文字難度:★★☆
A few years ago Anita surprised me with a 1)suit. It was handsome and fashionable, and believe it or not, I looked pretty elegant in it. At least, I did—until I started bleeding on it.
It happened one Sunday when my young friend Tommy and I were visiting with Rosa, a member of our church 2)congregation. Our conversation had been delightful, and as Tommy and I left through Rosa’s garage (hey, she had one of those big dogs out front, and I wasn’t about to get paw prints on my new suit) we were doing some 3)good-natured teasing back and forth. Which is probably why I didn’t notice the garage 4)door opener that hung low in Rosa’s garage, or that my head was within range of the metallic box at the precise moment I decided to 5)lunge at Tommy.
Suddenly I knew what a baseball felt like after Hammerin’ 6)Hank Aaron got through with it. The blow to the top of my head 7)staggered me. I stumbled around like a 8)punch-drunk 9)heavyweight with only one thought in my suddenly numb head: “If you fall down you’ll get your new suit dirty.” I regained my balance and struggled to regain my composure—or to at least remember who I was, where I was, and what I was doing wearing such fine 10)threads.
That’s when the blood started 11)trickling off the end of my nose and landing on my pants. Still 12)groggy, I tried to dodge the staining 13)droplets. But to my horror I discovered that the dripping blood followed me everywhere I moved. Finally Tommy grabbed me and started wiping the blood from my face with a washcloth that Rosa had given him.
幾年前,安妮塔送給我一套西裝,讓我驚喜了一番。這套西裝好看又時(shí)尚,不管你相信與否,穿著這套衣服讓我看起來非常帥氣瀟灑。至少,在我把鮮血染在它上面之前,確實(shí)如此。
事情發(fā)生在一個(gè)周日,當(dāng)時(shí)我和一位年輕朋友湯米正在拜訪我們教堂會(huì)眾的成員之一羅莎。我們相談甚歡,當(dāng)湯米和我離開羅莎家的車庫(嘿!她家車庫門口有一只大狗,我可不想我的新西裝沾上狗的爪印)時(shí),我們還毫無惡意地打打鬧鬧?;蛟S正因如此,我沒有留意到羅莎家車庫的電動(dòng)門裝置懸得比較低,就在我打算撲向湯米的那一刻,我的頭一下子撞上了那個(gè)金屬盒。
我當(dāng)即明白了被“鐵錘”漢克·亞倫擊打之后的“棒球”是什么感覺了。頭頂遭受的重?fù)羰刮业纳眢w搖搖晃晃。我腳步蹣跚,如同一個(gè)被打得頭暈眼花的最重量級(jí)拳擊手,我突然變得麻木的腦子里只有一個(gè)想法:“如果摔倒,就會(huì)弄臟這套新西裝?!蔽衣痉€(wěn),努力冷靜下來——或者至少要記起自己是誰,現(xiàn)在何處,穿著如此好看的衣服的我正在做什么。
這時(shí),鮮血開始順著我的鼻尖流下,滴落到我的褲子上。仍然有些頭暈眼花的我試圖去避開那些弄臟西裝的血滴。然而令我驚駭不已的是,我發(fā)現(xiàn),我去到哪里,那些血滴就“跟”到哪里。最終,湯米抓住了我,并用羅莎遞給他的一條毛巾幫我擦拭臉上的鮮血。
“Are you OK?” he asked.
For all I knew I was headed (if you’ll pardon the expression) for a coma. My career could be over. My family could be on its way to the 14)poor house (er, poorer house). Life as we knew it could be over. But all I could think of was...
“My suit!” I said. “I think I got some blood on my suit!”
“I think your suit is going to survive,” Tommy said. “But I’m not so sure about you.”
As it turned out, I did survive with a slight 15)concussion. No coma.No 16)indigence. Just some dizziness, 17)light-headedness, and a little confusion now and then. In other words: normal.
And as for my suit... well, to tell you the truth, it was a long time before I could 18)bring myself to look at it. A scar on my head for the rest of my life was one thing. But blood stains on my beautiful new suit? I wasn’t sure I could handle that. You know what I mean?
Of course you do. We all get a little 19)flaky about our possessions from time to time. Sometimes their accumulation becomes our obsession and their maintenance becomes our passion. We forget that a house is just shelter, a car is just transportation, and new suits—even smart-looking, 20)double-breasted, 21)charcoal gray ones with 22)unobtrusive 23)pinstripes—are just clothes. While there’s nothing 24)inherently wrong with having nice things, there is something wrong if those “things” become more important than the people or principles in our lives.
My Dad used to say that he’d never want to own a suit that was so expensive that he had to think twice about getting down on the floor to play with one of his grandchildren. I guess the same principle applies to any other possession. If what we own enhances our relationships and our ability to help other people, that’s great. But if it gets in the way of who we are and how we relate to others, maybe it isn’t worth it—whatever “it” is. Even if we’ve spilled blood over it.
“你還好嗎?”他問道。
我只知道自己快要一頭“栽進(jìn)”昏迷(如果你不介意這個(gè)說法的話)。我的事業(yè)生涯可能會(huì)結(jié)束。我的家人可能要搬去“貧民救濟(jì)院”(呃,其實(shí)我想說的是“條件差一點(diǎn)的房子”)。我們熟悉的生活可能要結(jié)束了。然而,我所能想到的卻是……
“我的西裝!”我說,“我想我的西裝沾上了一些血跡!”
“我想你的西裝會(huì)沒事的,”湯米說道,“我倒不知道你能不能熬過來?!?
結(jié)果是,我還活著,但有些輕微的腦震蕩。沒有陷入昏迷,沒有變得窮困潦倒。只是不時(shí)會(huì)頭暈眼花、暈眩,有些迷糊。換句話說:一切正常。
而至于我的西裝……好吧,跟你說實(shí)話,過了好長(zhǎng)時(shí)間,我才能夠面對(duì)它。頭上的那道傷痕會(huì)伴隨我的余生,這是一回事。但是,我那套帥氣新西裝上的血跡?我不確定我能否承受得了。你明白我的意思嗎?
你肯定明白我的意思。對(duì)于我們擁有的物品,我們都不時(shí)會(huì)有一些怪癖。有時(shí)候,我們會(huì)著魔于積累這些心頭好,沉溺于對(duì)其保養(yǎng)護(hù)理。我們忘記了,房子只是一處安身之所,汽車只是一種交通工具,而新西裝——即使是那些有著低調(diào)的細(xì)條紋、看上去帥氣的雙排扣炭灰色西裝——也不過是衣服而已。擁有一些美好的東西本無可厚非,但是如果那些“東西”變得比我們生命中的一些人或者某種準(zhǔn)則更重要的話,那就有些不妥了。
我父親過去常說,如果有這么件昂貴的衣服,穿上了,會(huì)讓他再三猶豫能不能坐在地板上和孫子玩耍,那他決不要這衣服。我想,這一準(zhǔn)則同樣適用于其他任何物品。如果我們所擁有的,促進(jìn)了我們彼此之間的關(guān)系,提高了我們幫助他人的能力,那好極了。但是,如果它妨礙了我們認(rèn)識(shí)自我以及我們與他人建立起聯(lián)系,那么,或許它并不值得我們?nèi)碛小还堋八笔鞘裁?。即使我們?cè)谒厦鏋⑷玖缩r血。