In the new year, be a first responder
Editor's note: CNN Contributor Bob Greene is a bestselling author whose 25 books include "Late Edition: A Love Story"; "Once Upon a Town: The Miracle of the North Platte Canteen"; and "And You Know You Should Be Glad: A True Story of Lifelong Friendship."编者按 ：CNN撰稿人鲍勃·格林是畅销书作者，他的25件作品包括《时人时事：一个爱情故事》，《从前有个城：北普拉特食堂的奇迹》以及《你知道应该感到高兴:一个终生友谊的真实故事》。
(CNN) -- This is the week, every year, when you come across special displays in bookstores.
(CNN) ——每年这一周，你都会在书店中遇到特别展示促销。
(Finding bookstores these days is a challenge of its own, but that's a subject for another time).
(现在要找到书店还真是不容易，但这是以后再讨论的另一个主题)。
During the week after Christmas and before January 1, many bookstores set up tables near the front door featuring calendars and blank journals.
在圣诞节后，元月1日之前的这一周里，许多书店都在前门附近摆放桌子，上面放着日历和空白日志。
If the calendars aren't sold by the first day of the new year, they're probably not going to be sold at all.
如果日历在新年第一天卖不出去，就可能再也卖不掉了。
And, next to the calendars on the table, those blank journals, wordless for now. Waiting for the soundless starter's whistle of New Year's Day -- waiting for someone to fill them in.
桌子上日历旁边，那些空白日志也在默默无言的等待。等待着新年开始那无声的哨音——等待有人来书写。
What they represent is one of mankind's oldest and fiercest desires:
他们所代表的是人类一个最古老和最激烈的欲望:
The opportunity to start afresh.
重新开始的机会。
To turn over a new leaf.
改过自新。
"New leaf" refers not to the world of plants, but to the formal, even archaic, term for a two-sided piece of paper. To turn over a new leaf means to flip to a new page. To try to do better -- to close the cover on the scratch-outs and unsatisfactory scrawls of the previous part of one's life and, having learned from what went before, to start over on a clean set of pages. "Tabula rasa, " in the Latin expression: blank slate.
“新叶”指的不是植物世界，而按正式的，乃至传统的说法，是指一张纸的双面。改过自新意味着翻到一张新的页面。努力做得更好——合上人生以前某一部份留下的胡涂乱画和令人不满潦草痕迹的那一页，并吸取之前的教训，开始在一组干净的页面上书写新的人生。“Tabula rasa”，在拉丁语中指的是：空白石板。
And what to do with that blank slate?
用空白石板能做些什么呢?
Each December, each person makes his or her own pledges. This December there has been a phrase that has been much in the news: First responders.
每年12月份，每个人都会做出自己的承诺。今年12月新闻中出现很多的一个短语是：第一响应者。
It is a relatively new description. In earlier generations, the people to whom it applied were referred to simply as police officers or firefighters or emergency squads. The people who, in times of great trouble, run toward the peril and not away from it.
这是一个相对较新的说法。在前几代人中，通常被用于指代警察或消防队员或应急小队。这些人——在出现巨大危险时，总是知险而上而不是逃离险境。
Every day, in every part of the country, they humble us with their courage and commitment. The first responders we have been reporting on and reading about as the old year nears its end have given new meaning to "above and beyond the call of duty":
每一天，在全国每个角落，他们的勇气和信念让我们自感渺小。旧的一年即将结束之际，我们报道并读到第一响应者被赋予了新的含义“超出使命的召唤”。
The officers who sped to Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, and encountered what no person should ever have to see. The volunteer firefighters in Webster, New York, who were unconscionably cut down in a murderous ambush as they selflessly reported to a predawn blaze. The men and women who without hesitation risked their lives trying to rescue the victims of Superstorm Sandy.
赶往康涅狄格纽镇桑迪胡克小学的警察们遇到什么样的危险，没人得知。在纽约韦伯斯特，志愿消防队员们无私地冲向一场黎明前的大火，却在一场凶残的伏击中被无情地撂倒。还有那么多男人和女人毫不犹豫冒着生命危险去拯救超级风暴桑迪的受害者。
Very few of us will ever have the courage or the training or the physical strength of the first responders who have been in the news this year.
我们中很少人能像今年新闻中所报道第一响应者那么勇敢，那么训练有素，那么身强力壮。
But, by following the spirit of their example, we can set a goal for the new year that is about to begin -- for those blank pages of life that await.
但是，在他们精神的鼓舞下，我们可以为即将开始新的一年——为那些仍在等待的人生空白页设立一个目标。
Unlike those who wear uniforms, the rest of us are not expected to hurry to crime scenes or fires or places of mass injury.
不像那些身穿制服的人，我们其余人不必急于赶往犯罪现场或火灾现场或大规模伤害的地方。
But, far away from the wail of sirens, there is so much hurting and loneliness that surrounds us in this world, so much need and hunger and solitary despair.
然而，远离警笛声，我们周围的这个世界上还有如此多的伤害和孤独，有如此多的需求和饥饿和孤独绝望。
You don't have to wear a badge to be a first responder; you just have to keep your eyes open and be willing to help. To be the one who, without being asked, responds and offers assistance when no one else seems to be noticing. A kind word; an inquiry about if there's anything you can do; a few moments of giving quiet encouragement.
你不必戴上徽章才能成为一个第一响应者：你只需要睁大眼睛并随时准备提供帮助。在没有其他人留意的情况下，要作一个第一响应者并提供援助，不必等待请求。一句关心的话；问一问自己能做些什么；给予默默鼓励的片刻。
It is such an elementary, yet profound, decision to make as a new year begins: to choose to be a first responder in the broadest sense of that phrase. To be the person ever attuned to the sight and sound of need. To move toward that need without being summoned. To be the one who can be counted on.
新的一年开始之际，这是一个多么简单而意味深长的决定：按这句话的大体意思自愿作一个第一响应者。做一个能看到和听到需求的人。无需召唤即刻响应需求。做一个人可以信赖的人。
We have all been inspired and stirred this year by the valor of the real first responders. We prepare to enter a new year with all of the pages still blank, in readiness.
今年我们见证了真正第一响应者的勇气，深受启发和触动。我们正准备进入新的一年，所有页面仍然空白，准备就绪。
How we fill them in is our choice. It awaits us, just around the bend.
我们如何书写新的页面全看我们自己的选择。答案正在那儿等着我们，就在拐角处。
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