It Was a Good Barn

佚名/Anonymous

昔日的友情逐漸淡漠，曾經(jīng)的親密無間，如今只有劍拔弩張了。現(xiàn)在，強(qiáng)烈的自尊心讓我無法拿起電話。

后來，有一天，我去拜訪另一位老朋友，他做了多年的外交官和法律顧問，他的書房里堆放著上千本書籍。我們坐在那里無話不談，從小型計算機(jī)聊到了貝多芬歷經(jīng)磨難的一生。

最后，話題又轉(zhuǎn)到友誼上，談到現(xiàn)在的友情似乎很容易變質(zhì)，我舉例提到了自己的經(jīng)歷。朋友說：“關(guān)系是神秘的，有些能耐久，有些卻易破裂。”

他凝視著窗外那郁郁蔥蔥的弗蒙特山丘，指著附近的一個農(nóng)場說道：“那兒曾是一個大谷倉。”我看到，在一棟紅木屋旁，有一個龐大建筑物的地基。

“它是一座堅(jiān)固的建筑物，大概建于19世紀(jì)70年代。因?yàn)槿藗兺形鞑扛火埖牡貐^(qū)遷移，它就像這兒的許多建筑物一樣，慢慢地塌陷了。這個谷倉無人照管，倉頂需要維修了，雨水流到屋檐下，滲進(jìn)柱子和橫梁里。”

“有一天，刮起了大風(fēng)，整個谷倉開始搖晃起來，剛開始，你能聽到那種吱吱的響聲，就像古老的木制帆船所發(fā)出來的聲音，然后是一連串刺耳的斷裂聲，緊接著是巨大的轟鳴聲，轉(zhuǎn)眼間，它就成了一堆碎裂的木頭了。”

“暴風(fēng)雨過后，我下山去看，發(fā)現(xiàn)這些漂亮的老橡木還是那么結(jié)實(shí)。我問當(dāng)時谷倉的主人是怎么回事。他說，估計是雨水滲進(jìn)了木釘孔里，而正是這些木釘使它們結(jié)合在一起的。這些釘子一旦腐爛，巨大的橫梁就沒法連接了。”

我們向山下望去，昔日的谷倉如今就只剩下一個地窖口和一堆丁香灌木叢了。

我的朋友說，他反復(fù)琢磨這件事，終于認(rèn)識到，建造谷倉和建立友誼之間有些相似之處：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，你才有長久的價值。

“要創(chuàng)造健全的生活，就應(yīng)該為他人服務(wù)，同時發(fā)揮自身的潛能。”他說，“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)，勢必栽跟頭。”

“關(guān)系就像谷倉頂一樣，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：“這是一座好谷倉，只要好好維護(hù)，不需要花多少精力就能保存下來。而現(xiàn)在，也許再也不能重建了。”

黃昏時分，我準(zhǔn)備離開了。“你不想借用一下我的電話嗎？”他說。“是的，”我說，“我想，我非常希望。”

An old friendship had grown cold. Where once there had been closeness， there was only strain.Now pride kept me from picking up the phone.

Then one day I dropped in on another old friend who's had a long career as a minister and counselor. We were seated in his study—surrounded by maybe a thousand books and fell into deep conversation about everything from small computers to the tormented life of Beethoven.

The subject finally turned to friendship and how perishable it seems to be these days. I mentioned my own experience as an example. "Relationships are mysteries，" my friend said， "Some endure.Others fall apart."

Gazing out his window to the wooded Vermont hills， he pointed toward a neighboring farm， "Used to be a large barn over there." Next to a red-frame house were the footings of what had been a sizable structure.

"It was solidly built， probably in the 1870s. But like so many of the places around here， it went down because people left for richer lands in the Midwest.No one took care of the barn.Its roof needed patching；rainwater got under the eaves and dripped down inside the posts and beams."

"One day a high wind came along， and the whole barn began to tremble. You could hear this creaking， first， like old sailing ship timbers， and then a sharp series of cracks and a tremendous roaring sound.Suddenly it was a heap of scrap lumber."

"After the storm blew over， I went down and saw these beautiful， old oak timbers， solid as could be. I asked the fellow who owns the place what had happened.He said he figured the rainwater had settled in the pinholes， where wooden dowels held the joints together.Once those pins were rotted， there was nothing to link the giant beams together."

We both gazed down the hill. Now all that was left of the barn was its cellar hole and its border of lilac shrubs.

My friend said he had turned the incident over and over in his mind， and finally came to recognize some parallels between building a barn and building a friendship：no matter how strong you are， how notable your attainments， you have enduring significance only in your relationship to others.

"To make your life a sound structure that will serve others and fulfill your own potential，" he said， "you have to remember that strength， however massive， can't endure unless it has the interlocking support of others. Go it alone and you'll inevitably tumble."

"Relationships have to be cared for，" he added， "like the roof of a barn. Letters unwritten， thanks unsaid， confidences violated， quarrels unsettled—all this acts like rainwater seeping into the pegs， weakening the link between the beams."

My friend shook his head. "It was a good barn. And it would have taken very little to keep it in good repair.Now it will probably never be rebuilt."

Later that afternoon I got ready to leave. "You wouldn't like to borrow my phone to make a call， I don't suppose？" he asked.

"Yes，" I said， "I think I would. Very much."