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Do This When Your Battery Is Running Low

There's a most basic fact about a child: it never knows when it's tired. It just grows convinced that it now hates mummy, that little brother should die, that the button falling off the cardigan is a catastrophe, that its self-respect depends on being allowed to throw the bread knife out of the window sharp end first.

And it's the role of the parent to notice what is being overlooked – and say very gently but with deep conviction: Enough, we need to get you to bed, fast. We do ourselves no such service. We pay no such heed to how our bodies work and when our minds have ceased to do so.

Imagine it's past 7pm; we might have had six hours of patchy sleep, been awake since 6.30am, had four cups of coffee, answered 67 emails, crossed town twice, had four meetings, given two presentations, eaten four slices of pizza, watched 45 short viral films, read about fifteen conflicts and twelve scandals – and now, unbeknownst to us, we have entered a perilous zone in which we need to exercise extraordinary care to have any chance of managing a safe landing.

We need to sense how much danger we are in; the danger of seeing only the idiocies of others as opposed to the reasons they might have committed them; the danger of perceiving accidents as intentions; the danger of being drawn to wind up someone close to us to alleviate our rage at what the world in general has done to us; the danger of thinking that shouting might every now and then solve something.

We're in danger of forgetting how much the day has gradually depleted our sense of perspective. We might not have done anything momentous or heroic, not have climbed a mountain or performed heart surgery – and that is some of the problem. What will kill us in the end will not be one big obvious thing but many decades of invisible minor aggravations and low-grade frictions.

There is so much that we mustn't do. For example, talk about the need to tidy the upstairs cupboard. Bring up what we might do for the holidays; ask why we no longer have any fun. Pick this moment to go through the finances. We must insist to our passionate minds that our mounting anger about the chip in the wall, the missing sellotape or the way the partner said 'really' must be about something else – and this we will have to address at another time.

We need to flag up to those we care about that, though this doesn't read on our faces, that we have slipped into a hugely fragile state. With a mild smile, we can confess that we have, to all intents, gone a bit mad.

So we need to show our love by escaping; we need to give ourselves a long bath and put ourselves in bed not much past nine, early for an adult but a very good time for an exhausted small bunny who has been very active since just after dawn. As kind people have been telling us from the start, it will all seem a lot more bearable in the morning.

词汇表
convinced  [kən'vɪnst] 确信的，深信的
cardigan [ˈkɑː(r)dɪɡən] （开襟）羊毛衫
catastrophe [kə'tæstrəfi]灾难，灾祸
self-respect 自尊，自重
conviction [kən'vɪkʃ(ə)n] 坚信，深信，确信
do someone a service 帮忙某人，做好事
cease (to do) [siːs] 终止，结束，停止
patchy sleep ['pætʃi] 断断续续的睡眠
slice [slaɪs] 薄片，切片
short viral films ['vaɪrəl] 热门短视频
scandal ['skænd(ə)l] 丑闻，流言蜚语
unbeknownst to someone [ˌʌnbɪˈnəʊnst] 不知不觉地，不知情的情况下
perilous zone ['perələs][zəʊn] 危险地带
safe landing 安全着陆
idiocy ['ɪdiəsi] 愚蠢，白痴，愚蠢行为
wind up [waɪnd] 惹恼，使心烦
alleviate the rage [əˈliːvieɪt][reɪdʒ] 缓解愤怒
every now and then 偶尔，有时，不时地
deplete [dɪˈpliːt] 耗尽，使枯竭
sense of perspective [pə(r)ˈspektɪv] 洞察力，远见，视角
momentous [məʊˈmentəs] 重要的，重大的
heroic [hɪˈrəʊɪk] 英雄的，英勇的
minor aggravation [ˌæɡrəˈveɪʃ(ə)n] 小烦恼
low-grade friction ['frɪkʃ(ə)n] 轻度的摩擦
tidy the cupboard ['taɪdi][ˈkʌbə(r)d] 整理橱柜
passionate ['pæʃ(ə)nət] 热烈的，充满激情的
mounting anger ['maʊntɪŋ] 加剧的愤怒
chip [tʃɪp] 缺口，碎屑
sellotape [ˈseləˌteɪp] 透明胶带
flag up [flæɡ] 指出，使注意
slip into [slɪp] 陷入；溜进，滑入
fragile [ˈfrædʒaɪl] 脆弱的，易碎的
confess [kən'fes] 承认，坦白；忏悔
to all intents [ɪn'tent] 实际上
bunny ['bʌni] 小兔子
dawn [dɔːn] 黎明，拂晓，破晓
bearable [ˈbeərəb(ə)l] 承受得起的，可忍受的

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