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 shedby one of our many garden snakes.
萨拉跑进屋来,喊道："看,我发现了什么."我正读着报纸,突然上方冒出一条长长的皱巴巴的看起来好像要碎了的东西.我立刻吓得跳了起来.那是一张蛇皮,是我们花园中的一条蛇蜕下来的.
"Isn't it beautiful?" said my wide-eyed seven-year-old.
"它不漂亮吗?"我七岁的眼睛大大的女儿问道.
I stared at the organic wrapper and thought to myself that it really wasn't that beautiful, but I have learned never to appear nonchalantor 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.
我盯着那条蛇皮,心里想它真的称不上漂亮.但我明白,永远不能对孩子显露出自己的冷淡或厌烦.他们第一次看到的每件事物,对于培养他们的美感和创造性都很重要.在接受社会教育之前,他们的眼里只有美好和优秀.
"Why does it do this?" Sarah asked.
萨拉问："蛇为什么要蜕皮?"
Robert, ever the innocent comedian, said: "We have a naked snake in our garden!"
生来就具有喜剧天分的罗伯特说："我们花园里有一条光着身子的蛇."
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.
我也尝试利用每一个机会,教导孩子们知道：事物往往不是表象所能涵盖的,除了我们所见的,还有一些更深层次的东西.
"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.
我解释说："蛇蜕皮是因为它们要更新自己."正如往常一样,最初的话题会导致接二连三的新问题,直到我们所谈论的与起先的话题毫不相干.
"Why do they need to renew themselves?" Sarah asked.
萨拉问："蛇为什么要更新自己呢?"
Robert quipped: "Cos they don't like who they are and they want to be someone else."
罗伯特诙谐地说："因为它们不喜欢做自己,他们想要变成别人."
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.
萨拉和我礼貌地岔开了她哥哥的话题.我忽然记起,很多年前的报纸上曾有一篇文章,作者阐述了她对更新的看法.她用墙上的层层壁纸来比喻我们掩藏真实的自我,她说一层一层地剥掉那些伪装的外表,我们就看到了最里层的真我面目.
"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."
我告诉聚精会神的小女儿："我们经常需要‘蜕皮',是要脱掉身上那些装饰.当我们成熟之后,就发现某些东西不需要也不必要了.这条蛇不再需要这张皮,也许是蛇觉得它太僵硬、太多皱了；也许是它觉得,这张皮穿在身上不再像以前那么光滑了,蜕下一层皮就像买了一件新衣服一样."
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.
当然了,我确定这一解释不能得到真正的博物学家的认可,但萨拉理解了我的意思.在我们的交谈中,我知道萨拉开始领会"更新是进步的一部分"这个道理,即便只是细微地理解.她领会了：我们需要好好地审视自我、房间、功课,注重创造性以及精神追求；明白了我们需要保留什么,摆脱什么.我小心地指出：这是自然过程,并非被迫的.
"Snakes don't peel off their skin when they feel like it." I explained. "It happens as a natural consequence of their growth."
我解释说："蛇喜欢自己的皮时,就不会蜕掉它.这是它们成长的自然结果."
"I see. Dad." said Sarah and jumped off my lap, grabbed the snakeskin, and ran off.
萨拉说："爸爸,我明白了."接着便从我腿上跳下去,拿着蛇皮跑开了.
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.
我希望她能记住这个道理,那就是：我们长年累月地把自己层层包围在人情世故中,为了寻找掩藏在底下的真正自我,我们需要检验判断这些外衣,当认识到有些东西是没有价值的、不必要的或者是有缺陷的,就把它们剥去；或者,最好把那些剥去的东西保存下来,以提醒激励我们不断创新,精神上不断完善.
