Dear Little One,

亲爱的小宝贝，

Recently, your mother and I were searching the Internet, and Google returned a list of the most popular searches in the world. Perched at the top was “How to keep him interested.”

最近，你母亲和我正在搜索互联网，谷歌返回一张世界上最流行的搜索列表。位于顶端的是“如何让他感兴趣。”

It startled me. I scanned several of the countless¹ articles about how to be sexy, when to bring him a beer versus² a sandwich, and the ways to make him feel smart and superior.

这吓了我一跳。我浏览了无数文章中的几篇，关于如何变得性感、何时给他一瓶啤酒和三明治以及让他感觉聪明和优越的方法。

And I got angry.

我生气了。

Little One, it is not, has never been, and never will be your job to “keep him interested.”

小宝贝，这不是、从来不曾是、且永远不会是你的工作来“让他感兴趣”。

Little One, your only task is to know deeply in your soul—in that unshakable place that isn’t rattled³ by rejection⁴ and loss and ego—that you are worthy⁵ of interest. (If you can remember that everyone else is worthy of interest also, the battle of your life will be mostly won. But that is a letter for another day.)

小宝贝，你唯一的任务是在你灵魂里深深地知道——在那坚定不移、不因拒绝和失去以及自我而慌乱的地方——你值得关注。（如果你能记住，其他每个人也值得关注，你的人生之战多数会赢。但这是另一天的信。）

If you can trust your worth in this way, you will be attractive in the most important sense of the word: You will attract a boy who is both capable of interest and who wants to spend his one life investing all his interest in you.

如果你能这样相信你的价值，你会在世界上大多数重要场合引人注目：你会让一个男孩为你着迷，他不仅能有兴趣，而且想花一辈子时间投入他的全部兴趣在你身上。

Little One, I want to tell you about the boy who doesn’t need to be kept interested, because he knows you are interesting:

小宝贝，我想告诉你，这个男孩不需要一直感兴趣，因为他知道你是有趣的：

I don’t care if he puts his elbows on the dinner table—as long as he puts his eyes on the way your nose scrunches⁶ when you smile. And then can’t stop looking.

我不介意他是否将手肘搁在餐桌上——只要他将眼光集中在你微笑时皱起的鼻子上。然后不能停止注视。

I don’t care if he can’t play a bit of golf with me—as long as he can play with the children you give him and revel⁷ in all the glorious and frustrating⁸ ways they are just like you.

我不介意他是否和我打高尔夫——只要他能和你给他的孩子们玩，并且陶醉于所有极好和令人懊恼的方式，他们只是喜欢你。

I couldn’t care less how he votes—as long as he wakes up every morning and daily elects you to a place of honor in your home and a place of reverence⁹ in his heart.

我不在乎他怎么选举——只要他每天早上醒来，天天选你做一家之主、放在他心里崇敬的位置上。

In the end, Little One, if you stumble across a man like that, and he and I have nothing else in common, we will have the most important thing in common: you.

最后，小宝贝，如果你偶然发现一个像这样的男人，并且他和我没什么共同之处，我们会有最重要的共同点：你。

Your eternally interested guy,

你永远感兴趣的人，

Daddy

爸爸