乔布斯传之节选41

Cinderella

from Chapter 41

Jobs had an aching desire to make it to his son’s graduation from high school in June 2010. “When I was diagnosed with cancer, I made my deal with God or whatever, which was that I really wanted to see Reed graduate, and that got me through 2009,” he said. As a senior, Reed looked eerily like his father at eighteen, with a knowing and slightly rebellious smile, intense eyes, and a shock of dark hair. But from his mother he had inherited a sweetness and painfully sensitive empathy that his father lacked. He was demonstrably affectionate and eager to please. Whenever his father was sitting sullenly at the kitchen table and staring at the floor, which happened often when he was ailing, the only thing sure to cause his eyes to brighten was Reed walking in.

Reed adored his father. Soon after I started working on this book, he dropped in to where I was staying and, as his father often did, suggested we take a walk. He told me, with an intensely earnest look, that his father was not a cold profit-seeking businessman but was motivated by a love of what he did and a pride in the products he was making.

One Saturday Reed was one of the four contestants on his school’s Quiz Kids team competing on a local TV station. Jobs drove his two-seat Mercedes SL55, taking Reed, while his wife followed in her own car with Erin. On the way home, she asked Erin why she thought her father refused to have a license plate on his car. “To be a rebel,” she answered. I later put the question to Jobs. “Because people follow me sometimes, and if I have a license plate, they can track down where I live,” he replied. “But that’s kind of getting obsolete now with Google Maps. So I guess, really, it’s just because I don’t.”

When his 2011 medical leave was announced, the situation seemed so dire that Lisa Brennan-Jobs got back in touch after more than a year and arranged to fly from New York the following week. Her relationship with her father had been built on layers of resentment. She was understandably scarred by having been pretty much abandoned by him for her first ten years. Making matters worse, she had inherited some of his prickliness and, he felt, some of her mother’s sense of grievance. “I told her many times that I wished I’d been a better dad when she was five, but now she should let things go rather than be angry the rest of her life,” he recalled just before Lisa arrived.

The visit went well. Jobs was beginning to feel a little better, and he was in a mood to mend fences and express his affection for those around him. At age thirty-two, Lisa was in a serious relationship for one of the first times in her life. Her boyfriend was a struggling young filmmaker from California, and Jobs went so far as to suggest she move back to Palo Alto if they got married. “Look, I don’t know how long I am for this world,” he told her. “The doctors can’t really tell me. If you want to see more of me, you’re going to have to move out here. Why don’t you consider it?” Even though Lisa did not move west, Jobs was pleased at how the reconciliation had worked out. “I hadn’t been sure I wanted her to visit, because I was sick and didn’t want other complications. But I’m very glad she came. It helped settle a lot of things in me.”

李刚

乔布斯有一个迫切的愿望,那就是自己能撑到2010年6月高中的儿子的毕业典礼。他说：“当我被诊断出患有癌症时，我恳求上帝能让我看到里德毕业，就这样我挺过了2009年”。里德作为一名毕业班的学生，看起来像他爸爸十八岁时候的样子，微笑中略带叛逆，热情的眼睛，满头黝黑的头发。但是从他的母亲那里，他继承他父亲所缺乏的温柔和同情心。他是个感情丰富让人喜欢的人。每当他的父亲生病，绷着脸坐在在厨房的桌子旁盯着地板时，只有里德走过来的脚步声才能让他眼镜发亮。
里德崇拜他的父亲。在我开始写这本书后不久，他来到我这里，说想和我一起散步——这一点很像他的父亲。他认真地对我说，他的父亲不是一个逐利的商人，而是一个热爱自己的事业，为自己产品骄傲的人。
在一个星期六，里德作为他们学校当地电视台测验儿童团队的四个竞争选手之一在当地电视台比赛。乔布斯开着他的单排奔驰SL55载着里德，而他的妻子开着自己的车载着艾琳跟着。在回家的路上，她问艾琳为什么她认为她的父亲不给他的车的上牌。她说“这样个性”。后来我问乔布斯，他说 “因为有人跟踪我，如果我挂着车牌，他们就会追踪到我住的地方。”他还说 “但是现在有了谷歌地图这种做法似乎没用了。所以我想可能还是因为我不想挂把。“

2011年宣布病假的时候，他的身体状况似乎很糟。离家一年多的女儿丽莎•布伦南•乔布斯也在接下来的一周从纽约飞了回来。十年前她父亲对她的漠视，让她伤痕累累，所以她与她的父亲的关系一直不好。更糟的是，她继承了他的倔强和她母亲小心眼。 丽莎来之前乔布斯回忆道：“我告诉她很多次，我后悔在她五岁的时候我能尽好一个父亲的责任。现在她应该不要整天纠缠过去，而是要想开一些。”

这次访问进行得很顺利。乔布斯感觉好了一点。他在用心去破除这些感情上的沟痕来表达自己对身边人的感情。在32岁时，丽莎经历了她第一段感情。她的男友是来自加利福尼亚州的一个正在奋斗的年轻导演，而乔布斯竟然建议她如果他们结婚话就搬回帕洛阿尔托。 “你看，我不知道我还能在世上活多久，”他告诉丽莎， “医生真的不能告诉我。如果你想看到我多活几天，你们还是搬出去吧。考虑一下吧。”即使丽莎没有搬走，乔布斯对他的表现也很满意。 “我不知道我到底想不想让她呆在这儿，因为我生病了，不想再被他们气着。不过她能来我还是很高兴，她的确帮了我很多事情。“