及时行乐！　Seize the Day！

I went into the woods because I wanted to live deliberately.I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life……to put to rout all that was not life；and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.

～Henry David Thoreau

“We are food for worms, lads，”declared Professor Keating, the unorthodox English teacher played by Robin Williams in the 1989 film Dead Poets Society.“Each and every one of us is one day going to stop breathing, turn cold, and die.”

Those words, addressed to his pink-cheeked students, iced the blood in my veins when I watched the movie a few years back. Perhaps it was all in the timing.Only months earlier, I had survived the Big 5-0 and already the New Year was waving a greeting in the near distance.It seemed like the years were passing by while I simply clung to a kite tail.I felt staid, dissatisfied, unfulfilled.In short, I felt my own mortality.

This, perhaps, is why I scooted to the edge of my seat, transfixed and determined not to miss one profound word from the professor's mouth.

“Carpe diem, lads. Seize the day！”he preached to the literature class at the exclusive Welton Academy.“Make your lives extraordinary！”

Later in the movie, the teacher urged the boys to stand on his desk, as a reminder to look at the world in a different way because the universe was broader than their view of it. Everyone, I thought to myself, should have such a bohemian insurrectionary in their lives.

As I inhaled scene after moving scene, the rallying classroom cry，“Carpe diem！”sang in my ears like a mantra. I recognized the words from my four years of high school Latin class, only back then Mrs.Maag had taught the more literal translation of“carpe diem”-“pluck the day”.

I liked that image better, I decided. Pluck the day.

Seize the moment.

Or, as Robert Herrick so poetically penned centuries ago，“Gather ye rosebuds while ye may.”

Entranced, I sat as the last movie credits rolled down the screen, impulsively reevaluating my life and rethinking my annual goals.

To date, I had lived mostly from the detailed, itemized lists I created annually when the old year faded and the new one offered a fresh start. So dedicated was I to this system that I used to make separate goal lists for each of my four children, another for my husband, and even one for the dog.Why, I was known to make master lists that organized my battalion of lists！Now, however, I knew I needed to make a drastic change.

What would happen, I wondered, if I set aside my lists this next year and took Professor Keating's advice to“suck out all the marrow of life”. Could I survive without daily, weekly, and monthly guides to order my hours?Could I still be productive?Reliable?Successful?

And, just that quickly, I resolved to give it a try.

I decided to embrace the unknown. I opted to live life with deliberation.I chose to make my life extraordinary.

But what, exactly, did that look like?

For me, it meant transcending the mundane in order to accept change. I discovered elasticity in me that I never knew existed.I learned to embrace serendipitous opportunities and to discover delight in the moment.Above all, this new outlook left me open to possibility.

Yes, I still dealt with the day-to-day reality of……oh……you know……the kinds of minutiae written on the lists that once consumed me. But those demands no longer determine my days.Instead, I'm open to chatty phone calls, a spontaneous lunch with a friend, and an evening walk with my husband.I'm freer to entertain, eager to extend an invitation to house guests, and willing to organize a family reunion.I'm no longer reluctant to travel, to commit to a community project, to volunteer as an election judge.

Now, I focus less on my housework and more on enjoying my home. Instead of worrying about weight, I find pleasure in fresh food and homegrown vegetables.Rather than list all I need to do, I keep a gratitude journal of the new blessings I discover in each waking hour.

So, this New Year, as in the past few, I will make only a single resolution. A resolution I find satisfaction in writing and joy in keeping：Carpe diem！

～Carol McAdoo Rehme

我步入丛林，因为我希望从容不迫地生活。我希望活得深刻，汲取生活中所有的精华……

摒弃一切与生活无关的东西，以免在生命终结之时，发现自己枉活一世。

——亨利·大卫·梭罗

“小伙子们，我们最终都要化为尘土。每个人终有一天会停止呼吸，手脚冰凉，与世长辞。”这是电影《死亡诗社》里基廷教授的台词。该电影拍摄于1989年，罗宾·威廉姆斯在影片里扮演离经叛道的英文教授基廷。

这些话是基廷教授在文学课上讲给风华正茂的学生听的。我还是在几年前看的这部电影。刚听到这几句台词的时候，我不禁觉得毛骨悚然。可能只是当时的感受吧。看电影的前几个月我刚刚过完“50大寿”2，而且新年又近在眼前。岁月匆匆流过，而我却像是抓住风筝尾巴一样，随波逐流。我内心感到无聊、失望和空虚。一句话，感觉自己大限之日将至。

当时我赶紧坐到椅子上，一动不动地看了下去，生怕错过基廷教授任何一句富有深意的话。

“及时行乐，小伙子们，让我们及时行乐！”教授向这些在贵族式的威灵顿预备学院学习的学生讲道，“活出自己的精彩！”

影片的后来，这名老师让学生站到讲桌上。他想让学生用这种方法观察世界。宇宙之大远远超乎凡人目之所及，所以我们观察世界的角度也不能一成不变。我暗自思忖，觉得每个人都应当有这种心血来潮、放荡不羁的时候。

影片里的每一个场景都深深吸引了我。只见教室里的学生群情激奋地高呼：“及时行乐！”学生们的声音在我耳边回荡，宛如圣歌。我在高中上过四年拉丁语课，当时就学过这句话。拉丁语老师马格夫人教的那个译本翻译得更文雅——“采撷今朝”。

我觉得马格夫人的翻译更合我心。就是要采撷今朝。

及时行乐。

或者像几个世纪以前罗伯特·赫里克富所写的那样，“人生苦短，有花堪折直须折”。多有诗意呀！

我越看越入迷，一直看到片尾最后一行字幕消失。我不自觉地开始审视自己的生活，反思自己的年度计划。

每到岁末年初，我都会列出纲目并举、条分缕析的年度计划。一直以来，我都是严格按照年度计划来安排生活。我对这种按部就班的生活方式可谓情有独钟，爱之弥深。所以，我以前常常会给四个孩子各自制订一份年度计划。当然也会给老公，甚至也会为我们家的狗狗列出年度计划清单。哈！我会把成堆的年度计划清单好好规整，然后列一份总清单！反思过后，我觉得这种按部就班的生活模式需要好好改改了。

我寻思着，要是不列林林总总的年度计划，直接像基廷教授说的那样“汲取生活中所有的精华”会怎样？要是离开那些月度、周度以及每日的时间规划，我还能不能过下去？工作还能不能保持效率？别人还信得过我吗？还能不能干成事情？

就是那一会儿的工夫，我决心试上一试。

我要尝试未知的事物，想过有意义的生活。我决心活出精彩。

但这到底是一种什么样的生活呢？

对我而言，要接受变化就意味着打破俗人恒情。我体验到了以前闻所未闻的自在，也学会如何抓住生活中不经意的瞬间，从中获得乐趣。首先要说的是，这种全新的态度使一切都有可能。

没错，我现在仍然得应付那些日常琐事。这些琐事也就是我以前写在清单上的鸡毛蒜皮的小事。从前，这些清单忙得我焦头烂额。现在不一样了，这些清单再也别想把我死死缠住。我可以随心在电话里闲聊，可以随性和朋友吃午饭，晚上也可以和丈夫出去溜达散步。现在，我可以更随心所欲地玩，喜欢邀请客人到家里来小聚，也喜欢组织家庭聚会。与此同时，我也开始喜欢出游，乐意参加社区项目，并且志愿担任选举公证员。

现在，我把更多的精力放在享受家庭生活上，而不是忙着做家务。以前，我吃东西总是担心会不会长胖；现在，我却更乐意品尝新鲜食物和自家栽种的蔬菜。以前，我写的是行动清单，上面罗列着该做的事情；而现在，我做了一份感恩日志，记录自己每时每刻所发现的幸福。

所以，在这个新年，和以前一样，我只需愉快地写下一个新年决心，并乐意奉行到底，那就是及时行乐！

——卡罗·马卡度·雷默