Traditions tell us how to be who we are. This year, for the first time in the history of The Republic, Ireland has had to cancel its St. Patrick’s Day Parades, and even worse, the pubs have been closed as well. At a time when Nanjingers are looking to erudites of similar extraction for hope, David Hume, the Scottish Enlightenment philosopher of the 18th century, springs to mind as an example of sense and pragmatism in the unsettling “Times of Cholera”. If Covid-19 is going to close the pubs on the Irish, a pox must indeed be upon us.
传统告诉我们如何做我们自己。 今年，在共和國歷史上，愛爾蘭第一次不得不取消其St. 帕特里克节游行，更糟糕的是，酒吧也关门了。 在南京人寻求博学类似的希望的时候，18世纪的苏格兰启蒙哲学家大卫·休谟在令人不安的“霍雷拉时代”中，脑海中浮现出一个感觉和实用主义的例子。 如果新冠肺炎要关闭爱尔兰的酒吧，那么我们一定真的会有水痘。
Writers have long used the concept of plague to explore the depths of Humanity’s compassion and self-awareness. From Gabriel García Márquez’s “Love in the Time of Cholera” to Albert Camus’ “The Plague” and Somerset Maughan’s “The Painted Veil”, authors have explored the possibility of life suddenly and permanently ending, and the strange tricks this assertion of finality plays on the human psyche.We contemplate our mortality, and plug our ears to the soul screaming that follows, asking ourselves, “Where is that ghastly noise coming from?” And then?
长期以来，作家们一直用瘟疫的概念来探索人类同情心和自我意识的深度。 从加布里埃尔·加西亚·马尔克斯的《霍乱时代的爱》到阿尔伯特·加缪的《瘟疫》和萨默塞特·毛恩的《彩绘面纱》，作者探索了生命突然和永久结束的可能性，以及这种最终性断言在人类心理上发挥的奇怪伎俩。我们思考我们的死亡，并把耳朵塞入随之而来的灵魂的尖叫声，问自己，“那可怕的噪音从何而来？” 然后呢？
This is when we summon up our self-reliance and powers of reason and attack the heart of the matter. In a case like Covid-19, a “Coronapocalypse”, we summon up our best self, activate our critical thinking skills and rationally work towards the best solution. Right?
这就是我们召唤我们的自力更生和理性的力量，并攻击事情的核心的时候。 在像新冠肺炎这样的“冠状病毒启示录”的情况下，我们召唤出最好的自我，激活我们的批判性思维技能，并理性地努力寻找最佳解决方案。 对吗？
Hume calls hokey.
休脬叫霍基。
In his “Treatise on Human Nature” (1739), Hume posits that, “The self is nothing but a bundle of impressions and ideas”. He argues that essentially, any idea of a self or soul that persists through time and change is mere illusion, a fabrication of the mind. Hume believed that the prevalent notion of the self as a solid identity was incorrect, a flat earth to the globe of consistent layers of self laid down over time.
在他的《人性问题》（1739年）中，休謨认为：“自我只不过是一堆印象和思想”。 他认为，从本质上讲，任何在时间和变化中持续存在的自我或灵魂的想法都只是幻觉，是心灵的捏造。 休謨認為，自我作為一種堅實身份的普遍觀念是不正確的，隨著時間的推移，地球是一個由一致的自我層組成的扁平地球。
Emotion shapes our responses to stimuli, and these responses are recorded as sensorial memory. If we feel scalded and angry at the sharp sting of a nettle, we avoid the hairy demons in future. However, our memory recall of this responses is also filtered through emotional lenses, so each time the memory of the nettle’s seething white spots exploding on my ankle is conjured up in the mind, it is coloured by the contemporary self who recalls it. Our recollections are shaped by the self that is doing the recalling. Is that self happy? Mad? Amused? Any memory is therefore susceptible to subjective reevaluation over time, as the self constructing and evaluating is also in a constant process of flux, growth and change.
情绪塑造了我们对刺激的反应，这些反应被记录为感官记忆。 如果我们对荨麻的尖锐刺痛感到灼伤和愤怒，我们将来会避开毛茸茸的恶魔。 然而，我们对这种反应的记忆回忆也通过情感镜头被过滤，所以每次荨麻在脚踝上爆炸的白点的记忆在脑海中浮现在脑海中，它都会被回忆起它的当代自我所着色。 我们的回忆是由正在回忆的自我塑造的。 那是自我快乐吗？ 疯了吗？ 有趣吗？ 因此，随着时间的推移，任何记忆都容易受到主观的重新评估，因为自我构建和评估也处于不断的流动、增长和变化过程中。
This is important when it comes to dealing with new experiences and challenges. We must be aware of the power of the “passions”, as Hume calls them, to colour our perceptions.
在应对新经验和挑战时，这很重要。 我们必须意识到休謨所说的“激情”的力量来影响我们的感知。
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Now, I mention this because us Irish also know a bit about the self, and tradition. For many years, Ireland struggled to establish a Hibernian identity, learning to navigate a new world, in a new mother tongue. Despite the Penal Laws and the outlawing of the Irish language, the catholic religion and the old ways of life woven into each Gaelic syllable, tradition played a huge role in maintaining the strong Irish sense of identity during the years of occupation.
现在，我提到这一点是因为我们爱尔兰人也对自我和传统略有了解。 多年来，爱尔兰努力建立希伯尼亚身份，学习用一种新的母语驾驭一个新的世界。 尽管有刑法和禁止爱尔兰语、天主教和古老的生活方式交织在每个盖尔语音节中，但在占领期间，传统在保持爱尔兰强烈的认同感方面发挥了巨大作用。
Hedge schools popped up in the.., erm.. hedges, where subjects were taught in Gaelic, while the world weavers, the Seanachaí, travelled from house to house each dusk, their words shaping the heroes of old, giving them longings and loves and losses, tales from the old country, when we were still a free and noble people.
篱笆学校突然出现在……，erm..籬笆上，那里用盖尔语教授科目，而世界织布工，Seanachaí，每到家挨家挨家旅行，他们的话语塑造了古老的英雄，给他们渴望、爱和损失，来自旧国家的故事，当时我们仍然是一个自由和高贵的民族。
These stories reminded us of who were, who we used to be. They contained the promise of a better future, when, like the heroes in the stories, we would overcome. Music from our grandfathers’ grandfathers soaked into the smoothed timber of the instruments handed down at wakes.
这些故事提醒了我们以前是谁，我们曾经是谁。 它们蕴含着更美好未来的承诺，那时，就像故事中的英雄一样，我们将克服。 来自我们祖父的祖父的音乐浸入了在守夜时流传下来的乐器的光滑木材中。
Our collective past is woven into these stories, these acts of connection with the lifeblood of our cultures. St. Brigid’s crosses made of rush on 1 February to bless the house for the year ahead, the burying of the Child of Prague head-first under an apple tree the night before a wedding to ensure a dry day, sweeping the old year out across the threshold on 31 December and welcoming the new one in with song and laughter a second later. Traditions that make no sense, just like life.
我们的集体过去被编织在这些故事中，这些行为与我们文化的命脉相联系。 圣 Brigid的十字架在2月1日匆匆忙忙地祝福了未来一年的房子，在婚礼前一天晚上，布拉格之子被埋在一棵苹果树下，以确保干燥的一天，12月31日，把旧年吹过门槛，一秒钟后用歌声和笑声迎接新一年。 毫无意义的传统，就像生活一样。
The mothers passed down the songs, the words came to us through women. The songs, the swish of the brush, the crisp cool air at midnight, thick with coal smoke and new year’s resolutions; songs, swish, smoke. Traditions worldwide jump on the ceremonial bandwagon. Here in Nanjing, we burn money on the sidewalk and incense in temples. We sweep away old pig symbols of new years past and paste up new rats for the coming year. We gaze at the moon and ask, like Seán O’Casey’s brave Captain, “What is the stars, what is the stars?”
母亲们把歌曲传下来，话语通过女人传给我们。 歌声，灌木丛的呼啸，午夜清脆的凉爽空气，浓浓的煤烟和新年的决心；歌声，呼啸，烟雾。 世界各地的传统都跳上了仪式的潮流。 在南京，我们在人行道上烧钱，在寺庙里烧香。 我们扫除过去新年的旧猪符号，为来年贴上新的老鼠。 我们凝视着月亮，像Seán O’Casey勇敢的船长一样问道：“什么是星星，星星是什么？”
We acknowledge time, impermanence. Traditions often mirror life in their eclectic randomness. Rolling with the randomness seems to be the way forwards, using traditions as clearings in the brush to hop over life’s nettles.
我们承认时间，无常。 传统往往以折衷的随机性反映生活。 与随机性一起滚动似乎是前进的道路，利用传统作为灌木丛中的空地，跳过生活的荨麻。
When it comes to the idea of tradition, we often assume that there’s a bundle of it out there somewhere, a nicely rolled ball of belief, like yarn, stretching from the beginning of time immemorial to now, made up by people who knew what they were doing. The naming of a child when it is born, for example, or the celebration of a birthday or even the ceremonial acknowledgment of the passing of a loved one. Tradition is culture blind. Worldwide, we use it as an umbilical cord to our soul, to reinforce our belief in ourselves. And we made them up as we went along, the same as we are doing right now.
当谈到传统的想法时，我们经常认为在某个地方有一束，一个卷起来的信念球，就像纱线一样，从古以来一直延伸到现在，由知道自己在做什么的人组成。 例如，在孩子出生时给孩子起名字，或者庆祝生日，甚至是亲人去世的仪式。 传统是文化盲。 在全球范围内，我们把它当作我们灵魂的脐带，来加强我们对自己的信心。 我们一走就编造了它们，就像我们现在所做的一样。
Taking time to sit with ourselves, to contemplate our traditions, lets those traditions remind us of who we are, of our common past and shared present, our anticipated future. They allow a time for introspection and for understanding the natural laws of nature. They permit the mind to kaleidoscope and consider past selves, in different times, the changes that have transpired since last year, or last season or “the last time”. The allow us to craft the narrative of experience that we refer to as “the self”. Myself.
花时间与自己坐在一起，思考我们的传统，让这些传统提醒我们我们是谁，我们共同的过去和共享的现在，以及我们预期的未来。 它们允许有时间进行内省和理解自然规律。 它们允许头脑进行万花筒，并考虑过去的自我，在不同时期，自去年、上个赛季或“最后一次”以来发生的变化。 它允许我们制作我们称之为“自我”的经验叙述。 我自己。
The story is ours to tell.
这个故事由我们来讲述。
Right now, Coronapocalypse is upon us. “What should we do? How can we survive this?”, we all ask. When confronted with the end, the human spirit flinches. “Not me”, we say. “Not now.”
现在，冠状病毒启示录正在我们身上。 “我们应该怎么做？ 我们如何才能活下来？”，我们都问。 当面对结局时，人类的精神会退缩。 “不是我”，我们说。 “现在不行。”
To understand the soul screaming, we need to admit to ourselves that life sounds ugly, scraped and frail, sometimes. When life spits in your eye and stomps on your foot, it is not targeting you. It’s just like a child, doing its thing from time to time.
为了理解灵魂的尖叫声，我们需要向自己承认，有时生活听起来很难看、粗糙和脆弱。 当生活唾弃你的眼睛，踩踏你的脚时，它不是针对你。 这就像一个孩子，时不时地做它的事情。
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And just as at times, we react with composure, compassion and calm to the minor gales that blow though our days when raising little people with growing brains, so too, do we respond with equanimity to adverse life circumstances, like scary apocalyptic virus’ that swoop down upon us with the same predictability as a 3-year-old’s temper tantrum. Other times, we lose our sh*t.
就像有时，我们以镇定、同情心和冷静来应对那些在抚养大脑不断增长的小家伙时吹来的小狂风，我们也会平静地应对不利的生活环境，就像可怕的世界末日病毒一样，它像3岁孩子的发脾气一样，以可预测性向我们冲来。 其他时候，我们失去了我们的狗屎。
Hume argues that destroying the idea that there is a single, enduring, self is the key to empowerment. “The tendency to joy and hope is true happiness.” By allowing that change is life, that we cannot always react optimally to situations that set our emotional kaleidoscopes tripping, we can give space to the waves of justified anxiety and terror, yes, terror, that come with the thought of homeschooling and other calamities of life.
休謨认为，摧毁存在单一、持久的自我的想法是赋权的关键。 “快乐和希望的倾向是真正的幸福。” 通过允许改变就是生活，我们不能总是对那些让我们情绪万花筒跳闸的情况做出最佳反应，我们可以给合理的焦虑和恐怖浪潮留出空间，是的，恐怖，这些浪潮会带来家庭教育和其他生活灾难的想法。
As the west begins its journey through the Coronapocalypse, the memes begin.
当西方开始穿越日冕大启时，模因开始了。
“The Irish close the pubs due to Covid-19. The Irish develop new 15-minute test to diagnose Covid-19. Cold fusion by the end of the week, lads, if we can keep sober.”
“爱尔兰人因新冠肺炎关闭了酒吧。 爱尔兰人开发了新的15分钟测试来诊断新冠肺炎。 到周末冷融合，小伙子们，如果我们能保持清醒的话。”
“The Covid-19 epidemic has been engineered by women to shut down sporting events and close the pubs.”
“新冠肺炎疫情是由妇女策划的，以关闭体育赛事和关闭酒吧。”
A man is interviewed by the CDC. They explain that he has two options for quarantine. A solemn voiceover says, “You can A.) Go into quarantine with your wife and child, or B.)…”
一名男子接受了疾控中心的采访。 他们解释说，他有两种隔离选择。 庄严的画外音说：“你可以A.） 和你的妻子和孩子一起隔离，或者B.） ……”
“B. B. Mmmhmm. Definitely B,” replies the man, eyebrows like Golden Arches.
“B. B. 嗯。 绝对是B，”男人回答道，眉毛像金拱门一样。
Our capacity to see beauty and laugh in these times manifests itself manifold. We stay in. We stay positive. We stay striving.
在这些时代，我们看到美和欢笑的能力多种多样。 我们待在里。 我们保持积极的态度。 我们继续努力。
Traditions are totems and talismans, telling tales of hope, of human endurance and Humanity’s collective ability to overcome and thrive in times of adversity. When the world is spinning so fast that you don’t know whether you’re pushing out of the hurricane or into the eye, don’t stop. But remember, whilst you push, the Scotsman’s advice; “Beauty in things exists in the mind which contemplates them”.
传统是战理和战石，讲述了希望、人类耐力以及人类在逆境中克服和茁壮成长的集体能力的故事。 当世界旋转得如此之快，以至于你不知道你是从飓风中挤出来还是挤进眼睛里，不要停下来。 但请记住，当你推动苏格兰人的建议时；“事物中的美存在于思考它们的头脑中”。
We do have a choice as to how we remember this time, this defining moment in our generation. Let it be contemplated as a mother does her child, as a student does campus, as the Irish shall the re-opening of the Temples of the Lord, Arthur Guinness.
我们确实可以选择如何记住这次，这是我们这一代人的决定性时刻。 让它像母亲对待她的孩子一样，就像学生对校园一样，就像爱尔兰人重新开放耶和华亚瑟·吉尼斯的圣殿一样。
