We book airline tickets, visit beaches, admire glaciers, say hello to penguins, watch elephants drinking, and so on.

我們會訂機票、到海灘旅遊、欣賞冰河、探訪企鵝、看大象喝水，等等。

In all this, the emphasis is almost always on the experience itself, which lasts a certain amount of time and then is over.

在這所有東西當中，重點幾乎總是經驗本身，只會在你心中持續一段時間後就結束了。

The idea of making a big deal of revisiting an experience in memory sounds a little strange or simply sad.

但是大張旗鼓地在記憶中重溫一次經歷的這個想法聽起來有點奇怪，或是完全悲哀。

We're not assiduous or devoted cultivators of our past experiences.

我們並不是過往經歷的勤奮、致力耕耘者。

We shove all the nice things that have happened to us at the back of the cupboard of our minds and don't particularly expect to see them ever again.

我們會把曾發生在我們身上美好經歷埋在我們腦海深處，並且不太會預期再次想起它們。

They happen, and then we're done with them.

它們發生後，我們就讓它們過去。

They do sometimes come back to us, unbidden.

它們的確有時候會無預警地回來找我們。

We may be on a boring train ride to work, and suddenly, an image of a beach at dusk comes to life.

我們可能無聊地坐在通勤的火車上，突然間，黃昏時分海灘的畫面在腦海中重現。

Or, while we're having a bath, we remember climbing a flower-covered mountain with a friend a decade before.

或者是我們在泡澡時，想起了十年前和朋友爬著一座開滿花朵的山。

But little attention tends to get paid to such moments.

但我們對這些瞬間都不會太在意。

We don't engineer regular encounters with them.

我們不會安排與它們的規律性相遇。

We may feel we have to dismiss them as daydreaming or thinking about nothing.

我們可能會覺得必須要將它們視為白日夢或是空想而將它們揮之而去。

But what if we were to alter the hierarchy of prestige a little and argue that regular immersion in our memories is a critical part of what can sustain and console us?

但如果我們稍微改變傳統思維，並且論述經常沉浸在記憶中其實對我們是一個很重要的支持與慰藉，那又如何？

And not least, is perhaps the cheapest and most flexible form of entertainment.

而至少，這也許是最便宜也最有彈性的娛樂形式。

We should learn, regularly, to travel around our minds

我們應該有規律地學習如何在腦中遨遊，

and think it almost as prestigious to sit at home and reflect on a trip we once took to an island as to trek to this island encased in our cumbersome bodies.

並且認為在家裡坐著回想曾經經歷過小島遊這件事，其重要程度就跟我們的軀殼在腦上行走一般。

In our neglect of our memories, we are spoiled children who squeeze only a portion of the pleasure from our experiences, and then toss them aside to seek new thrills.

就被我們忽略的記憶來說，我們像是被寵壞的小孩，只從經歷中抓住一小部份的愉悅，然後就把它們丟到一旁，好再次尋找新刺激。

Part of why we feel the need for so many new experiences may simply be that we're so bad at absorbing the ones we've had.

我們需要這麼多新體驗的一部分原因可能在於我們很難以汲取已擁有的體驗。

To help us focus more on our memories, we need nothing technical.

為了幫助自己更專注於記憶，我們不需要任何科技輔助。

We certainly don't need a camera.

我們肯定不需要相機。

There is a camera in our minds already, and it's always on; it takes everything we've ever seen.

我們腦中早有一部永遠開啟的相機，會拍下我們曾看過的任何東西。

Huge chunks of experience are still there in our heads, intact and vivid, just waiting for us to ask ourselves leading questions like,

一大堆曾有過的經驗仍完整且活生生地在我們腦海裡，靜靜地等著我們去自問一些引導式問題，像是：

"Where did we go after we landed?" or "What was the first breakfast like?"

「降落後我們去了哪裡？」或是「第一頓早餐是什麼樣的呢？」

When we can't sleep, when there is no wi-fi, we should always think of going on memory journeys.

當我們睡不著時、當沒有無線網路可以用時，我們都應該想著來場回憶之旅。

Our experiences have not disappeared just because they're no longer unfolding right in front of our eyes.

我們過往的體驗儘管不再在我們的眼前上演，它們也並沒有逝去。

We can remain in touch with so much of what made them pleasurable simply through the art of evocation.

只要透過喚醒記憶的藝術，我們仍可以與大多數讓我們快樂的體驗發生連結。

We talk endlessly of virtual reality, yet we don't need gadgets.

我們總是無止盡地討論虛擬實境，但我們卻不需要裝置。

We have the finest virtual reality machines already in our own heads.

我們的腦中已經有最好的虛擬實境裝備了。

We can, right now, shut our eyes and travel into and linger amongst the very best and most consoling and life-enhancing bits of our past.

我們現在立刻就可以閉上眼，然後旅行並沈浸在我們自身最棒、最給人安慰且有生命力的那些過往片刻之中。