Americans are “always in a hurry”, wrote Alexis de Tocqueville in “Democracy in America”, his opus published in 1835. Until the covid-19 pandemic, nowhere was this more evident in recent decades than in packed trains at peak times as people commuted to work.?

【1】opus 作品；作品集

亞歷西斯·德·托克維爾在其1835年出版的著作《論美國的民主》中寫道，美國人“總是匆匆忙忙”。在covid-19大流行之前的近幾十年來，這一點從人們上班的高峰期擁擠的火車中可以清晰展現(xiàn)。

Almost 75% of professionals in America say the journey is what they dread most about going back to the office. Working remotely a few days a week is here to stay. Rush-hour traffic, overcrowded trains and transport strikes (like those on London’s tube in the past week) all argue for working from home. Across America and Europe rising fares eat into people’s salaries. The outcry for lower carbon emissions adds additional weight to the argument for millions of employees not undertaking unnecessary journeys. In some emerging cities, getting to work involves honks and epic gridlock as well as accidents.

美國近75%的職場人士表示，這段路程是他們重返辦公室時最害怕的。每周遠程工作幾天是常事。高峰時段的交通、擁擠的火車和交通罷工(就像上周發(fā)生在倫敦地鐵上的罷工)都在支持遠程辦公。在美國和歐洲，不斷上漲的票價會消耗人們的工資。呼吁降低碳排放的呼聲，為數(shù)百萬員工不進行不必要的路程的理由增加了額外的“分量”。在一些新興城市，上班路上經(jīng)常會聽到喇叭聲、遇到嚴重的交通堵塞以及交通事故。

Every now and again, most people will nevertheless need to make the trip to the office and back. Whether you are walking, cycling, on a Vespa, taking the bus, the tram or the subway, the range of options is wide, and rich in texture and colour. Some people will insist that no commute is ever worth the trouble. With the right attitude, though, it does not have to feel like temporary brain damage. This guest Bartleby, who takes the underground to The Economist’s London office three times a week, finds it both useful and oddly fulfilling.?

盡管如此，大多數(shù)人還是時不時地需要往返于辦公室之間。無論你是步行、騎自行車、騎踏板車、乘公共汽車、有軌電車還是地鐵，選擇的范圍都很廣，而且質(zhì)地和顏色都很豐富。有些人會堅持認為，任何通勤都是不值得的。但是，只要有正確的態(tài)度，它就不會讓人感覺像是暫時性的腦損傷。這位名叫巴托比的嘉賓每周坐三次地鐵去《經(jīng)濟學人》的倫敦辦公室，他發(fā)現(xiàn)乘地鐵既有用，又有一種奇怪的滿足感。

Just how useful and fulfilling will depend on what exactly your commute looks like. But unless you hop into your car on your driveway and hop out at your company car park, it will involve at least some physical activity. If you are cycling, or just picking up your walking pace to catch that bus or train, you combine being outdoors with an element of struggle—a healthy amount of which can be invigorating, not draining. And if you don’t catch it, don’t worry. Your hours have almost certainly become more flexible than the previous nine-to-five routine. That next train may anyway be less like a cattle car.

究竟有多有用、有多滿足，將取決于你通勤的具體情況。但是，除非你在自家車道上上車，或者在公司停車場下車，否則至少要進行一些體育活動。如果你正在騎自行車，或者只是加快你的步行速度去趕公共汽車或火車，你將戶外活動與少量奮斗結(jié)合在一起，適量的運動可以使你精力充沛，而不是精疲力竭。如果你沒趕上，也別擔心。你的工作時間肯定比以前朝九晚五的工作時間更靈活了。無論如何，下一列火車可能沒那么像一輛運畜車。

Like all dislocations, even regular and predictable ones, the daily commute is also a time and place where you are more exposed to physical and psychological elements from which you are shielded at home or at work. In “Falling in Love” a film released in 1984, Meryl Streep and Robert De Niro meet as they commute on the same train month after month from the suburbs to New York City, until, one day, they embark on an emotional affair. The plot is banal and the dialogue dim but the idea that a journey injects a sense of risk and possibility is both deep and real.

每天的通勤就像所有的混亂一樣，是常規(guī)且可預(yù)測的混亂，它也是一個時間和地點，在那里你更能了解自己的生理和心理因素，而這是你在家里或工作中被屏蔽掉的東西。在1984年上映的電影《墜入愛河》中，梅麗爾·斯特里普和羅伯特·德尼羅月復(fù)一月地從郊區(qū)乘同一列火車前往紐約，兩人相遇，直到有一天，他們開始了一段感情。故事情節(jié)平淡無奇，對話模糊，但路程會給人帶來風險和可能性的想法是深刻而真實的。

Public transport, which a lot of commuting involves, remains the most democratic way of going to work. As chairman of the Federal Reserve from 1979 to 1987, Paul Volcker travelled coach class on the shuttle from New York to Washington, dc, and took the bus in both cities. As a public servant embodying civic duty, the central banker was known for his financial discipline in personal affairs, as well as monetary policy. At a time when greed was good, and limos, helicopters and private jets were great, frugality from “the custodian of the nation’s money” sent a strong message. As companies bracing for a recession tighten their belts, Volcker’s example seems particularly relevant.

【1】limos 豪華轎車

公共交通仍然是最平等的上班方式，很多通勤都涉及到公共交通。保羅?沃爾克在1979年至1987年擔任美聯(lián)儲主席期間，他乘坐經(jīng)濟艙從紐約前往華盛頓特區(qū)，在兩個城市內(nèi)部都是搭乘公交車。作為一名體現(xiàn)公民義務(wù)的公務(wù)員，這位央行行長以其在私事和貨幣政策方面的財務(wù)紀律而聞名。在那個貪婪是好事，豪華轎車、直升機和私人飛機是偉大的時代，“國家資金的保管人”的節(jié)儉發(fā)出了強烈的信號。在企業(yè)為應(yīng)對經(jīng)濟衰退勒緊褲腰帶之際，沃爾克的例子似乎尤其貼切。

Perhaps most important of all in an era of remote work, the commute helps mark out the mental distance between home and the office, which disappears when the kitchen table has become your work station. It offers a useful buffer—a liminal space separating the personal and the professional.

也許最重要的是，在遠程工作的時代，通勤有助于劃定家與辦公室之間的心理距離，而當廚房的桌子成為你的辦公地時，這種距離就消失了。通勤提供了一個有用的緩沖，一個分隔個人和專業(yè)的閾限空間。

Getting ready to leave for work in the morning involves an element of planning—sometimes even anticipation. Stepping out of your home, and your comfort zone, you feel more alive by default. When walking to the train station, purpose is externalised and compressed. In the afternoon, you can use that time as a curtain to separate the day from the rest of the evening, probe into those pieces of inner life that nag and still feel connected to the world. Bartleby lets her thoughts meander while on the move. Time wasted is time gained.

早上準備去上班涉及到規(guī)劃，有時甚至是期待。走出你的家，走出你的舒適區(qū)，你會自然而然地感到更有活力。當步行去火車站時，目的被具體化和壓縮了。在下午，你可以用這段時間作為一個幕布，把白天和晚上的其他時間分開，探索那些煩人的、仍然感覺與世界相連的內(nèi)心生活。在旅途中，巴托比讓她自己的思緒自由馳騁。浪費的時間就是收獲的時間。

Few people relish holing up in one place for ever. Working remotely from a secluded village in Italy may sound like a treat for a while. Yet like all sameness, it soon begins to feel stifling. In a modern world where de Tocqueville’s words ring true of everyone everywhere, it may seem strange to add to the hurriedness. But not if you think of the commute as punctuation in the larger tale.

【1】hole up 躲藏

【2】sameness 千篇一律

很少有人喜歡永遠躲在一個地方。在意大利一個與世隔絕的村莊遠程工作一段時間聽起來可能是一種享受。然而，就像所有的千篇一律一樣，它很快就開始讓人感到窒息。在當今世界，德·托克維爾的這句話在每個地方都適用，加上“匆忙”似乎有些奇怪。但如果你認為通勤是更大故事中的轉(zhuǎn)折，那就不是這樣了。