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"We're Happy with Who We Are"
"我們對自己很滿意"
In the new documentary "Far from the Tree", Leah Smith and Joe Stramondo talk about family love, living with dwarfism—and how raising 2 average-size kids is everything they'd hoped for.
在最新的紀錄片《遠離大樹》中，利亞·史密斯和喬·斯特拉蒙多談到了親情，侏儒癥的生活，以及撫養兩個正常身材的孩子是他們的一切希望。
Leah Smith and her husband, Joe Stramondo, are sitting outside their San Diego apartment watching their 6-week-old son Silas snooze in his stroller while his 2-year-old sister Hazel is at preschool.
利亞·史密斯(Leah Smith)和她的丈夫喬·斯特拉蒙多(Joe Stramondo)正坐在圣地亞哥的公寓外，看著6周大的兒子塞拉斯(Silas)坐在嬰兒車里打盹，而他兩歲的姐姐黑茲爾(Hazel)正在上幼兒園。
The couple, who both have a form of dwarfism, are laughing as they try to explain how their height—or lack thereof—isn't the hardship some seem to think.
這對夫妻都患有侏儒癥，他們笑著解釋自己的身高——或者身高不足——并不是一些人想的那么困難。
"I don't leave the house thinking, 'How am I going to reach the milk at the grocery store?'" Smith says.
“我出門的時候不會想，‘我怎么才能拿到雜貨店的牛奶?’”史密斯說。
"I'll climb the shelves if I have to. I was doing it when I was nine months pregnant!" Adds Stramondo: "Yeah, scaling the bread aisle, trying to get those bagels down ... life is good!"
“如果有必要的話，我會爬上架子?！薄皯言芯艂€月的時候，我還在做這個！”斯特拉蒙多補充道:“是的，爬上面包架，試著把百吉餅弄下來……生活是美好的!”
That's something Leah and Joe learned early on, growing up with average-size parents who refused to let them be defined by their dwarfism.
這是利亞和喬在很小的時候就學會的，他們的父母都是正常身材，不讓他們用侏儒癥來定義自己。
"We were both raised with high expectations that we could and should live a decent life, just like anyone else," says Stramondo, 36, an assistant professor of philosophy at San Diego State University.
“我們在成長過程中都被寄予很高的期望，我們可以也應該像其他人一樣過上體面的生活?！?6歲的斯特拉蒙多(Stramondo)是圣地亞哥州立大學(San Diego State University)的哲學副教授。
That same mandate is at the heart of "Far from the Tree", a new documentary based on Andrew Solomon's award-winning 2012 book of the same name.
《遠離大樹》(Far from the Tree)也有同樣的主題。這部新紀錄片根據安德魯·所羅門(Andrew Solomon) 2012年獲獎的同名小說改編而成。
In addition to Leah and Joe, the film explores how four other families—facing a range of challenges including Down syndrome, autism and a son who committed murder—cope with both the hardships and rewards of raising a child whose life is different from what their parents expected.
除了利亞和喬，這部電影還探討了其他四個家庭如何面對孩子與父母期望不同的苦與甜——他們面臨著一系列的挑戰，包括唐氏綜合癥、自閉癥和一個犯下殺人罪的兒子。
"There's a real need to understand people who have what's categorized as an illness and to look at the resilience and dynamism of parental love," says Solomon.
所羅門說:“我們確實需要了解那些被認為有疾病的人，并看看父母的愛有多么堅韌不拔。”
"It seems like a particularly urgent time for the film's message of compassion and celebration of people who are different from the mainstream."
“電影傳達了對那些與主流不同的人的同情與贊揚，當下這個時代，傳達這些似乎十分緊迫。”
Smith and Stramondo were well-versed in life's challenges when their paths crossed in 2008 at a Little People of America conference in Detroit.
2008年，史密斯和斯特拉蒙多在底特律舉行的美國小人物團體(Little People of America)大會上相遇，此時兩人對生活中的挑戰了如指掌。
"I'd read his profile on Myspace. It was fascinating, and I told myself, 'This guy is someone I need to meet,'" says Smith, 37.
我在Myspace上看到過他的資料。很有趣，我告訴自己，‘這個人是我需要見的人，’”37歲的史密斯說。
"When I saw him wheel by (in his wheelchair), I ran after him and caught him."
“當我看到他坐在輪椅上經過時，我就跟在他后面，把他抓住了。”
Six years later, as the two were finishing up their graduate degrees—Smith has a master's in public policy and Stramondoa Ph.D. in philosophy—they eloped.
六年后，兩人即將拿到他們的研究生學位——史密斯的公共政策碩士學位和斯特拉蒙多的哲學博士學位——他們私奔了。
By 2016 Smith was pregnant with Hazel, who's already towering over her 3-ft.-tall dad.
到2016年，史密斯已經懷上了黑茲爾，現在她已經比她3英尺的爸爸高了。
These days they're juggling a busy life, between taking care of the kids (who are both average size), Stramondo's work at the university and Smith's job managing #Live On, a social-media campaign aimed at reducing suicide rates among the disabled.
如今，他們在忙碌的生活中掙扎，要照顧孩子(都是正常身材)，斯特拉蒙多在大學里的工作，史密斯要管理“活下去”(#Live On)的工作，這是一項旨在降低殘疾人自殺率的社交媒體活動。
"The assumption was that we would want a child that was average height, that we wouldn't want this for a child," says Stramondo.
斯特拉蒙多說:“我們的設想是，我們想要一個正常身高的孩子，我們不想孩子也這樣。”
Adds Smith: "But why wouldn't we? We have a damn good life. We're happy people."
史密斯補充道:“但我們為什么不呢？我們的生活太好了。我們是幸福的人?！?/p>
