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There is nothing either good or bad, I had heard in high school, from Hamlet, but thinking makes it so. I had been lucky enough at that point to 1)stumble into the life I might have dreamed of as a boy: a great job writing on world affairs for Time magazine, an apartment on 2)Park Avenue, enough time and money to take vacations in 3)Burma, 4)Morocco, 5)El Salvador. But every time I went to one of those places, I noticed that the people I met there, 6)mired in difficulty and often warfare, seemed to have more energy and even optimism than the friends Id grown up with in privileged, peaceful 7)Santa Barbara, Calif., many of whom were on their fourth marriages and seeing a 8)therapist every day. Though I knew that poverty certainly didnt buy happiness, I wasnt convinced that money did either. 高中时我从《哈姆雷特》中读到下面这句话：事情并没有好坏之分，只不过取决于人的想法。我一直很幸运，无意间过上了从孩提时代便一直梦想着的生活：一份为《时代》杂志报道国际事务的好工作、一套位于派克大街上的公寓、有足够的时间和金钱去缅甸、摩洛哥和萨尔瓦多度假。但是，每一次去那些地方，我都注意到那里的人们，纵使深陷困境及战争，但相比那些和我一起在条件优越、和平的加州圣巴巴拉市长大的朋友，他们看起来更有活力，甚至更乐观。我的那些朋友很多都正经历第四次婚姻，每天都去看心理治疗师。虽然我知道贫穷一定买不到快乐，但是我相信金钱同样无能为力。 | 
