What are some of the best things and life lessons you have learned from an animal?

你從動物身上學(xué)到的最好的人生經(jīng)驗是什么？

The greatest life lesson I ever received was from a cockroach.

我是從蟑螂身上學(xué)到的最好的人生經(jīng)驗的。

When I was first diagnosed with cancer, I was also left by the man I loved, and at the time, it seemed like my entire life was spiraling out of my control. I lost my job. I lost my youth. I lost my love. I lost my future.

當(dāng)時我第一次診斷出患了癌癥，我愛的男人離開了我，在那時，看起來我的整個人生已經(jīng)失控了。我失去了工作，失去了青春，失去了愛人，失去了未來。

At the beginning no one was quite certain if I was going to survive. I kept collapsing, and my organs kept failing. For a long time I felt abandoned. Not just by the man I loved, but also by God.

一開始沒有人能十分確定我會活下來。我不停的崩潰，我的器官不斷的衰竭。很長時間我都覺得自己被拋棄了。不僅是我愛的男人，同時也被上帝拋棄了。

I would ask Him why He was doing all of this to me. I wanted to know what I had done to deserve so much pain. Then the more and more often I went to the hospital, the more people I met who were suffering, or were on their way to their deaths.

我想問問他為什么他會這么對我，我想知道我做了什么要遭受這么多的痛苦。我去醫(yī)院去的次數(shù)越多，我認(rèn)識的遭受病魔折磨的人，或是離死期不遠的人就越多。

I'd hear people pray for these people and beg God for a miracle, but miracles never seemed to come. I started feeling myself become bitter. I asked God, why are you doing this? These are good people! They do not deserve to suffer like this.

我經(jīng)常聽到人們?yōu)檫@些病人祈禱，祈求上帝能出現(xiàn)奇跡，但是奇跡始終沒有發(fā)生。我開始感覺到自己越來越痛苦。我問上帝，為什么你要這么做？這些人多善良啊！他們不應(yīng)該遭受這么多的痛苦。

Please, help them, please stop killing these people! I'd even offer to let God give me their pain, if it meant that they could exist for a little while without being in agony.

求求你，幫幫他們，不要再讓這些人死去了！如果他們可以不那么痛苦的活過一段時間，我懇求上帝把他們的痛苦都轉(zhuǎn)移到我身上吧。

But it didn't help.I felt so helpless. My life was not in my control. Several dice rolls had been made at my expense and I had failed them.

可是并沒有什么用。我感覺到很無助。我的生活失去了控制。我的命運已經(jīng)通過擲骰子決定了，我已經(jīng)輸了。

Then, one day when I was very slowly walking up to steps to my home, on the way back from a hospital visit, one of these guys scuttled across my path:

然后，有一天我慢慢挪著步子回到家時，當(dāng)時我從醫(yī)院看完病回來，有只蟑螂在我面前倉促跑過：

A big cockroach.

一只大蟑螂。

At first I instinctively moved to crush it with my foot, but then I paused. For some reason it didn't seem to be afraid of me. It just stood there waiting for me to crush it.

一開始，我本能的想用腳把它踩死，不過我停頓了一下。因為似乎這只蟑螂看上去并不怕我。它就停在那里，等著被我踩扁。

At that moment I thought about how big I was and how small it was. How there was no way for us to understand each other.This cockroach's life was alien to mine, and more importantly, it was completely with in my power to kill it.

那時候我在想，我是有多么巨大，而它是多么的渺小。怎么會沒有我們相互理解的方式呢。這種蟑螂的生命里，我就像是個外星人，更重要的是，它的生殺大權(quán)都在我的手上。

I wondered what it would be like to be a cockroach. What would it be like to be so small? Would I understand what was happening to me if a person came and crushed me?Wouldn't my death seem like something cruel and meaningless?

我想知道成為一只蟑螂是什么感覺，變成這么渺小會是什么感覺？如果一個人過來直接把我踩死了，我能明白的回來發(fā)生了什么事嗎？我的死亡會看起來很殘酷很沒有意義嗎？

A cockroach doesn't know that it's dirty or that it spreads disease. It is unable to understand that we kill its kind because we see them as disgusting and unpleasant. When a cockroach dies, it does not understand why it is dying.

一只蟑螂并不知道自己很臟，會傳播疾病。它們并不知道人們踩死它們是因為它們看起來惡心和討厭。當(dāng)一只蟑螂死了，它不明白為什么自己死了。

I thought about how something greater than man could exist and one day I too could suddenly find myself in the same position as that little cockroach. I would hope whatever looked down at my strange, unclean, alien body would look past my smallness and recognize that we both shared one very crucial thing:

We are both alive.

我在想還有什么事比人們活著更棒的，有一天我突然發(fā)現(xiàn)自己和蟑螂處在同一位置。

我希望無論什么東西朝下看我這具奇形怪狀，不干凈的，外星人一般的軀體，會看在我的渺小上，體會到同一件非常重要的事：我們都還活著。

Even if everything else about us is different we both share birth, life and death. In this fundamental way we are equal.

即使其他事我們都不同，到我們都一起經(jīng)歷著生老病死。這一點上，我們都是平等的。

I decided on that day that I would exchange the same courtesy to all I had power over. It only seems fair to treat others as one wishes to also be treated.

我決定在那一天在有力量能得到相同的恩惠時，對待他們?nèi)缤麄兤诖粚Υ囊粯?，這樣才看起來公平。

原文作者及出處：Teela Wyman, Quora

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