正文
到现在为止,我知道你们中间肯定有人在想,你们为什么要听一个离过三次婚的女人讲婚姻观。甚至她自己也是这么想的。我理解这样的想法。我对此想说的是,我从我的经验所学到的,当你改变你的内在的时候,越是困难之处,越是要迎难而上。
So let me tell you a little bit about the person I truly needed to marry: myself.
那么让我来讲讲那个我应该嫁的人,也就是我自己。
I am from Minneapolis. Wooh! My mom was a prostitute and an alcoholic. She put me in foster care when I was three months old.My dad was a criminal; he was a drug dealer and a pimp with a heart of gold — actually, they both had hearts of gold — and he spent more or less my whole life in prison.
我来自明尼阿波利斯,我妈妈是一个妓女,而且有酒瘾,在我三个月大的时候她就把我送到了寄养家庭。我的爸爸是一个罪犯,他是一个一心想赚钱的毒品走私犯和皮条客。其实他们俩都是一心想要钱的人。几乎在我一生中的所有时间里,他们都在蹲监狱。
And he just got out of prison after his most recent sentence which was 20 years.
Until the age of nine, I was probably in two dozen foster homes. The thing you need to know about this story — there are a lot of details, obviously — but the thing you need to know is that I came out of that childhood with one goal: to never be left. And the way I was going to do that is that I was going to get married. That was the way I was going to accomplish that goal.
他最近才服完20年监禁从监狱中出来,而我...在九岁以前,我在20多个寄养家庭中生活过。毕竟这里面有很多细节,你们只需要知道,从那样的童年中走过来,我只有一个目标,就是永远不被抛弃。而我达成这个目标的途径,将是结婚。这就是我为了达成这个目标将会做的事情。
So I got married the first time to a guy I met when I was 17. We got married a couple of years later, when I was 19. He was a really good guy from a great family, he had an MBA. I mean, it was like, you know, marriage material. You know, I was thrilled. I was like, “I have a family. I belong somewhere. This is wonderful.”
所以,我和一个我17岁时候认识的男人结了第一次婚,那时我19岁。他是一个很棒的男人,有着和睦的家庭,以及MBA的文凭。就像...你知道的,很适合的结婚对象。我当时很惊喜,当时就想着,我有家庭了,有归属了,真是太赞了。
And then after five years I left him. And then 10 years later, I got married again to another wonderful guy, who is the father of my now 16-years-old son. We still have a wonderful relationship. He is a really good guy.But after four years I left him, too.
但是,五年以后我就离开了他。接着,十年之后,我又结婚了。对象是另一个很棒的男人,也就是我现在16岁儿子的父亲。我们现在关系也很好,因为他真的是一个很好的人。但是结婚四年以后,我还是离开了他。
And I am not proud to say that I did that, but in order to really marry yourself, you have to get sometimes very painfully honest with yourself about what it is that you’ve done. So I’m not proud of that.
我对此并不真正感到骄傲,但是为了真正的嫁给自己,你就要对自己诚实,有时候甚至痛苦至极地面对自己已经做过的事情。所以,我对此并不感到骄傲。
And then eight years later, I got married again, when I was 40, and I was like, “OK, this feels right!” Let me tell you what felt right to a girl who was in 24 foster homes: a guy who started to date after nine months of marriage; essentially, he started dating a 21-year-old girl.
八年之后,在我40岁的时候,我又结婚了。我当时想着,这感觉真不错。让我来说说什么会让一个在24个寄养家庭中生活过的女孩儿感觉不错。一个在结婚后九周就开始约会的男人,重要的是,他开始和一个21岁的女孩儿约会。
OK, I mean, it would be funny, if it weren’t so tragic. You have to have a sense of — that is why we’re Facebook friends. So, here I am looking at this person that I just described with a terrible track record of relationships, and I’m like, “I’m supposed to marry her? This is the woman you want me to marry?”
我的意思是,如果不是这么悲惨的的话,还蛮有意思的。你会有种感觉,这也是我们俩现在还是Facebook好友的原因。所以,当我从现在的角度再去看我刚刚说的这个有着劣迹斑斑的感情经历的女人,我的想法就像是,我真的要嫁给她吗?这就是你想让我嫁的人?
And the answer is yes. Because here is the deal: the thing about marrying yourself is not just like cohabitating. You’re not just going to date for a while and see how it turns out. You are going to do this till death do you part.
答案是,是的。因为嫁给自己并不是像同居那样,你不能约会一段时间再看情况做决定。你必须坚持到最后直到死亡把你们分开。
You are going to take vows. So here are the vows.
你将宣誓,宣誓如下:
Number 1: you are going to marry yourself for richer or for poorer. This means you are going to love yourself right where you are. You don’t say to yourself,“When you get to the corner of Hollywood and Vine, then I will marry you.”You don’t say, “When you lose ten pounds, then I will love you.”And you don’t say, “If you hadn’t married that loser, I would love you, but since you did, I’m sorry, I think it’s over.”
When you marry yourself, you walk yourself down that aisle exactly where you are. And paradoxically, I found that loving myself exactly where I am is the only way to get where I am going.
第一,你将嫁给你自己,无论贫穷与富贵。意思是你将无条件地爱自己。你不能说「等你去了好莱坞和藤街,我才嫁给你」,你也不能说「等你瘦了十磅以后我才会爱你」,你更不能说「如果你没有嫁给那个失败者,我才会爱你。既然已经嫁了,那么我觉得我们之间结束了」。当你嫁给你自己的时候,你走过长廊,走到你所在的位置。略微矛盾的地方在于,我发现爱那个就在原地的我是我走向目的地的唯一途径。
Number 2: you are going to marry yourself for better or for worse. What this means is that most of us are willing to love ourselves for better, I mean, sure, I am having a great hair day today. I love me. That’s not what I am talking about.
I’m talking about for worse, you know, the big life disappointments. Maybe you don’t own a home, you didn’t get the career you wanted, maybe you didn’t graduate from college, maybe you didn’t get the relationship you wanted. Maybe it hasn’t turned out — maybe you fight with your mum, maybe you watch too much reality TV, whatever it is, it doesn’t matter anymore. Because when you marry yourself, you agree to stay with you no matter what.
第二,你将嫁给你自己,无论环境好与坏。这句话意思是,大部分人都会在更好的情况下爱自己,比如,我今天发型很赞,我爱我自己。这不是我要说的部分,我要说的是,在更坏的情况下,那种当人生辜负了你的时候,可能你无家可归,可能你没有从事喜欢的事业,可能你没有顺利地大学毕业,可能你没有找到想要的感情,可能事情没法向你想的方向发展,可能你和妈妈吵架了,可能你看了太多太现实的电视剧。无论发生了什么,都不重要。因为,当你嫁给了自己以后,你都将永远陪在自己身边,不管发生什么。
Third, you marry yourself in sickness and in health. So what this means is that you forgive yourself for your mistakes. A mistake isn’t actually a failure unless you don’t learn from it and unless you don’t grow.There is a saying, “You ask for patience, and what you get is a line at the bank.”
第三,你将嫁给自己,无论生病与健康。这句话的意思是,你要原谅自己所犯过的错误。错误,并不代表失败,除非你不懂得吸取教训,除非你不成长。有句话是这样说的,你想要耐心,得到的却是在银行排长队。