The one overarching word that sums up my experience in Nanjing; convenient. A convenience that has its roots in speed. The Real Fast Life. Everything, everywhere, as soon as you want it. In essence; haste, hurry and “fast-ness” (to butcher a word) attaches to everything one does. Quick, quicker and quickest are the adjectives we associated with any service we want.
概括我在南京经历的一个概括词；方便。 一种根植于速度的便利。 真正的快活。 一切，无处不在，只要你想要它。 从本质上讲；匆忙、匆忙和“快速”（屠宰一个词）都附着在一个人所做的一切上。 快速、更快和最快是我们与我们想要的任何服务相关的形容词。
Waiting for a Didi longer than 1 minute is really not on. Waiting, dare I say, for the metro for 5 minutes can be feel like a sludge; time to get out my phone. Waiting for a Taobao order for longer than 1 night; O No, sigh, woe is me, how will I live without my custom-bamboo-finger massager that connects via Bluetooth to an App that controls LED lights and sends voice messages to remind me that I have not used it in the last 30 seconds?
等待滴滴超过1分钟真的不行。 我敢说，等5分钟的地铁感觉就像泥一样；是时候拿出手机了。 等待淘宝订单超过1个晚上；哦，不，叹气，我真有禍了，没有我的定制竹手指按摩器，我怎么能活下去，它通过蓝牙连接到控制LED灯并发送语音信息来提醒我过去30秒内没有使用它的应用程序？
We live in world rooted in Fastness.
我们生活在根植于Fastness的世界里。
Shakespeare, through Macbeth, spoke of how “Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, Creeps in this petty pace from day to day, To the last syllable of recorded time”. I wonder, if the bard was writing today, if he would change it to “ToNow and ToNow and ToNow, creep into your petty post from swipe to swipe to the last syllable of recorded Instachat” .
莎士比亚通过《麦克白》谈到了“明天，明天，明天，日复一日地以这种琐碎的步伐爬行，直到记录时间的最后一个音节”。 我想知道，如果吟遊詩人今天在写作，他是否会把它改成“ToNow and ToNow and ToNow，悄悄进入你的琐碎帖子，从滑动到滑动到录制的Instachat的最后一个音节”。
For us: the fastness of life is our greatest benefit, and yet our greatest tragedy.
对我们来说：生命的紧固是我们最大的利益，也是我们最大的悲剧。
Nanjing, and China, are no different from the global world in which we live. I see it in my dear South Africa; we have shortened our wait times, and also shortened our expectations. We create an anticipation of need for every small thing we buy, and in doing so we create an expectation of instant growth of character and life. Life is a Now, not a journey, not a joy, but a list that needs to be ticked.
南京和中国与我们生活的全球世界没有区别。 我在我亲爱的南非看到了它；我们缩短了等待时间，也缩短了我们的期望。 我们对购买的每一件小东西都产生了需求的预期，在这样做时，我们产生了对性格和生活的即时成长的期望。 生活是现在，不是旅程，不是快乐，而是需要勾选的清单。
Jonathan Haidt has written brilliantly in The Anxious Generation as to how devices are rewiring our brains, in particular those of teenagers (if you have, or work, with teenagers, this has to be one of most important books one can read!). Yet the effects of this rewiring have impacted us all; our fast living and instant attention spans have real consequences to the meaning and values of our lives. Integrity of character and thought cannot be developed speedily.
乔纳森·海德特在《焦虑的一代》中出色地写了关于设备如何重新接线我们的大脑，特别是青少年的大脑（如果你有或与青少年一起工作，这一定是人们可以阅读的最重要的书籍之一！）。 然而，这种重新接线的影响已经影响了我们所有人；我们的快活和即时注意力对我们生活的意义和价值观产生了真正的影响。 性格和思想的完整性不能迅速发展。
As a teacher of literature, I worry that reading; one of the great gifts given to humanity in guiding reflection of self and empathy; is one of the easiest casualties of our fast-paced life. Our recent visit to the Nanjing library was so impressive; a great monument to knowledge; thousands of books spread over numerous floors with places to read and study all at our fingertips. Yet, the same irony was present, as many, myself included, indulged in looking at a phone too many times (what WeChat, what news?), instead of the great reportative of human knowledge available.
作为一名文学老师，我担心阅读；人类在引导反思自我和同理心方面给予人类的伟大礼物之一；是我们快节奏生活中最容易牺牲的受害者之一。 我们最近对南京图书馆的参观令人印象深刻；这是一座伟大的知识纪念碑；数千本书分布在许多楼层，阅读和学习的地方触手可及。 然而，同样的讽刺也存在，因为许多人，包括我自己，沉迷于看太多次手机（什么微信，什么新闻？），而不是对人类知识的伟大报道。
If, like me, you are entering into your 5th decade of life, a reflection on the amount of books one could still read is utterly sobering. If I, by grace, live another 45 years, and read a book a week every year, I would be able to read just over 2000 books. And the chances of getting through 51 books a year itself is an impossible thought.
如果你像我一样，即将进入人生的第5个十年，反思一个人仍然可以读多少书是完全清醒的。 如果我靠着恩典再活45年，每周读一本书，我就能读2000多本书。 每年读完51本书的机会本身就是一个不可能的想法。
I have no doubt, though, that I do read thousands of words a week on my device. Yet this is shallow, lacking in substance, not building character, and it leads to comparisons, anxiety and much discontentment.
不过，我毫不怀疑，我每周确实在我的设备上阅读数千个单词。 然而，這是淺薄的，缺乏實質內容，沒有塑造性格，它導致了比較、焦慮和許多不滿。
To read stories, from classics to great fantastical fiction, is far better than any social media or breaking news post! Yet, even when am reading, I find myself subconsciously reaching for a device, a notification, something that my brain reminds me is a Now.
阅读故事，从经典到伟大的奇幻小说，远比任何社交媒体或突发新闻帖子都好！ 然而，即使在阅读时，我也发现自己下意识地伸手去拿一个设备，一个通知，我的大脑提醒我的东西是现在。
Conceivably, apart from the neglect of depth in our minds, our fast life is always leading to a lack of meaningful relationships and conversation.
可以想象，除了忽视我们头脑中的深度外，我们快活总是导致缺乏有意义的关系和对话。
Again, our devices loom large; heading out for dinner and sitting opposite your love and yet you both end up on your phone is so easy to picture.
再一次，我们的设备迫在眉睫；出去吃晚饭，坐在你的爱人的对面，但你们俩最终都在玩手机，这很容易想象。
Yet, perhaps in the speed of life we expect, we also lack the willingness to invest time and energy into forming the deeper, slower bounds of friendship. We meet friends; in two days we expect family; we go on a dating app, and end up with hollow and horrid shadows of true love.
然而，也许在我们预期的生活速度中，我们也缺乏投入时间和精力来形成更深、更慢的友谊界限的意愿。 我们遇到了朋友；两天后，我们期待家人；我们上了一个约会应用程序，最后得到了真爱的空洞而可怕的阴影。
In wanting the Now, we struggle to take the time and energy to nurture these relationships. Family and friendship through the years struggle against the call to do now, be now, live now.
在想要现在的时候，我们努力花时间和精力去培养这些关系。 多年来，家庭和友谊与现在做、做现在、活在的召唤作斗争。
So perhaps the challenge we need to place on ourselves is to allow the fast life to work in our favour. We have convenience, we have instant food, deliveries, transport, communication, contact and holidays; this surely gives us free time that is unequalled in the history of the world.
因此，也许我们需要给自己带来的挑战是让快活对我们有利。 我们有便利，我们有速食食品、送货、交通、沟通、联系和假期；这肯定给了我们世界历史上无与伦比的空闲时间。
Think of our some of the great projects of history; our ancestors building walls in Nanjing and Istanbul and Scotland.
想想我们一些伟大的历史项目；我们的祖先在南京、伊斯坦布尔和苏格兰筑墙。
These ancestors giving their all to life and working for food, heart, home and every morsel. We truly are the realisation of their dreams in having all they could hope for at our hands. Yet, we seem to squander it.
这些祖先为生活付出了一切，为食物、心灵、家园和每一小事而努力。 我们真的是他们梦想的实现，他们所希望的一切都掌握在我们手中。 然而，我们似乎浪费了它。
Thus, we must start to use this free time to our benefit, not that of the fast social media phone life. I know I am being the hypocrite in writing these words; yet, as a New Year dawns, perhaps we can bring some better commitments. Ones we can hold fast to.
因此，我们必须开始利用这些空闲时间来造福我们，而不是快速的社交媒体手机生活。 我知道我在写这些话时是个伪君子；然而，随着新年的来临，也许我们可以做出一些更好的承诺。 那些我们可以紧握的。
And so much of it is linked to our devices; if we can master them, and the fast world they promise, we can perhaps benefit from life in the fast lane while keeping our minds, souls and hearts in the slow drip of reality.
其中大部分都与我们的设备有关；如果我们能掌握它们，以及它们承诺的快速世界，我们也许可以从快车道上的生活中受益，同时让我们的思想、灵魂和心灵保持在现实的缓慢滴水中。
So, every day, I will use the fastness at my disposable; I will place my order on Taobao, get a lift home with Didi, have Hema and Meituan deliver to my door, speak to my friends and family across the globe, and then, when at home at night, I will place my phone in a box, away from my hands, and just read. An old-school solution for a new problem; a deliberate “fast” out of the fast-paced life.
所以，每天，我都会使用一次性的紧固件；我会在淘宝上下订单，和滴滴一起搭便车回家，让Hema和美团送货上门，与世界各地的朋友和家人交谈，然后，晚上在家时，我会把手机放在一个盒子里，远离我的手，只是阅读。 解决新问题的老派解决方案；有意识地“快速”摆脱快节奏的生活。
An out of sight and out of mind solution to bring back one’s sight and mind to the important over the urgent. I think that, if I can be properly offline for just 2 hours, the Now will not be so urgent, the Fast will be allowed to slow, and this deeper “Fast” will allow a slowness to return, in a small way, to the rhythm of life.
一个看不见和看不见的解决方案，将一个人的视觉和思想带回重要而不是紧急的事情。 我认为，如果我能正常离线2小时，现在就不会那么紧急了，禁食将被允许放慢脚步，而这种更深的“禁食”将允许慢速以小的方式回到生活的节奏中。
So, as we quickly begin a new year, we still need to ask with urgency: To Do, or to Be. That is the question for our generation.
因此，当我们迅速开始新的一年时，我们仍然需要紧急询问：做还是做。 这是我们这一代人的问题。