NPR 09-21:The Imperfect Traces Left by Human Hands我热爱现实世界
时间：2008-06-20 06:38:42
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（单词翻译）
Food writer T. Susan Chang once embraced the digital age. She even met her husband and bought a house on the Internet. Now, though, she believes in the benefits of an analog1, lower-tech lifestyle.
I believe in mystery.
I believe in family.
I believe in being who I am.
I believe in the power of failure.
And I believe normal life is extraordinary.
This I Believe.
I’m Jay Allison for This I Believe. Our essay this week was sent into us T. Susan Chang. Chang used to live in Hell’s Kitchen in New York City. But she now lives with her husband and children on 20 acres in the small town of Leverett, Massachusetts. Removed from the city to the country, from the fast to the slow, from the modern to the traditional, is reflected in her belief. Here’s Susan Chang with her essay for This I Believe.
I am a child of the digital age. But I believe in analog. I love the hiss2 and pop of vinyl and the black splotch in the corner when a movie changes reels. I enjoy the hushed, uneven3 ticking of a windup watch. I love hand writing. I believe in analog because it captures the imperfect traces left behind by human hands. Smudges and echoes that can’t disappear with the touch of a delete key.
I didn’t always feel this way. In 1985 my sister returned from Germany with a CD player, the first any of us had ever seen. And I marvel4 at the slick, featureless disc. I officially went digital in college when I bought my first computer. Mine was a Macintosh with two floppy5 drives and no hard drive. My boyfriend bought me one megabyte of RAM6 for my birthday and presented it to me in a jewel box.
Some years later, I found my husband on the Internet. It was 1997 and we were in the vanguard of the cyber dating scene. We swapped7 emails for a whole month before meeting, which most people found outlandish. We were on the cover of a book. I went on Oprah. We married in the year, left the city and found a house on realtor.com.
But something was changing in me. As the world went digital and the Matrix movies played to packed touses, I found myself drawn8 to fountain pens, clothbound books and bargain-priced LPs. One night, the fuses blew. And my husband and I had to choose between light and music for our one remaining outlet9. We opted10 for music and sat close together in the darkness as the worn-out needle brought Art Pepper back from the dead, his saxophone weaving cracked tapestries11 of sound.
Today I am a food writer. I live in the realm of the tactile12 which could be the last stronghold of the analog world. I think that taste, smell and touch are like the army of the resistance, hiding underground while their flashy audio visual siblings13 take the world by storm. Sometimes, my husband and I hold hands and scan the sky for constellations14 roughly sketching15 the seasons as they pass overhead. “Is it November already?” We asked each other when Orion rises into view. It’s a way of keeping time inexact at best. But it’s a better reminder16 than the digital alarm clock that wakes us each day at 5 a.m.
When my husband and I first met online a decade ago, we were digital, virtual and filled with instant certainty. But today, our actual lives are analog by nature. We live in the country where dial-up is standard and sometimes progress just puts its feet up and takes a nap. We live our lives based on his best guess and mine.
Maybe the digital revolution like irrational17 number will never come to an end. But for me, there will always be a place for the whisper, the crackle, the shades of mottled gray. For the sake of my own imperfect soul, I believe in analog.
T. Susan Chang with her essay for This I Believe. Chang has been listening to our series for a while when she decided18 it was time to quote,"put her beliefs on paper." She drafted them though on her computer.
To find out about submitting your own essay, visit npr.org for details and to see all the essays in our series. For This I Believe, I’m Jay Allison.
This I Believe is independently produced by Jay Allison, Dan Gediman, John Gregory and Viki Merrick. Support for NPR comes from Prudential Retirement19, sponsor of This I Believe. Prudential believes every worker can achieve a more secure retirement. Prudential Retirement, where beliefs matter.
Support for This I Believe comes from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
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