第5章 在微塵與浮梁之上 (5)
- 英文愛藏:打開生命的窗
- 吳文智 楊一蘭
- 1555字
- 2013-08-03 03:43:00
“要?jiǎng)?chuàng)造健全的生活,就應(yīng)該為他人服務(wù),同時(shí)發(fā)揮自身的潛能。”他說(shuō),“必須記住,沒有他人的支持,不論你的力量多么強(qiáng)大,也不可能持久。孤身挺進(jìn),勢(shì)必栽跟頭。”
“關(guān)系就像谷倉(cāng)頂一樣,需要精心維護(hù)。”他補(bǔ)充道,“不通信,不表示感謝,就會(huì)有損于彼此間的信任,使?fàn)巿?zhí)得不到解決。所有這些行為就像雨水滲進(jìn)釘子眼里,削弱了橫梁之間的連接力。”
朋友搖了搖頭,說(shuō):“這是一座好谷倉(cāng),只要好好維護(hù),不需要花多少精力就能保存下來(lái)。而現(xiàn)在,也許再也不能重建了。”
黃昏時(shí)分,我準(zhǔn)備離開了。“你不想借用一下我的電話嗎?”他說(shuō)。
“是的,”我說(shuō),“我想,我非常希望。”
1. It was solidly_________, probably in the 1870s. But like so many of the_________ around here, it went down because people_________ for richer lands in the Midwest. No one_________care of the barn. Its_________ needed patching; rainwater got under the eaves and dripped down inside the posts and beams.
2. My friend said he had_________ the incident over and over in his_________, and finally came to recognize some parallels between building a barn and building a_________: no matter how strong you are, how notable your attainments, you have enduring significance_________ in your relationship to others.
3. My friend shook his head. “It was a good_________. And it would have taken very_________ to keep it in good repair. Now it will probably never be_________.”
1. 不論你多么強(qiáng)大,不論你的成就多么輝煌,只有在與他人交往的過程中,你才有長(zhǎng)久的價(jià)值。
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2. 要?jiǎng)?chuàng)造健全的生活,就應(yīng)該為他人服務(wù),同時(shí)發(fā)揮自身的潛能。
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3. 關(guān)系就像谷倉(cāng)頂一樣,需要精心維護(hù)。
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1. Then one day I dropped in on another old friend who had a long career as a minister and counselor.
drop in:順便走訪(某人)
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2. Suddenly it was a heap of scrap lumber.
a heap of:許多,大量;一大堆
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去偽存真
Peeling Away Artifice for the Pure Original
佚名 / Anonymous
Sarah came running in. “Look what I found.” Over the top of the paper I was reading came a crispy, crumbling long object that caused me to jump. It was a snake skin that had been shed by one of our many garden snakes.
“Isn’t it beautiful?” said my wide-eyed 7-year-old daughter.
I stared at the organic wrapper and thought to myself that it really wasn’t that beautiful, but I have learned never to appear nonchalant or jaded with children. Everything they see for the first time is elementary to their sense of beauty and creativity; they see only merit and excellence in the world until educated otherwise.
“Why does it do this?” Sarah asked.
Robert, ever the innocent comedian, said, “We have a naked snake in our garden!”
I also try to customize every opportunity to teach my children that there is almost always something beyond the obvious; that there is something else going on besides what they see in front of them.
“Snakes shed their skin because they need to renew themselves.” I explained. As is so often the case in my family, the original subject leads to another and another, until we are discussing something quite different.
“Why do they need to renew themselves?” Sarah asked.
Robert quipped, “Cos they don’t like who they are and they want to be someone else.”
Sarah and I politely ignored her brother. I suddenly remembered an article on this page many years ago where the writer was expressing her concept of renewal. She used layers of paper over a wall to describe how we hide our original selves, and said that by peeling away those layers one by one, we see the underlying original beneath.
“We often need to shed our skins, those coatings and facades that we cover ourselves with.” I said to my now absorbed daughter. “We outgrow some things and find other stuff unwanted or unnecessary. This snake no longer needs this skin. It is probably too stiff and crinkly for him and he probably doesn’t think he looks as smart in it as he once did. Like buying a new suit.”
Of course, I’m sure this explanation won’t sit well with bonafide naturalists. But Sarah was getting the point. As we talked, I knew that she began to comprehend, albeit slightly, that renewal is part of progress; that we need to take a good look at ourselves, our rooms, schoolwork, creativity and spirituality, and see what we need to keep and what we need to cast off. I was careful to point out that this is a natural process, not one to be forced.
“Snakes don’t peel off their skirl when they feel like it.” I explained. “It happens as a natural consequence of their growth.”
“I see. Dad.” said Sarah and jumped off my lap, grabbed the snakeskin, and ran off.
I hoped she would remember this. That often, in order to find our real selves underneath the layers of community and culture with which we cloak ourselves year after year, we need to start examining these layers. We need to gently peel some away, as we recognize them to be worthless, unnecessary, or flawed; or at best, store the discarded ones as mementoes of our promotion to a better vitality or spirit.
薩拉跑進(jìn)屋來(lái),喊道:“看,我發(fā)現(xiàn)了什么。”我正讀著報(bào)紙,突然上方冒出一條長(zhǎng)長(zhǎng)的皺巴巴的看起來(lái)好像要碎了的東西。我立刻嚇得跳了起來(lái)。那是一張蛇皮,是我們花園中的一條蛇蛻下來(lái)的。
“它不漂亮嗎?”我7歲的眼睛大大的女兒?jiǎn)柕馈?
我盯著那條蛇皮,心里想它真的稱不上漂亮。但我明白,永遠(yuǎn)不能對(duì)孩子顯露出自己的冷漠或厭煩。他們第一次看到的每件事物,對(duì)于培養(yǎng)他們的美感和創(chuàng)造性都很重要。在接受社會(huì)教育之前,他們的眼里只有美好和優(yōu)秀。
薩拉問:“蛇為什么要蛻皮?”
生來(lái)就具有喜劇天分的羅伯特說(shuō):“我們花園里有一條光著身子的蛇。”
我也嘗試?yán)妹恳粋€(gè)機(jī)會(huì),教導(dǎo)孩子們知道:事物往往不是表象所能掩蓋的,除了我們所見的,還有一些更深層次的東西。
我解釋說(shuō):“蛇蛻皮是因?yàn)樗鼈円伦约骸!闭缤R粯樱畛醯脑掝}會(huì)導(dǎo)致接二連三的新問題,直到我們所談?wù)摰呐c起先的話題毫不相干。
薩拉問:“蛇為什么要更新自己呢?”
羅伯特詼諧地說(shuō):“因?yàn)樗鼈儾幌矚g做自己,它們想要變成別人。”
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