【英语语言学习】我无家可归的那一年

I'm a writer and a journalist, and I'm also an insanely¹ curious person, so in 22 years as a journalist, I've learned how to do a lot of new things. And three years ago, one of the things I learned how to do was to become invisible. I became one of the working homeless. I quit my job as a newspaper editor after my father died in February of that same year, and decided² to travel. His death hit me pretty hard. And there were a lot of things that I wanted to feel and deal with while I was doing that.

 

I've camped my whole life. And I decided that living in a van for a year to do this would be like one long camping trip. So I packed my cat, my Rottweiler and my camping gear⁴ into a 1975 Chevy van, and drove off into the sunset, having fully⁵ failed to realize three critical things. One: that society equates⁶ living in a permanent structure, even a shack⁷, with having value as a person. Two: I failed to realize how quickly the negative perceptions⁸ of other people can impact our reality, if we let it. Three: I failed to realize that homelessness is an attitude, not a lifestyle.

 

At first, living in the van was great. I showered in campgrounds. I ate out regularly. And I had time to relax and to grieve⁹. But then the anger and the depression about my father's death set in. My freelance job ended. And I had to get a full-time¹⁰ job to pay the bills. What had been a really mild spring turned into a miserably¹¹ hot summer. And it became impossible to park anywhere -- (Laughs) -- without being very obvious that I had a cat and a dog with me, and it was really hot. The cat came and went through an open window in the van. The doggy went into doggy day care. And I sweated. Whenever I could, I used employee showers in office buildings and truck stops. Or I washed up in public rest rooms.

 

Nighttime temperatures in the van rarely dropped below 80 degrees Fahrenheit¹², making it difficult or impossible to sleep. Food rotted in the heat. Ice in my ice chest melted within hours, and it was pretty miserable¹³. I couldn't afford to find an apartment, or couldn't afford an apartment that would allow me to have the Rottweiler and the cat. And I refused to give them up, so I stayed in the van. And when the heat made me too sick to walk the 50 feet to the public restroom outside my van at night, I used a bucket and a trash bag as a toilet.

 

When winter weather set in, the temperatures dropped below freezing. And they stayed there. And I faced a whole new set of challenges. I parked a different place every night so I would avoid being noticed and hassled by the police. I didn't always succeed.

 

But I felt out of control of my life. And I don't know when or how it happened, but the speed at which I went from being a talented writer and journalist to being a homeless woman, living in a van, took my breath away. I hadn't changed. My I.Q. hadn't dropped. My talent, my integrity¹⁴, my values, everything about me remained the same. But I had changed somehow. I spiraled deeper and deeper into a depression.

 

And eventually someone referred me to a homeless health clinic. And I went. I hadn't bathed in three days. I was as smelly and as depressed¹⁵ as anyone in line. I just wasn't drunk or high. And when several of the homeless men realized that, including a former university professor, they said, "You aren't homeless. Why are you really here?" Other homeless people didn't see me as homeless, but I did. Then the professor listened to my story and he said, "You have a job. You have hope. The real homeless don't have hope." A reaction to the medication the clinic gave me for my depression left me suicidal. And I remember thinking, "If I killed myself, no one would notice."

 

A friend told me, shortly after that, that she had heard that Tim Russert, a nationally renowned¹⁶ journalist, had been talking about me on national T.V. An essay I'd written about my father, the year before he died, was in Tim's new book. And he was doing the talk show circuit. And he was talking about my writing. And when I realized that Tim Russert, former moderator of "Meet the Press," was talking about my writing, while I was living in a van in a Wal-Mart parking lot, I started laughing. You should too. (Laughter)

 

I started laughing because it got to the point where, was I a writer, or was I a homeless woman? So I went in the bookstore. And I found Tim's book. And I stood there. And I reread my essay. And I cried. Because I was a writer. I was a writer. Shortly after that I moved back to Tennessee. I alternated¹⁷ between living in a van and couch¹⁸ surfing with friends. And I started writing again. By the summer of the following year I was a working journalist. I was winning awards. I was living in my own apartment. I was no longer homeless. And I was no longer invisible.

 

Thousands of people work full and part-time jobs, and live in their cars. But society continues to stigmatize¹⁹ and criminalize living in your vehicle or on the streets. So the homeless, the working homeless, primarily remain invisible. But if you ever meet one, engage them, encourage them, and offer them hope. The human spirit can overcome anything if it has hope. And I'm not here to be the poster girl for the homeless. I'm not here to encourage you to give money to the next panhandler you meet. But I am here to tell you that, based on my experience, people are not where they live, where they sleep, or what their life situation is at any given time. Three years ago I was living in a van in a Wal-Mart parking lot, and today I'm speaking at TED³. Hope always, always finds a way. Thank you. (Applause)

1 insanely   

ad.精神错乱地；疯狂地

参考例句：

• He got insanely angry at being made a fool of. 他为受到愚弄而气得发昏。
• She got insanely jealous and there was a terrible fight. 她妒忌得发疯，结果是大吵一架。

2 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。

3 ted   

vt.翻晒，撒，撒开

参考例句：

• The invaders gut ted the village.侵略者把村中财物洗劫一空。
• She often teds the corn when it's sunny.天好的时候她就翻晒玉米。

4 gear   

n.齿轮，传动装置，设备，衣服；vt.使适应

参考例句：

• We have to gear our lives to the new changes.我们必须使自己的生活适应新的变化。
• The teeth of the wheel gear into each other.齿轮互相啮合。

5 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。

6 equates   

v.认为某事物（与另一事物）相等或相仿( equate的第三人称单数 )；相当于；等于；把（一事物） 和（另一事物）等同看待

参考例句：

• He equates success with material wealth. 他认为成功等同于物质财富。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• This equates to increased and vigor, better sleep and sharper mental acuity. 也就是说可以起到增强活力，改善睡眠，提高心智的作用。 来自互联网

7 shack   

adj.简陋的小屋，窝棚

参考例句：

• He had to sit down five times before he reached his shack.在走到他的茅棚以前，他不得不坐在地上歇了五次。
• The boys made a shack out of the old boards in the backyard.男孩们在后院用旧木板盖起一间小木屋。

8 perceptions   

感知（能力）( perception的名词复数 )； 觉察（力）； 认识； 观念

参考例句：

• Her perceptions and intuitions about human nature were fascinating. 她对人性的理解和感知引人入胜。
• There was no inside to Whitman's perceptions. 惠特曼的直觉里没有内涵。

9 grieve   

vi.（for，over）感到悲痛；vt.(使)伤心

参考例句：

• Be sure and not grieve.一定不要伤心。
• What the eye does not see,the heart does not grieve over.眼不见，心不烦。

10 full-time   

adj.满工作日的或工作周的，全时间的

参考例句：

• A full-time job may be too much for her.全天工作她恐怕吃不消。
• I don't know how she copes with looking after her family and doing a full-time job.既要照顾家庭又要全天工作，我不知道她是如何对付的。

11 miserably   

adv.痛苦地；悲惨地；糟糕地；极度地

参考例句：

• The little girl was wailing miserably. 那小女孩难过得号啕大哭。
• It was drizzling, and miserably cold and damp. 外面下着毛毛细雨，天气又冷又湿，令人难受。 来自《简明英汉词典》

12 Fahrenheit   

n./adj.华氏温度；华氏温度计(的)

参考例句：

• He was asked for the boiling point of water in Fahrenheit.他被问到水的沸点是华氏多少度。
• The thermometer reads 80 degrees Fahrenheit.寒暑表指出华氏80度。

13 miserable   

adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的

参考例句：

• It was miserable of you to make fun of him.你取笑他，这是可耻的。
• Her past life was miserable.她过去的生活很苦。

14 integrity   

n.正直，诚实，诚恳，完整，完全，完善

参考例句：

• The country is fighting to preserve its territorial integrity.该国在为保持领土的完整而进行斗争。
• He is a man of the highest integrity.他是个极其正直的人。

15 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。

16 renowned   

adj.著名的，有名望的，声誉鹊起的

参考例句：

• He is one of the world's renowned writers.他是世界上知名的作家之一。
• She is renowned for her advocacy of human rights.她以提倡人权而闻名。

17 alternated   

v.交替( alternate的过去式和过去分词 )；（使）交替， （使）轮换

参考例句：

• He alternated between hope and despair. 他时而充满希望，时而绝望。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The young man alternated singing and dancing. 那年轻人一会儿唱，一会儿跳。 来自《简明英汉词典》

18 couch   

n.睡椅，长沙发椅；vt.表达，隐含

参考例句：

• Lie down on the couch if you're feeling ill.如果你感觉不舒服就躺到沙发上去。
• The rabbIt'sprang from its grassy couch.兔子从草丛中跳出。

19 stigmatize   

v.污蔑，玷污

参考例句：

• Children in single-parent families must not be stigmatized.单亲家庭的孩子们不应该受到歧视。
• They are often stigmatized by the rest of society as lazy and dirty.他们经常被社会中的其他人污蔑为懒惰、肮脏。