爲什麼有了小孩就意味着搬家?

Why having a kid means moving away

爲什麼有了小孩就意味着搬家？

D. Watkins from East Baltimore is how I'm often introduced. I'm proud of that, because being from East Baltimore to me means resiliency, heart, grit, and a willingness to take chances.

我經常介紹自己是‘來自東巴爾的摩的沃特金斯（D. Watkins）’。我爲此感到自豪，因爲來自東巴爾的摩意味着我堅韌，且有毅力和勇氣去把握一切機會。

One time in North Carolina, I mouthed off to a pack of angry cops like they don't essentially have a license to kill people who look like me. In Cairo I paid a taxi driver to let me wheel his car around so I could feel like a local. I walked through Abuja, Nigeria, weeks after the United Nations building was bombed, even though I could still smell the smoke. Why? Probably because I'm from East Baltimore, and I always feel like I’ve seen worse.

有次在北卡羅來納州，我向一羣憤怒的警察吐口水，就好像他們根本奈何不了我一樣。在開羅，我把錢給了出租車司機，然後開着他的車到處轉悠，就好像我是本地人一樣。聯合國大樓爆炸後的幾個星期，我步行穿梭在尼日利亞首都阿布賈市，即使這時候我還是能聞到爆炸後的餘煙。爲什麼我要這麼做？可能是因爲我來自東巴爾的摩吧——總感覺自己遇到過更糟糕的事情。

Before I found out my wife Caron was pregnant, I was also "D. Watkins who's never leaving East Baltimore." Navy SEALs couldn't drag me out. These streets are part of me: every block, the couch in Latrobe, then off to Calvert Street. East Baltimore was home.

在發現妻子卡倫（Caron）懷孕之前，我還曾是“永遠不會離開東巴爾的摩的沃特金斯”，海豹突擊隊都趕不走我。這些街道是我的一部分：每一個街區，拉特羅布的沙發，以及卡爾弗特街。東巴爾的摩就是我的家。

In fact, the day my wife told me that she was pregnant, I started looking for houses with yards in one of the safer East Baltimore neighborhoods, like Charles Village or Original Northwood in northeast. I don't even know why I suddenly cared so much about having a yard — I never had a yard growing up — but it seems like good parents have yards for their kids. I decided my son — I don't know why I assumed it would be a son — would have a house with a nice yard, in the safest East Baltimore neighborhood.

事實上，在妻子告訴我懷孕的那天后，我便開始在東巴爾的摩較安全的社區之一（例如查爾斯村或東北方向的原始諾斯伍德）尋找帶院子的房子。我甚至不知道爲什麼我想要找一間帶院子的房子——我的成長環境中就不曾有過院子——但似乎好的父母就應該爲他們的孩子準備一間院子。我決定讓我的兒子——我也不知爲何會覺得它是個兒子——在東巴爾的摩最安全的社區擁有一間帶漂亮院子的房子。

Then I found out we were having a daughter, and suddenly "safe East Baltimore" seemed like an oxymoron. Raising her in a community we know so well is also scary. Will our daughter get the chance to create her own legacy, or be forced to ride the wave of accumulated privilege we have created for her? Between my wife and I, we know everybody here: politicians, rappers, teachers, gang members, pastors, pimps, drug lords, award-winning chefs, the law, and the entire art community, it seems.

孩子出生後，我們發現是個女兒，突然間“安全的東巴爾的摩”變得矛盾起來。在這個我們所熟知的社區將她撫養長大是件很可怕的事情。我們的女兒是否有機會創造自己的財富，還是被迫踏上我們爲她準備的道路？這裏有着形形色色的人：政治家、說唱歌手、老師、幫派成員、牧師、皮條客、毒品大亨、屢獲殊榮的廚師、律師、以及幾乎整個藝術界。