life is the cookie
One of my patients, a successful businessman, tells me that before his cancer he would become depressed unless things went a certain way.
我有一位病人，他是一个成功的商人，告诉我，在他患癌症之前，凡事如果没有确定下来他就忧心忡忡。
Happiness was "having the cookie." If you had the cookie, things were good. If you didn't have the cookie, life wasn't worth a damn.
对他而言，幸福是“拥有小甜饼”。如果你拥有了小甜饼，一切都一帆风顺。如果你没有小甜饼，生活就一文不值。
Unfortunately, the cookie kept changing. Some of the time it was money, sometimes power, sometimes sex. At other times, it was the new car, the biggest contract, the most prestigious address.
不幸的是，小甜饼总是不断变换着，有时是金钱，有时是权力，有时是欲望。在其他时候，它是一辆新车、一份数额最大的合同、或者一个享有声望的通讯地址。