自我十岁开始我就有了一个真人骨骼作为我的朋友。 我爸爸是一位 外科解剖医生，他有一套多余的人体骨骼。他把他带回家给我这个理所当然“将成为”医生的长子。
I have had a skeleton as a friend since I was probably 10 years old. My father was a surgical anatomist, and he had an extra set of human skeleton bones, which he brought home to give to his oldest son, who of course was “going to be a doctor,”

我仔细地从头到脚考察这个人体骨骼朋友发现他实在很有趣，因为他是真的人但不是活的我猜想他是谁呢？从哪儿来？但是我从未找到这个答案。
I would examine my skeleton friend from tip to toe and found him rather interesting, as he was actually real, if not alive. I wondered who he was and where he came from, but I never found out.

当我从医学院毕业后回来美国时，我的骨骼朋友也跟着我一块儿被运来了。 那时候， 美国交通安全管理局TSA还没有发明。并且航空海关也没有仔细检查…过关的骨骼， 没有证件证明他的来源以及为什么我把一个死体运来，等等。。
When I graduated from medical school and returned to the USA, my skeleton friend was shipped over totally intact to join me. In those days TSA (Transportation Security Administration, USA) was not invented yet, and airlines did not check carefully about skeletons crossing the border, without documentation of where they came from, and why I was shipping a dead body, sort of….

我的朋友曾经在暑期圣经学校很受欢迎， 因为我常用他来做宣道故事的道具，并且他一出现就很容易地让孩子们兴奋。当传道士来到一个食人肉的村里面对一个挂在入口处的骨骼（我的朋友）时他特别有效果。 当我宣布这是我自童年就有的老朋友时， 一个大人（只有大人才问这样的问题）课后走到我面前问：“他真的是你的朋友吗”？
My friend was a great hit at Vacation Bible School, since I often used him as a prop for stories involving missionaries and cannibals, and he came in really handy to create excitement among the kids. He was especially effective when the missionary arrived at a village of cannibals, and faced a human skull (my friend) hanging at the entrance. When I announced that this was my old friend from childhood, an adult (only adults ask such questions) came by after the lesson, to ask me, “is he really your friend?”

事实上最好的一个有关传道士的头颅故事是 一位传道士所经历过的。 这位传道士的一只眼球是插装在头颅上的假眼球。 当这位传道士 被喜欢 捕捉头颅食人肉的村民追杀到无路可逃的时候， 只得把他的假眼球小心地拿出来放在石头上，十分恰好地让当地人惊奇，以致一直追赶他的人吓得拼命地跑了。我可能永远没办法行这个招术。
Actually the best missionary skull related story was told by a missionary who had an artificial eyeball in his own skull socket, who, when cornered by skull liking cannibals, carefully took out his eyeball and put it on a rock, which suitably impressed the natives, making them flee for their lives. I could never top that trick.

我太太虽然没有不喜欢我的骨骼朋友，但让他真住在房子里觉得不舒服。 所以过去的那么多年他一直得呆在车库里，就算在辛城很冷的冬天也是这样。
My wife Esther, while not disliking my skeleton friend, did not feel comfortable with him actually living inside the house. So for years he had to stay in the garage, even through some very cold winters in Cincinnati. I have bequeathed him to an aspiring medical student, and trust that he will have a warm home to go to.

我想我父亲很英明。他期望我成为一名医生并把很多医学方面的东动西围绕着我： 医学书和仪器， 医学界朋友等等，当然还有骨骼。他常在 “查病房”时带我去医院，所以医院就很本能地成了我生活中的一个自然的部分。
I think my father was very astute. He just “expected” that I would become a doctor, and therefore he surrounded me with medical things: medical books, medical instruments, medical friends, etc. and the skeleton of course, and he often would bring me to the hospital when he made “rounds”, so that the hospital just became instinctively a natural part of my life.

那时候，医院的电话总机接线员可以打电话接通在不同病房里上班的医生。他们的工作是把电话插头插进不同的插座便连接上病房，这看起来很兴奋很有趣。 作为十岁的我， 能让我把电话插头插进插座接通在不同病房里走动的医生是一种很伟大的特权。 我真的很兴奋！
In those days, hospital telephone switchboard operators actually tracked down the doctors by calling the different wards they were supposed to be working in. They had this very exciting job of inserting telephone probes into various jacks to make the connections. As a ten year old, I was given the great privilege of inserting incoming phone lines into jacks that located the wandering doctors. It was really thrilling!

后来， 我父亲在我家房子前面的房间有了一间私人诊所， 所以当我有空我就进入诊所和病人们混在一起。 有时候我会去药房帮助把药磨成粉。（那时候，药常常是磨成粉的后再服的）。 在其它的时间里，我甚至看我父亲缝那些淘气的孩子（总是男孩）脸上或是身体上被割破的伤口。这些真的很有趣！很吸引我！
Later in life, my father had a private practice which was in the front rooms of our home, so when I had a free moment, I would go into the clinic and mix with the patients. Sometimes I would go into the pharmacy and help powder the medicines (in those days, medicines were often ground up into powder form). At other times I could even observe my father stitching wounds of some naughty kid, who had cuts on his (it was always a boy) face or body, which was really intriguing!

现在回顾起来， 我周围的全部世界是一个很伟大的安排。 我喜欢这么说，我父亲的“从不强迫或推销我做。医生”或者甚至“从不要求我”。他只是创造好了配料然后,“期待我并知道我会成为一名医生！”。 真是这样，我期望并知道自己会成为一名医生，甚至在我幼童时自从我能记事起就这样期望。
In retrospect, the entire world around me was a great set up for me. I like to say, that my father “never forced me into medicine,” or even “asked me.” He just created the ingredients and: “expected me to be a doctor!” Indeed, I did expect to be a doctor, even from early childhood, for as long as I can remember thinking about such things.

当你成为父母时，我强烈地建议你微妙地用一种“非语言的” 方式作为你对孩子期望的战略：一个真的骨骼或者是一些骨头也是一个诀窍。事实上我的研究主线无意中变成了钙和维他命D， 是骨头健康的关键。 所以， 也许 我应该为这谢谢我的最喜爱的骨骼朋友：说一声再见，当我将把你搬到一个新家，一位亲爱的朋友家。
When you become a parent, I highly recommend you try a subtle “nonverbal” expectation strategy for your kids: a real skeleton or even some bones might do the trick, or not. Incidentally, my major line of research actually became calcium and vitamin D, the key ingredients for bone health, so maybe I should thank my favorite skeleton for that: and say goodbye, as you move to your new home, dear friend.