雙語美文：善行無小事

　　摘要：　不久前我在圣克魯斯山脈，在一次婦女大會上有說有唱。我們關注的主題是通過送禮物等實用的方法來關愛他人。其中一個會議期間發(fā)生的一件特殊的事將成為最美的印跡永遠銘刻在我的記憶中。

　　I was in the Santa Cruz Mountains not long ago, speaking and singing at a women's conference. We were focusing on the theme of loving others in practical ways through our gifts, and something in particular happened during one of the sessions that will remain imprinted in my memory as a beautifulillustration of this practice.

　　A young Syrian woman ("Lilith") had been invited to the conference at the last minute, and everyone seemed surprised and delighted that she'd actually come. Just a few days earlier, Lilith had fled her country and found refuge with one of the women attending the conference. As an Orthodox Christian in Syria, she and her loved ones had become targets of violent atrocities from radical terrorist groups in the country's ongoing civil war.

　　不久前我在圣克魯斯山脈，在一次婦女大會上有說有唱。我們關注的主題是通過送禮物等實用的方法來關愛他人。其中一個會議期間發(fā)生的一件特殊的事將成為最美的印跡永遠銘刻在我的記憶中。

　　一位年輕的敘利亞女士(莉莉絲)在最后一分鐘被邀請到會議上，大家看起來都很驚訝，也很高興她真的來了。就在幾天前，莉莉絲逃離她的國家，和另外一個參加會議的女士一起尋找避難所。作為敘利亞的一名東正教教徒，她和親人們成為了這個國家正在進行的內戰(zhàn)中激進的恐怖組織暴行的目標。

善行無小事

　　Lilith had witnessed horrors no one her young age should ever see. Despite the further danger it presented, she'd decided to leave her home and her family to find safety here in America. Knowing some of her story, and seeing her sitting through the sessions at the retreat -- head covered in a scarf, face bowed toward the floor -- broke my heart.

　　莉莉絲目擊了她這個年紀的年輕人不該見到的恐怖。盡管要面臨更大的危險，但她決定離開家和家人來美國尋求安全。知道了她的一些故事，看見她會議期間有些退卻——頭上包著圍巾，臉朝著地面壓得很低——我感覺心要碎了。

　　Lilith's story touched all of us, including Pam, an attendee who was a quilt maker. Pam had just finished a gorgeous, intricately-patterned quilt, and had brought it with her. She, along with a few of the leaders, decided to give it to Lilith as a symbol of their comfort and love. Lilith had left her own mother behind in her homeland, and I can't imagine how frightened and alone she felt. But in her absence I could see there were lots of "mamas" in this community of women who were more than ready to love on her.

　　莉莉絲的故事觸動了我們所有人，包括與會的被子生產商帕姆。帕姆剛做出了一床華麗的、圖案精致的被子，也帶過來了。她和幾位領導決定把它贈給莉莉絲，被子象征了他們的安慰和愛。莉莉絲把母親留在了家鄉(xiāng)，我無法想象她感到多么害怕孤單。但她的離開使我看到在這個女性團體中有很多“媽媽”，她們都準備好要把愛獻給她。

　　During our last session together Lilith was called forward and prayed over, hugged, and wrapped up in that beautiful quilt. I thought of the many hours Pam undoubtedly spent working on it, unaware of the horrendous events that would lead Lilith to this moment--literally surrounded by the beauty and love the quilt embodied. I wept. When they told her it was for her, she wept. We all wept, honking our noses and wiping our eyes.

　　我們最后一次在一起開會時，莉莉絲被叫去站到前面，大家為她祈禱，擁抱她，把那條漂亮的被子圍在她身上。我想到帕姆毫無疑問花了好長時間做這個被子，當時她根本不知道那些可怕的事會把莉莉絲帶到這里——此時卻被被子蘊含的美麗和愛所圍繞。我哭了，她們告訴她這個被子是給她的時候，她哭了。我們都哭了，抽泣著擦著眼淚。

　　I thought about the words from 1 Peter 4:10: Serve one another with the particular gifts God has given each of you, as faithful dispensers of the magnificently varied grace of God. The words particular and varied suggest to me that there may be as many gifts as there are people and personalities. A quilt wrapped around a ravaged young woman is just one practical, loving act of service that demonstrates God's grace.

　　我想到了彼得前書的4章10節(jié)里的話：各人要照所得的恩賜彼此服侍，作神百般恩賜的好管家。這番話特別換了一種方式提醒我有多少人和個性就有多少禮物。一位受到傷害的年輕女子身上圍的被子就是體現(xiàn)了上帝慈悲的一個充滿愛意的行為。

　　It's the particular things we do that we sometimes think are too small or inconsequential compared to the overwhelming suffering we witness. But to do nothing when we see an opportunity--to serve, to comfort, to ease another's pain--is to withhold whatever facet of God's magnificently varied grace our gift offers.

　　這就是我們所做的特別的事，有時我們認為這和我們見到的勢不可擋的苦難相比太過渺小或不重要。但有機會時-服務、安慰、緩解別人的痛苦-你什么都不做，就沒有體現(xiàn)出上帝給予的恩賜所展現(xiàn)的各種慈悲的任何一面。

　　11. 人們行善是為了什么?

　　One's beliefs are revealed not so much in words or in formal creeds as in the assumptions on which one habitually acts and in the basic values by which all choices are tested.

　　人類的信仰并非全是通過言辭或形式的教條，以及對一個人行為習慣的設想或其做出選擇所依據的價值觀所體現(xiàn)出來的。

　　The cornerstone of my own value system was laid in childhood with parents who believed that personal integrity came first. They never asked, ”What will people think?” The question was,“What will you think of yourself, if you do this or fail to do that?” Thus, living up to one’s own conception of one’s self became a basic value, and the question, “What will people think,” took a subordinate place.

　　孩提時，父母的教誨正是我個人基本價值觀的來源，他們相信人格是一切之首。他們從不問：“人們會怎么想?”而是問：“如果你做這件事而不做那件，你會怎么想?”因此，按自己的意愿生活便成為了最基本的價值觀，而“人們會怎么想?”這個問題則退居二線。

　　A second basic value, in some ways an extension of the first, I owe to an old college professor, who had suffered more than his share of grief and trouble. Over and over he said to us, “The one thing that really matters is to be bigger than the things that can happen to you. Nothing that can happen to you is half so important that the way in which you end it.”

　　從某種程度上來說，第二條基礎價值觀就是對第一條的延伸，這是我從一位大學老教授那里了解到的。他所遭受的不幸與痛苦比常人要多得多。他不止一次地告訴我們：“你要比發(fā)生在你身上的苦難更為強大;面對不幸的態(tài)度比你所遭受的不幸更為重要。這一點很重要。”

　　Gradually I realized that here was the basis of the only really security and peace of mind that a human being can have. Nobody can be sure when disaster, disappointment, injustice, or humiliation, may come to him through no fault of his own. Nor can one be guaranteed against one’s own mistakes and failures. But the way we meet life is ours to choose. And when integrity, fortitude, dignity, and compassion are our choice, the things that can happen to us lose their power over us.

　　慢慢地，我了解到，這正是人類擁有真正安全感與平和心態(tài)的基礎。即使自己并無任何過錯，也沒有人確切地知道，災難、失望、不公或羞辱何時會降臨到自己的頭上，而且也沒人敢保證自己不會犯錯、不會失敗。但是，我們可以選擇面對生活的方式。當我們選擇正直、堅韌、尊嚴與同情時，任何不幸的威脅都無法影響到我們。

　　The acceptance of these two basic values led to a third. If what one is and how one meets life are of first importance, one is not impressed by another's money, status, or power, nor does one judge people by their race, color, or social position. This opens up a whole new world of relationships, for when friendships are based on qualities of mind and character, one can have friends among old and young, rich and poor, famous and unknown, educated and unlettered, and among people of all races and all nations.

　　當你接受了前兩條基本的價值觀，也就能夠接受這第三條。如果一個人堅持自我以及自己的生活方式，那他就不會為他人的金錢、地位與權利所動，也不會以人們的種族、膚色或社會地位來評價他們。全新的人際關系世界就此開啟了。因為，當友誼基于思想與人品時，老人與青年、富人與窮人、名人與普通人、受過良好教育的人、目不識丁者，以及不同種族、不同民族的人們都能夠成為你的朋友。

　　Given these three basic values, a fourth became inevitable. It is one's duty and obligation to help create a social order in which persons are more important than things, ideas more precious than gadgets, and in which individuals are judged on the basis of personal worth. Moreover, for this judgment to be fair, human beings must have an opportunity for the fullest development of which they are capable. One is thus led to work for a world of freedom and justice through those social agencies and institutions which make it possible for people everywhere to realize their highest potentialities.

　　有了上面三條基本的價值觀，第四條自然就無法避免。它是一個人協(xié)助創(chuàng)造社會秩序的責任與義務。在這個社會秩序中，人比物重要，思想比精巧的器具重要，個人的價值是以人的基本原則為基礎的。此外，為保證這個評判的公正，人類必須有機會全面發(fā)展自身的能力。于是，社會組織與機構便致力于使世界各地的人們認識到他們最大的潛能，并引導人們?yōu)閯?chuàng)造一個自由公平的世界而工作。

　　Perhaps all this adds up to a belief in what has been called the human use of human beings. We are set off from the rest of the animal world by our capacity consciously to transcend our physical needs and desires. Men must concern themselves with food and with other physical needs, and they must protect themselves and their own from bodily harm, but these activities are not exclusively human. Many animals concern themselves with these things. When we worship, pray, or feel compassion, when we enjoy a painting, a sunset or a sonata, when we think and reason, pursue ideas, seek truth, or read a book, when we protect the weak and helpless, when we honor the noble and cherish the good, when we cooperate with our fellow men to build a better world, our behavior is worthy of our status as human beings

　　也許，所有這一切加起來就形成了一種信仰，那就是人類如何實現(xiàn)自我價值。我們人類之所以優(yōu)于動物，是因為人擁有自覺控制自身需求與欲望的能力。人類必須考慮食物與自身的需求，必須保護自身與親人不受傷害，但是這些行為并不只限于人類。很多動物都擁有這方面的本能。當我們膜拜、祈禱或感動時;當我們欣賞畫作、夕陽或奏鳴曲時;當我們思考推理、追隨靈感、尋求真相或閱讀一本書時;當我們保護弱者與無助的人時;當我們尊敬高尚的人、心懷行善的愿望時;當我們?yōu)榻ㄔO更美好的世界與他人合作時;我們的行為才使我們無愧于“人類”這個稱呼。