精美英文欣赏:勇敢面对挑战

（单词翻译）

I believe that what we often call survival skills is simply creativity at work.

When I think about how my mother fed all seven of us, making us think that every day was a “different meal,” I still appreciate how much a creative cook can do with a single potato.

And it wasn’t just in the kitchen. She would flip¹ her old Singer sewing machine upright, study pictures in books and magazines, then make ethnic² versions of those same dolls and stuffed animals to sell at church fundraisers. Without a TV in the house to distract us, we made the dolls come to life, filling the hollow fabric³ sleeves one fistful of cotton at a time.

My mother made her own clothes, all my sisters’ prom and wedding dresses. I always knew when she was making something, because she would be singing or humming. She sang all the way through her home correspondence courses in floral design and interior decorating. She made being creative as normal as breathing and encouraged our participation⁴ by telling us that “idle hands and minds were the devil’s workshop.”

I believe that happy children are those given the freedom to be expressive⁵, to discover, to create their own “refrigerator door” masterpieces. I remember mixing tempera paints with powdered detergent⁶ and painting the Baskin-Robbins windows every Christmas season. Not for money, but for all the ice cream I could eat. And every time I saw people look up at the window and smile I knew I was getting the best part of the deal.

I believe that the highest quality of life is full of art and creative expression and that all people deserve it. I believe in a broad definition of what art is and who artists are: Barbers, cooks, auto⁷ detailers, janitors⁸ and gardeners have as much right to claims of artistry as designers, architects, painters and sculptors⁹. Every day, our streets and school buses become art galleries in the form of perfectly¹⁰ spiked¹¹ hair, zigzagging¹² cornrows and dizzying shoelace artistry.

My first collection of art was a milk crate¹³ full of comic books. I survived the projects and my teenage years inspired by my favorite character, the Black Panther, who had only his mind and no superpowers, and Luke Cage, the thick-skinned inner-city Hero for Hire. By the time my “bookish” reputation and thick glasses became a target for the neighborhood bullies¹⁴, I responded by composing juvenile¹⁵, but truly “heroic” rhyming couplets in my head.

Ever since high school, words have continued to serve as my first weapon of choice and my salvation¹⁶. Many of life’s challenges need creative solutions. I believe creativity — in all its many forms — can change the way we think and operate. Celebrating the creativity around us helps maintain our sanity¹⁷ and keeps us happy.

Frank X Walker is Assistant Professor of English at Eastern Kentucky University. He coined the word “Affrilachian" to describe African-Americans living in Appalachia, and he helped found a group of Affrilachian poets. Walker is the author of three collections of poetry and was awarded a prestigious¹⁸ Lannan Literary Fellowship in 2005.