You know...

PENNEBAKER: He, she, they, we.

H. ROSIN: The most important pronouns to track were I words - I, me, my. A person who uses I words at a higher than average rate...

PENNEBAKER: Tends to be more honest, more self-aware.

H. ROSIN: But, according to Jamie, a person who stays in the I mode all the time and never shifts, you need to worry about.

PENNEBAKER: Depressed⁶ or depression prone⁷.

M. ROSIN: Why didn't I just - don't want to eat, I don't want to cook. I don't want to - why didn't I pay attention more? I don't know.

H. ROSIN: The pattern the computer picked up was the people who benefited the most were people who switched from I to he, she, we, back to I again, not because this meant they were selfless or deeply invested in others, but because perspective switching...

PENNEBAKER: Implies detachment.

H. ROSIN: If you're having trouble coping, you have to step outside at some point and actively⁸ construct a new story. The moment my mom was able to step outside happened while she was home alone during the holidays.

M. ROSIN: I reversed the feeling.

H. ROSIN: Meaning she switched places with my dad, switched from I to he and him.

M. ROSIN: That I said, if I would be the one who died, would I like him to enjoy life, to continue normal? And the answer was immediate⁹, on the spot, a hundred percent yes.

H. ROSIN: She was fully¹⁰ able to step outside herself and see the same story from another perspective, my dad's. And this is how my mother came to the conclusion that what she needed most in the world to move forward in her life was to jump out of an airplane, how she decided¹¹ the jump would help her close one chapter of her story and let the next chapter begin. The story begins in 1967 with a knock.

M. ROSIN: Knock on the door, and we were all shaken.

H. ROSIN: At the time, my mom was in a bomb shelter at her aunt's house. This was in Tel Aviv, in Israel, during a war.

M. ROSIN: And the entire country was in complete blackout. I mean, you couldn't see even 1 inch in front of you.

H. ROSIN: My dad had already been gone for 60 days. You see, he was a paratrooper trained by the military to jump out of an airplane and parachute into war zones. And when the knock came, my mom did not get up.

M. ROSIN: We didn't want to open the door. That means that they're coming to give us bad news. And, finally, when we opened the door...

H. ROSIN: It was my dad. The truck that was transporting his unit had broken down and wouldn't be ready for 24 hours. He had hitchhiked to Tel Aviv just to sneak¹² in a kiss.

M. ROSIN: Just said, I'm here, I'm alive, I'm fine, gave us a kiss, and he left.

H. ROSIN: I've heard this story over the years, but this time she built on it a whole new way.

All right. Can you just read what you texted to me?

M. ROSIN: OK. Up there, we'll say hello, and we'll meet someday.

H. ROSIN: That was her idea. Up there, 10,000 feet above ground, she would catch a glimpse of her husband, deliver a message.

So it's like completing a story.

M. ROSIN: And not even thinking about the danger - just doing it because I want share everything that you did that I missed.

H. ROSIN: On the day of the jump, I sat in the back of the tiny plane as we climbed on high. I stared at my mom, who was just in front of me. Her lips were moving.

M. ROSIN: I love you, Eli. I love you Eli. I miss you, and I'll be doing it for you.

H. ROSIN: She took her position at the edge of the open door.

M. ROSIN: I love you, Eli. I love you, Eli. I will do it for you.

H. ROSIN: The wind was freezing and brutal¹³, and I desperately¹⁴ wanted to pull her back in. She raised her chin, arranged her arms like wings.

M. ROSIN: I feel you. I really do.

H. ROSIN: She didn't look back.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

H. ROSIN: Hanna Rosin, NPR News.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

MARTIN: Invisibilia just launched its fourth season, and you can hear it on a whole lot of member stations or on NPR One or wherever you hear podcasts.

1 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。

2 psychology   

n.心理，心理学，心理状态

参考例句：

• She has a background in child psychology.她受过儿童心理学的教育。
• He studied philosophy and psychology at Cambridge.他在剑桥大学学习哲学和心理学。

3 chunk   

n.厚片，大块，相当大的部分（数量）

参考例句：

• They had to be careful of floating chunks of ice.他们必须当心大块浮冰。
• The company owns a chunk of farmland near Gatwick Airport.该公司拥有盖特威克机场周边的大片农田。

4 persevering   

a.坚忍不拔的

参考例句：

• They will only triumph by persevering in their struggle against natural calamities. 他们只有坚持与自然灾害搏斗，才能取得胜利。
• Success belongs to the persevering. 胜利属于不屈不挠的人。

5 consecutive   

adj.连续的，联贯的，始终一贯的

参考例句：

• It has rained for four consecutive days.已连续下了四天雨。
• The policy of our Party is consecutive.我党的政策始终如一。

6 depressed   

adj.沮丧的，抑郁的，不景气的，萧条的

参考例句：

• When he was depressed,he felt utterly divorced from reality.他心情沮丧时就感到完全脱离了现实。
• His mother was depressed by the sad news.这个坏消息使他的母亲意志消沉。

7 prone   

adj.(to)易于…的，很可能…的；俯卧的

参考例句：

• Some people are prone to jump to hasty conclusions.有些人往往作出轻率的结论。
• He is prone to lose his temper when people disagree with him.人家一不同意他的意见,他就发脾气。

8 actively   

adv.积极地，勤奋地

参考例句：

• During this period all the students were actively participating.在这节课中所有的学生都积极参加。
• We are actively intervening to settle a quarrel.我们正在积极调解争执。

9 immediate   

adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的

参考例句：

• His immediate neighbours felt it their duty to call.他的近邻认为他们有责任去拜访。
• We declared ourselves for the immediate convocation of the meeting.我们主张立即召开这个会议。

10 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。

11 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

12 sneak   

vt.潜行(隐藏,填石缝)；偷偷摸摸做；n.潜行；adj.暗中进行

参考例句：

• He raised his spear and sneak forward.他提起长矛悄悄地前进。
• I saw him sneak away from us.我看见他悄悄地从我们身边走开。

13 brutal   

adj.残忍的，野蛮的，不讲理的

参考例句：

• She has to face the brutal reality.她不得不去面对冷酷的现实。
• They're brutal people behind their civilised veneer.他们表面上温文有礼，骨子里却是野蛮残忍。

14 desperately   

adv.极度渴望地，绝望地，孤注一掷地

参考例句：

• He was desperately seeking a way to see her again.他正拼命想办法再见她一面。
• He longed desperately to be back at home.他非常渴望回家。