Mountain biking in Israel is something that I do with great passion and commitment. And when I'm on my bike, I feel that I connect with the profound beauty of Israel, and I feel that I'm united with this country's history and biblical law. And also, for me, biking is a matter of empowerment. When I reach the summit of a steep mountain in the middle of nowhere, I feel young, invincible, eternal. It's as if I'm connecting with some legacy or with some energy far greater than myself. You can see my fellow riders at the end of the picture, looking at me with some concern. And here is another picture of them. Unfortunately, I cannot show their faces, neither can I disclose their true names, and that's because my fellow riders are juvenile inmates, offenders spending time in a correction facility about 20 minutes' ride from here -- well, like everything in Israel. And I've been riding with these kids once a week, every Tuesday, rain or shine, for the last four years and by now, they've become a very big part of my life.
在以色列的山地自行车运动 对我来说既是一件充满激情的事情 又是一项责任。 当我骑在我的自行车上, 我能够感受到 自己与以色列那深沉之美的连结。 还会体会到 我与这个国家的历史 和圣经律法的结合。 同时呢,对我来说, 自行车是一项提升自我认识的运动。 当我到达一个甚至不知在何处的 陡峭山峰的顶端时, 我能感觉到年轻, 无可战胜,以及永恒的力量。 就好像我与远比我强大的 某种传奇或某种力量 交融在了一起。 你们可以在照片的尾部 看到那些同行者 担心地看着我。 这是他们的另一张照片。 很抱歉的是我不能展示他们的面孔, 也不能公开他们的姓名, 因为与我骑车同行的 是少年犯, 他们 是呆在离这里骑车20分钟的教养所里的 年轻罪犯。 当然在以色列到哪都是20分钟。 而我呢,与这些孩子每周出去骑行一次, 每个星期二,不论刮风下雨,已经持续四年了。 现在,他们已经成为我生命中非常重要的一部分。
This story began four years ago. The correction facility where they are locked up happens to be right in the middle of one of my usual trips, and it's surrounded by barbed wires and electric gates and armed guards. So on one of these rides, I talked my way into the compound and went to see the warden. I told the warden that I wanted to start a mountain biking club in this place and that basically I wanted to take the kids from here to there. And I told him, "Let's find a way in which I'll be able to take out 10 kids once a week to ride with in the summer in the country." And the warden was quite amused, and he told me he thought that I was a nut and he told me, "This place is a correction facility. These guys are serious offenders. They are supposed to be locked up. They aren't supposed to be out at large." And yet, we began to talk about it, and one thing led to another. And I can't see myself going into a state prison in New Jersey and making such a proposition, but this being Israel, the warden somehow made it happen. And so two months later, we found ourselves "at large" -- myself, 10 juvenile inmates and a wonderful fellow named Russ, who became a very good friend of mine and my partner in this project.
这个故事开始于四年前。 关押他们的教养所 不偏不倚的就在我的一个 经常选择的骑行路线上, 那是个被倒刺铁丝, 电门和武装看守包围的地方。 所以在一次骑行经过的时候, 我经过各种说服进入了这个大院 并去见了狱长。 我告诉狱长 我想在这个地方办一个山地自行车俱乐部。 而且我的计划基本上就是将这里的孩子 从教养所带到山里骑行。 然后我跟他说,“让我们想一个方案, 让我每周能带10个孩子 一起在这个国家的美丽夏天里骑车远行。” 狱长感到很好笑, 他告诉我他觉得我就是个疯子。 他还说, “这个地方是教养所。这些家伙是严重的罪犯。 他们应该被关着。 而不是成群地被放出去。” 不管怎样,我们开始讨论这个提议, 而且一步步的向前推进。 我不可想象自己 走进一个新泽西的州立监狱 并提出这样一个提案, 不过这是在以色列, 狱长神奇地让整个方案可以通过并运作了。 于是两个月后, 我们这样一群人就诞生了 包括我, 10个少年犯, 还有一个现在已经成为我非常好的朋友, 名叫Russ鲁斯的一个出色的伙计, 他已成为了这个项目的合作伙伴。
And in the next few weeks, I had the tremendous pleasure of introducing these kids to the world of total freedom, a world consisting of magnificent vistas like these -- everything you see here is obviously in Israel -- as well as close encounters with all sorts of small creatures coming in all sorts of sizes, colors, shapes, forms and so on. In spite of all this splendor, the beginning was extremely frustrating. Every small obstacle, every slight uphill, would cause these fellows to stop in their tracks and give up. So we had a lot of this going on. I found out that they had a very hard time dealing with frustration and difficulties -- not because they were physically unfit. But that's one reason why they ended up where they were. And I became increasingly more and more agitated, because I was there not only to be with them, but also to ride and create a team and I didn't know what to do.
于是在接下来的几周里,我享受着巨大的快乐, 向这些孩子们 介绍着一个充满自由的世界, 一个由壮丽绝美的景色组成的世界 就像这些地方: 你们现在所看到的一切很显然都是在以色列, 包括与这些小生命的 亲密接触, 它们有着不同的大小, 颜色,形状,形式 等等。 在这些美好的背后, 最初的时间里其实是很令人受挫的。 每个小小的障碍, 每个缓缓的爬坡, 都能让这些孩子 停在路上并放弃。 所以我们有许多这样的场景。 我发现他们很不擅长 应对挫折和困难 而并不是因为他们在身体上做不到。 但这就是他们会成为现在这样的原因之一。 随之我变得越来越焦躁, 因为我在这里的角色, 不仅仅是陪着他们 更重要的是组建一个山地骑行的团队。 但我不知道能做什么。
Now, let me give you an example. We're going downhill in some rocky terrain, and the front tire of Alex gets caught in one of these crevasses here. So he crashes down, and he gets slightly injured, but this does not prevent him from jumping up and then starting to jump up and down on his bike and curse violently. Then he throws his helmet in the air. His backpack goes ballistic in some other direction. And then he runs to the nearest tree and starts to break branches and throw rocks and curse like I've never heard. And I'm just standing there, watching this scene with a complete disbelief, not knowing what to do. I'm used to algorithms and data structures and super motivated students, and nothing in my background prepared me to deal with a raging, violent adolescent in the middle of nowhere. And you have to realize that these incidents did not happen in convenient locations. They happened in places like this, in the Judean Desert, 20 kilometers away from the nearest road. And what you don't see in this picture is that somewhere between these riders there, there's a teenager sitting on a rock, saying, "I'm not moving from here. Forget it. I've had it." Well, that's a problem because one way or another, you have to get this guy moving because it's getting dark soon and dangerous.
让我来展现一个例子。 我们正从一个布满岩石的地段向下骑行, Alex亚历克斯的前胎 卡在这其中的一个裂缝里。 所以他摔了下来, 受了轻微的擦伤, 不过这伤痛并没阻止他跳起来, 然后在他的车上跳上跳下 还疯狂地咒骂。 然后他把头盔扔了出去。 他的背包从另一个方向也飞了出去。 然后他跑向最近的一棵树 开始折树枝,扔石头, 并用我听都没听过的话漫骂。 而我就站在那 怀着难以置信的感觉 看着这一幕, 不知所措。 我更习惯于应对算法 数据结构 和非常积极的学生, 而我过去的经历 没有一样教我如何 在一个荒芜人烟的地方 面对这样一个狂怒粗暴的青少年。 你要知道这些情况 并不是发生在一个令人舒适的地方。 他们发生在像这样的地方 发生在犹太沙漠, 距离最近的公路也有20公里。 而且你在这张图片里所看不到的 是在这些骑行者之间的某处, 有个少年正坐在一块石头上说: “我不会从这里再动一步。放弃吧。 我受够了。” 这就是个问题了。 因为不管怎样,你得让这个家伙重新行动起来。 天很快就会变黑,会很危险。
It took me several such incidents to figure out what I was supposed to do. At the beginning, it was a disaster. I tried harsh words and threats and they took me nowhere. That's what they had all their lives. And at some point I found out, when a kid like this gets into a fit, the best thing that you can possibly do is stay as close as possible to this kid, which is difficult, because what you really want to do is go away. But that's what he had all his life, people walking away from him. So what you have to do is stay close and try to reach in and pet his shoulder or give him a piece of chocolate. So I would say, "Alex, I know that it's terribly difficult. Why don't you rest for a few minutes and then we'll go on." "Go away you maniac-psychopath. Why would you bring us to this goddamn place?" And I would say, "Relax, Alex. Here's a piece of chocolate." And Alex would go, "Arrrrggg!" Because you have to understand that on these rides we are constantly hungry -- and after the rides also.
发生了几次这样的事件之后我才知道我应该做些什么。 最开始糟糕极了。 我尝试训斥和威胁, 但一点作用也没有。 他们生活里本来就充满了这些东西。 但我某一天发现了, 当一个孩子这样表现时, 你所能做的最适合的事儿 是尽可能与这个孩子近距离交流, 这是很难的, 因为你真正想的是远离他。 但他生命中最多的恰恰是这种离开, 每个人都远离他。 所以你需要走近他 并试着用心和他交流, 拍拍他的肩膀 或给他一块巧克力。 所以我会说,“亚历克斯, 我知道这非常困难。 为什么不先休息几分钟, 然后我们再继续出发。” “走开你这疯子,神经病。 你为什么把我们带到这个鬼地方?” 然后我会说,“放松,亚历克斯。 来吃快巧克力。” 然后亚历克斯就会开始“嗷——!”(狼吞虎咽地吃巧克力) 因为你要知道 在这样的骑行过程中我们会一直很饥饿 骑完也是。
And who is this guy, Alex, to begin with? He's a 17-year-old. When he was eight, someone put him on a boat in Odessa and sent him, shipped him to Israel on his own. And he ended up in south Tel Aviv and did not have the good luck to be picked up by a [unclear] and roamed the streets and became a prominent gang member. And he spent the last 10 years of his life in two places only, the slums and the state prison, where he spent the last two years before he ended up sitting on this rock there. And so this kid was probably abused, abandoned, ignored, betrayed by almost every adult along the way. So, for such a kid, when an adult that he learns to respect stays close to him and doesn't walk away from him in any situation, irrespective of how he behaves, it's a tremendous healing experience. It's an act of unconditional acceptance, something that he never had.
这个亚历克斯是怎样的一个人呢? 他17岁。 当他八岁时, 某个人把他带到了敖德萨的一艘船上, 把他自己一个人运到了 以色列。 于是他最终到了特拉维夫的南面, 很不幸地 他被坏人带走, 在街上游荡 最后成为了一个臭名昭著的帮会成员。 他最近十年的生活 只在两个地方度过-- 贫民窟和州立监狱, 他在这个监狱呆了两年 直到现在坐在这块石头上。 所以这个孩子可能 曾遭受过几乎每个 他身边的成年人的 虐待,抛弃,冷漠和背叛。 所以,对于这样一个孩子, 当一个他想去尊敬的成年人与他近距离地在一起用心交流, 在任何情况下 都不离开他, 不管他是怎样表现的, 这是一个极其有效的治疗感化过程。 这是一种他从没拥有过的 无条件的接纳。
I want to say a few words about vision. When I started this program four years ago, I had this original plan of creating a team of winning underdogs. I had an image of Lance Armstrong in my mind. And it took me exactly two months of complete frustration to realize that this vision was misplaced, and that there was another vision supremely more important and more readily available. It all of a sudden dawned on me, in this project, that the purpose of these rides should actually be to expose the kids to one thing only: love. Love to the country, to the uphill and the downhill, to all the incredible creatures that surround us -- the animals, the plants, the insects -- love and respect to other fellow members in your team, in your biking team, and most importantly, love and respect to yourself, which is something that they badly miss.
我想简单介绍一下这个项目的愿景。 当我四年前刚刚创办这个项目时。 我最初的计划是 组建一个 失败者战胜自己的队伍。 我脑海里有一副 兰斯·阿姆斯特朗的图像。 然后它耗费我整整两个月 备受折磨的时间 来意识到这个愿景 不是最合适的, 而有另一个愿景 一个要重要的多 而且更加可行的愿景。 我醍醐灌顶地意识到 这个项目中骑行的意义 应该是 让这些孩子们感受到一样东西。 那就是:爱, 对于田园的爱, 对于山丘的爱, 对于所有我们周围美妙的生物的爱—— 就像那些动物,植物 和昆虫, 热爱并尊敬 你的自行车团队中的 伙伴, 而且更重要的是 热爱并尊敬自己, 这正是他们 最缺少的东西。
Together with the kids, I also went through a remarkable transformation. Now, I come from a cutthroat world of science and high technology. I used to think that reason and logic and relentless drive were the only ways to make things happen. And before I worked with the kids, anything that I did with them, or anything that I did with myself, was supposed to be perfect, ideal, optimal, but after working with them for some time, I discovered the great virtues of empathy and flexibility and being able to start with some vision, and if the vision doesn't work, well nothing happened. All you have to do is play with it, change it a little bit, and come up with something that does help, that does work. So right now, I feel more like these are my principles, and if you don't like them, I have others.
和这些孩子一起, 我也经历了一个巨大的转变。 我来自一个充满科学与高科技 的竞争激烈的社会。 我过去常常认为原因,逻辑 和不停地前进 是实现一件事的唯一途径。 在我开始解决这些孩子的问题前, 所有我为他们, 或为我自己做的事儿, 都应该是做到理想的, 完美无缺的,最令人满意的, 但我与他们相处了一段时间之后, 我发现了彼此关爱,与随意淡然 所带来的美好, 并开始有了一些新愿景, 如果这些愿景不能实现,那就是什么事儿都没发生而已。 你所要做的就是融入它,一点点地改变它, 并带来一些确实能够有效帮助的东西。 所以现在,我会说 这些是我的原则, 如果你不喜欢它们, 我还有其他的。
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And one of these principles is focus. Before each ride we sit together with the kids, and we give them one word to think about during the ride. You have to focus their attention on something because so many things happen. So these are words like "teamwork" or "endurance" or even complicated concepts like "resource allocation" or "perspective," a word that they don't understand. You know, perspective is one of these critically important life-coping strategies that mountain biking can really teach you. I tell kids when they struggle through some uphill and feel like they cannot take it anymore, it really helps to ignore the immediate obstacles and raise your head and look around and see how the vista around you grows. It literally propels you upwards. That's what perspective is all about. Or you can also look back in time and realize that you've already conquered steeper mountains before. And that's how they develop self-esteem.
这些原则中的一条就是 专注。 每次出发之前 我们与这些孩子坐在一起, 并给他们一个词语, 让他们在骑行的过程中思考。 你需要让他们的注意力集中于某件事上, 因为很多事儿会发生。 这些词语比如团队合作, 忍耐, 甚至是一些复杂的概念 像资源分配, 展望,这些他们并不明白的词语。 要知道,展望 是山地自行车运动能真正教给他们的 众多应对生活的 极为重要策略之一。 我告诉孩子们 当他们在上坡中挣扎 觉得无法再承受的时候, 真正有帮助的是忘掉眼前的障碍 抬起你的头望向四周 看看在你周围不断延伸的自然美景。 这真的会驱使你继续前进。 这正是展望的意义。 或者你也可以回头望望 意识到你已经征服过 那些较陡的山坡。 这正是他们建立自尊自信的方法。
Now, let me give you an example of how it works. You stand with your bike at the beginning of February. It's very cold, and you're standing in one of these rainy days, and it's drizzling and cold and chilly, and you're standing in, let's say, Yokneam. And you look up at the sky through a hole in the clouds you see the monastery at the top of the Muhraka -- that's where you're supposed to climb now -- and you say, "There's no way that I could possibly get there." And yet, two hours later you find yourself standing on the roof of this monastery, smeared with mud, blood and sweat. And you look down at Yokneam; everything is so small and tiny. And you say, "Hey, Alex. Look at this parking lot where we started. It's that big. I can't believe that I did it." And that's the point when you start loving yourself.
现在让我举个例子。 在二月初你站在自行车旁。 气温非常低,而且你还在经常下雨的时候要骑行, 现在正下着毛毛雨 寒冷至极, 假设,你现在正站在Yokneam(以色列北部的一个小城)。 抬头仰望天空和云。 你将看到Muhraka顶部的修道院—— 那就是你要骑到的地方—— 然后你会说,“我绝对不可能到得了那。” 但是,两个小时候后, 你发现自己骑到了并站在这个修道院的屋顶上, 浑身沾满泥土, 并付出心血与汗水。 然后你向下望向Yokneam, 所有的东西都变得如此微小。 然后你就会说,“嘿,亚历克斯,看看我们出发的那个停车场。 它只有那么点大。 我们真地做到了,这真是不可思议。” 而这就是 你开始热爱自己的时刻。
And so we talked about these special words that we teach them. And at the end of each ride, we sit together and share moments in which those special words of the day popped up and made a difference, and these discussions can be extremely inspiring. In one of them, one of the kids once said, "When we were riding on this ridge overlooking the Dead Sea -- and he's talking about this spot here -- "I was reminded of the day when I left my village in Ethiopia and went away together with my brother. We walked 120 kilometers until we reached Sudan. This was the first place where we got some water and supplies." And he goes on saying, and everyone looks at him like a hero, probably for the first time in his life. And he says -- because I also have volunteers riding with me, adults, who are sitting there listening to him -- and he says, "And this was just the beginning of our ordeal until we ended up in Israel. And only now," he says, "I'm beginning to understand where I am, and I actually like it." Now I remember, when he said it, I felt goosebumps on my body, because he said it overlooking the Moab Mountains here in the background. That's where Joshua descended and crossed the Jordan and led the people of Israel into the land of Canaan 3,000 years ago in this final leg of the journey from Africa.
所以我们讨论 这些我们教给他们的词语。 在每次骑行结束后,我们坐在一起 分享这一天中 那些特殊的词语出现 并产生了一些改变的瞬间。 这些讨论 是非常令人振奋的。 在他们中间,有一个孩子曾经说, “当我们在这个俯瞰死海的 山脊上骑车时—— 他说的是这个地方—— 我想起了 我离开埃塞俄比亚村庄的那一天, 我是和我的兄弟一起离开的。 我们走了120公里 一直走到苏丹。 那是我们第一个得到水和补给的地方。” 他继续说着,每个人都像看着一个英雄一样望着他, 而这可能是他生命里的第一次。 他继续说着——因为有成年志愿者和我一起骑行, 也坐在这 听他讲述。 他说,“这只是对我们自身 苦难的考验 直到我们到达以色列。 而直到现在,”他说道, “我才意识到我身在何处, 而且我喜欢上它了。” 当他说这番话的时候, 我感到肃然起敬, 因为他边说边望向摩押山。 那是约书亚开始下行 穿越约旦 并带领以色列的人民来到了迦南(上帝应允给亚伯拉罕的地方), 这是3000年前 始于非洲的漫漫征途 的最后一段。
And so, perspective and context and history play key roles in the way I plan my rides with the kids. We visit Kibbutzim that were established by Holocaust survivors. We explore ruins of Palestinian villages, and we discuss how they became ruins. And we go through numerous remnants of Jewish settlements, Nabatic settlements, Canaanite settlements -- three-, four, five-thousand years old. And through this tapestry, which is the history of this country, the kids acquire what is probably the most important value in education, and that is the understanding that life is complex, and there's no black and white. And by appreciating complexity, they become more tolerant, and tolerance leads to hope.
因此展望,环境和历史 在我设计与这些孩子的 骑行计划时 起到了 关键作用。 我们拜访了由大屠杀幸存者 建起来的以色列集体农场。 我们探索了 巴勒斯坦的村庄废墟, 并一起讨论这里是如何变成这个样子的。 我们穿越了许多残存的 犹太定居点,纳巴提克定居点, 和迦南人定居点, 这些已有三四千到五千年的历史了。 从这些代表以色列国家历史的 的美妙景色中, 孩子们获得了 教育过程中也许 最重要的东西, 那就是理解生活是复杂多元化的, 没有简单的黑与白。 通过领会这个复杂多元化, 他们变得更加能忍耐, 而忍耐则带来希望。
I ride with these kids once a week, every Tuesday. Here's a picture I took last Tuesday -- less than a week ago -- and I ride with them tomorrow also. In every one of these rides I always end up standing in one of these incredible locations, taking in this incredible landscape around me, and I feel blessed and fortunate that I'm alive, and that I sense every fiber in my aching body. And I feel blessed and fortunate that 15 years ago I had the courage to resign my tenured position at NYU and return to my home country where I can do these incredible rides with this group of troubled kids coming from Ethiopia and Morocco and Russia. And I feel blessed and fortunate that every week, every Tuesday -- and actually every Friday also -- I can once again celebrate in the marrow of my bones the very essence of living in Israel on the edge.
我与这些孩子每周一起骑行一次, 每个周二。 这是我上个周二拍的照片——不到一周之前—— 我明天也会和他们一同骑车出行。 每一次出行 我总会站在像这样的不可思议的地方, 游目骋怀。 我感到恩惠与幸运, 因为我活着, 我感受着身体里 每一根疼痛的神经。 我感到恩惠与幸运, 因为15年前 我有勇气辞去了 纽约大学的终身职位 并回到了我的故乡, 与这些来自埃塞俄比亚, 摩洛哥和俄罗斯的 问题少年一起开始 这些不可思议的自行车之旅。 我感到恩惠与幸运 因为每周周二 实际上还有周五, 我可以再一次用 最纯粹的身心 去感悟生活在以色列的山峦间的精髓。
Thank you.
谢谢。
(Applause)
(掌声)