本帖最后由 ヮ成熟、羙° 于 2013-9-22 10:08 编辑
成长的树根
荷叶/译
在我成长过程中，有个老邻居叫吉布斯。他不像我认识的任何一个医生。在他家院子里玩，他从不对我们大呼小叫。我印象中他要比那种环境下的人好许多。
当吉布期不再治病救人时，他开始种树。他的房前屋后有十英亩，他的人生目标就是把这里变成一片树林。
关于种植学这位好心的大夫有一套有趣的理论。他属于“不经一番寒彻骨，哪得梅花扑鼻香”那一园艺学流派。他从不给小树浇水，这与传统智慧悍然相悖。有一次我问他为什么要这样做。他说浇水会宠坏小树，它的下一代会日益弱化。因此你得给它们制造严酷的环境，及早淘汰那些弱小的树苗。
他说浇水会使树的根系变浅，不浇水的树为了寻找水分，就会把根扎得很深。我推断出他的意思是深深的扎根是极其珍贵的。
因此他从不浇树。他会种下一棵橡树，每天早上不是去浇水，而是用一张卷起的报纸去噼噼啪啪地抽打它。我问他为什么要这样做，他说这是在引起小树的注意。
我回家后两三年，吉布斯大夫就去世了。有时，我会经过他家，看到二十五年前亲眼目睹他种下的那些树。现在这些树又高又健康，强壮无比。早上醒来，它们会拍拍胸脯，啜饮一杯纯纯的苦咖啡。
几年前，我也种下几棵树。整个夏天，我都在提水浇树，为小树祈祷，竭尽全力。两年的溺爱导致这些小树一心等着殷勤的照顾。每当冷风袭来，它们就会枝摇叶颤。柔弱的小树！
说来也怪，逆境和折磨似乎给了吉布斯大夫的小树许多舒适和安逸无法给与的好处。
每晚入睡前，我都要检查两个儿子。我监督他们，看着生命在他们小小的躯体内起伏迭宕。我经常为他们祈祷。多数情况下，我祈祷让他们生活的更安逸。但最近我在思考是不是该改变祈祷的内容了。
这种变化与吹透我们内心的阵阵冷风的不可避免性有关。我知道孩子们会遇到困难，我祈祷他们不再天真。因为总会有一股冷风会不知从哪里袭来。
因此，我改变了祈祷的内容。因为生活是严酷的，不管人们愿意与否。我们很多次都在祈祷安逸，但这却很少兑现。我们所需要的是祈祷根深深地扎入地下，这样风雨袭来时，我们就不会被摧毁得四分五裂。
附：原文
When I was growing up, I had an old neighbor named Dr. Gibbs. He didn’t look like any doctor I’d ever known. He never yelled at us for playing in his yard. I remember him as someone who was a lot nicer than circumstances warranted. When Dr. Gibbs wasn’t saving lives, he was planting trees. His house sat on ten acres, and his life’s goal was to make it a forest. The good doctor had some interesting theories concerning plant husbandry. He came from the “No pain, no gain” school of horticulture. He never watered his new trees, which flew in the face of conventional wisdom. Once I asked why. He said that watering plants spoiled them, and that if you water them, each successive tree generation will grow weaker and weaker. So you have to make things rough for them and weed out the weenie trees early on. He talked about how watering trees made for shallow roots, and how trees that weren’t watered had to grow deep roots in search of moisture. I took him to mean that deep roots were to be treasured. So he never watered his trees. He’d plant an oak and, instead of watering it every morning, he’d beat it with a rolled-up newspaper. Smack! Slap! Pow! I asked him why he did that, and he said it was to get the tree’s attention. Dr. Gibbs went to glory a couple of years after I left home. Every now and again, I walked by his house and looked at the trees that I’d watched him plant some twenty-five years ago. They’re granite strong now. Big and robust. Those trees wake up in the morning and beat their chests and drink their coffee black. I planted a couple of trees a few years back. Carried water to them for a solid summer. Sprayed them. Prayed over them. The whole nine yards. Two years of coddling has resulted in trees that expect to be waited on hand and foot. Whenever a cold wind blows in, they tremble and chatter their branches. Sissy trees. Funny things about those trees of Dr. Gibbs’. Adversity and deprivation seemed to benefit them in ways comfort and ease never could. Every night before I go to bed, I check on my two sons. I stand over them and watch their little bodies, the rising and falling of life within. I often pray for them. Mostly I pray that their lives will be easy. But lately I’ve been thinking that it’s time to change my prayer. This change has to do with the inevitability of cold winds that hit us at the core. I know my children are going to encounter hardship, and I’m praying they won’t be naive. There’s always a cold wind blowing somewhere. So I’m changing my prayer. Because life is tough, whether we want it to be or not. Too many times we pray for ease, but that’s a prayer seldom met. What we need to do is pray for roots that reach deep into the Eternal, so when the rains fall and the winds blow, we won’t be swept asunder. | 
发表于 2013-9-22 10:05:17
QQ空间
腾讯微博
腾讯朋友
转播
分享
收藏
