給家穗

I could not but notice some of the peculiarities of my visitors. Girls and boys and young women generally seemed glad to be in the woods. They looked in the pond and at the flowers, and improved their time. Men of business, even farmers, thought only of solitude and employment, and of the great distance at which I dwelt from something or other; and though they said that they loved a ramble in the woods occasionally, it was obvious that they did not. Restless committed men, whose time was all taken up in getting a living or keeping it; ministers who spoke of God as if they enjoyed a monopoly of the subject, who could not bear all kinds of opinions; doctors, lawyers, uneasy housekeepers who pried into my cupboard and bed when I was out — how came Mrs. — to know that my sheets were not as clean as hers? — young men who had ceased to be young, and had concluded that it was safest to follow the beaten track of the professions — all these generally said that it was not possible to do so much good in my position. Ay! there was the rub. The old and infirm and the timid, of whatever age or sex, thought most of sickness, and sudden accident and death; to them life seemed full of danger — what danger is there if you don't think of any? — and they thought that a prudent man would carefully select the safest position, where Dr. B. might be on hand at a moment's warning. To them the village was literally a com-munity, a league for mutual defence, and you would suppose that they would not go a-huckleberrying without a medicine chest. The amount of it is, if a man is alive, there is always danger that he may die, though the danger must be allowed to be less in proportion as he is dead-and-alive to begin with. A man sits as many risks as he runs.

曾經看過一部日本電影《黃昏清兵衛》，其中有一段對白令我頗為感動：

男主角真田廣之是一個明治維新初年落魄的低階武士，妻子死後獨力撫養
二個幼女及癡呆的老母，需要靠作散工及借貸渡日。一晚聽到大女兒背誦
《論語》，問起學校的事。女兒說現在不論男女都要讀《論語》了。父親
不禁嘆道：多麼懷念兒時讀《論語》的日子！

女兒便問：我學會裁縫後，可以作和服、浴袍，但讀了書有什麼用呢？

父親想了想，說道：這個問題不是很容易回答 －－ 可以這麼說，讀了書
後，可以讓人學會思考，只要能夠思考，不論世道人心如何，你一樣可以
生存下去。

小女孩似懂非懂地答是，繼續背著：
　
　”吾日三省吾身：為人謀而不忠乎？與朋友交而不信乎？傳不習乎？”

這也就是說，只要學會怎樣思考，再大的難關都可以過得去。妳曾經遇過
比現在更困難的日子，可是從未想過尋短見。現在妳覺得累了，而且苦日
子好像沒有盡頭，但事實上並非這樣，自我了斷也解決不了問題。最要緊
的是妳如何看待事情，如何擺脫自我的束縛。