What Causes the Chaos?
是什么制造了混乱？

人生中没有“容易”二字，但也并不是所有人的生活都一团糟。有的人似乎天生对灾难和困苦具有免疫力，无论现实多么艰辛，他们总是能够气定神闲，悠然自得。而有的人则总是擅长将困难放大，让生活越来越糟。其实，给我们的生活制造混乱的或许并不是问题本身，而是我们缺乏应对问题的能力。

At a restaurant, a cockroach suddenly flew from somewhere and sat on a lady. She started screaming out of fear. With a panic stricken face and trembling voice, she started jumping, with both her hands desperately trying to get rid of the cockroach. Her reaction was contagious, as everyone in her group also got panicky. The lady finally managed to push the cockroach away but… it landed on another lady in the group.

Now, it was the turn of the other lady in the group to continue the drama.

The waiter rushed forward to their rescue. In the relay of throwing, the cockroach next fell upon the waiter. The waiter stood firm, composed himself and observed the behavior of the cockroach on his shirt. When he was confident enough, he grabbed it with his fingers and threw it out of the restaurant.

Sipping my coffee and watching the amusement, the antenna of my mind picked up a few thoughts and started wondering, was the cockroach responsible for their histrionic behavior? If so, then why was the waiter not disturbed? He handled it near to perfection, without any chaos.

It is not the cockroach, but the inability of those people to handle the disturbance caused by the cockroach.

I realized that, it is not the shouting of my father or my boss or my wife that disturbs me, but it's my inability to handle the disturbances caused by their shouting that disturbs me. It's not the traffic jams on the road that disturbs me, but my inability to handle the disturbance caused by the traffic jam that disturbs me. More than the problem, it's my reaction to the problem that creates chaos in my life.

一家餐厅里，有一只蟑螂从某个地方飞到了一位女士身上。她惊恐地发出了尖叫声。她满脸惊慌，声音颤抖，竟跳了起来，同时用双手极力地想要摆脱这只蟑螂。她的反应极富感染力，因为和她一起的那些人也变得十分慌张。这位女士最后成功把那只蟑螂赶走了，但是……它又掉到了和她一起的另外一个人身上。

现在，和她一起的另外一位女士又继续上演这戏剧性的一幕。

服务员赶紧冲上去解围。在一番接力传递之后，那只蟑螂掉到了服务员的身上。服务员稳稳地站着，淡定地看着衬衫上蟑螂的一举一动。当他有足够的把握之后，就用手指捏住了它，然后将它扔到了餐厅外面去。

我一边品着咖啡，一边看着这搞笑的一幕，突然脑子里产生了一些想法，开始好奇这只蟑螂是否对这些人戏剧化的行为负有责任。如果是的话，那么为什么那个服务员就没有被其困扰？他以近乎完美的方式处理了这件事，而没有造成丝毫的混乱。

其实并不是蟑螂的问题，根本原因其实在于那些人没有能力应对蟑螂对其产生的干扰。

我认识到，真正让我烦心的不是父亲、老板或者妻子的怒吼，而是我没有能力去应对由他们的怒吼导致的种种混乱不安。让我烦心的不是交通堵塞，而是我没有能力去应对交通堵塞导致的心烦意乱。给我的生活制造混乱的，与其说是问题本身，不如说是我针对问题所做出的反应。

巧记词汇

cockroach [ˈkɒkrəʊtʃ] n. 蟑螂

【拓】cock [kɒk] n. 公鸡；雄鸟

contagious [kənˈteɪdʒəs] a. 传染的

【拓】affect [əˈfekt] v. 影响；感染

panicky [ˈpænɪki] a. 恐慌的

【拓】panic [ˈpænɪk] n. 恐慌

sip [sɪp] v. 小口地喝

【拓】mouthful [ˈmaʊθfʊl] n. 一口

antenna [ænˈtenə] n. 天线；触角

【拓】Argentina [ˌɑːdʒənˈtiːnə] n. 阿根廷

histrionic [ˌhɪstriˈɒnɪk] a. 戏剧化的

【拓】dramatic [drəˈmætɪk] a. 戏剧的

chaos [ˈkeɪɒs] n. 混乱

【拓】confused [kənˈfjuːzd] a. 混乱的

inability [ˌɪnəˈbɪləti] n. 没能力

【拓】ability [əˈbɪləti] n. 能力

disturbance [dɪˈstɜːbəns] n. 骚乱

【拓】disturbing [dɪˈstɜːbɪŋ] a. 令人不安的

趣学短语

get rid of 摆脱

【例】From my perspective, the reason why you do not see any possibility to get rid of your stress is that you decided not to seek them. 在我看来，你没有看到任何摆脱压力的可能性的原因在于你并没有下定决心去寻找这些可能性。