佚名/Anonymous
Sarah came running in."Look what I found." Over the top of the pape r I was reading came a crispy,crumbling long object that caused me to j ump.It was a snake skin that had been shed by one of our many garden sn akes.
"Isn't it beautiful?" said my wide-eyed seven-year-old.
I stared at the organic wrapper and thought to myself that it really wasn't that beautiful,but I have learned never to appear nonchalant or jaded with children.Everything they see for the first time is elementar y to their sense of beauty and creativity;they see only merit and excel lence in the world until educated otherwise.
"Why does it do this?" Sarah asked.
Robert,ever the innocent comedian,said:"We have a naked snake in our garden!"
I also try to customize every opportunity to teach my children that there is almost always something beyond the obvious;that there is somet hing else going on besides what they see in front of them.
"Snakes shed their skin because they need to renew themselves." I ex plained.As is so often the case in my family,the original subject lead s to another and another,until we are discussing something quite differ ent.
"Why do they need to renew themselves?" Sarah asked.
Robert quipped:"Cos they don't like who they are and they want to b e someone else."
Sarah and I politely ignored her brother.I suddenly remembered an a rticle on this page many years ago where the writer was expressing her c oncept 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.
"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 s ome things and find other stuff unwanted or unnecessary.This snake no l onger 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 b uying a new suit."
Of course,I'm sure this explanation won't sit well with bonafide na turalists.But Sarah was getting the point.As we talked,I knew that sh e 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 ne ed to cast off.I was careful to point out that this is a natural proces s,not one to be forced.
"Snakes don't peel off their skirl when they feel like it." I explai ned."It happens as a natural consequence of their growth."
"I see.Dad." said Sarah and jumped off my lap,grabbed the snakeski n,and ran off.
I hoped she would remember this.That often,in order to find our re al selves underneath the layers of community and culture with which we c loak 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 mementoe s of our promotion to a better vitality or spirit.
薩拉跑進屋來，喊道：“看，我發現了什麽。”我正讀著報紙，突然上方冒出一條長長的皺巴巴的看起來好像要碎了的東西。我立刻嚇得跳了起來。那是一張蛇皮，是我們花園中的一條蛇蛻下來的。
“它不漂亮嗎？”我七歲的眼睛大大的女兒問道。
我盯著那條蛇皮，心裏想它真的稱不上漂亮。但我明白，永遠不能對孩子顯露出自己的冷淡或厭煩。他們第一次看到的每件事物，對於培養他們的美感和創造性都很重要。在接受社會教育之前，他們的眼裏隻有美好和優秀。
薩拉問：“蛇為什麽要蛻皮？”
生來就具有喜劇天分的羅伯特說：“我們花園裏有一條光著身子的蛇。”
我也嚐試利用每一個機會，教導孩子們知道：事物往往不是表象所能涵蓋的，除了我們所見的，還有一些更深層次的東西。
我解釋說：“蛇蛻皮是因為它們要更新自己。”正如往常一樣，最初的話題會導致接二連三的新問題，直到我們所談論的與起先的話題毫不相幹。
薩拉問：“蛇為什麽要更新自己呢？”
羅伯特詼諧地說：“因為它們不喜歡做自己，他們想要變成別人。”
薩拉和我禮貌地岔開了她哥哥的話題。我忽然記起，很多年前的報紙上曾有一篇文章，作者闡述了她對更新的看法。她用牆上的層層壁紙來比喻我們掩藏真實的自我，她說一層一層地剝掉那些偽裝的外表，我們就看到了最裏層的真我麵目。
我告訴聚精會神的小女兒：“我們經常需要‘蛻皮’，是要脫掉身上那些裝飾。當我們成熟之後，就發現某些東西不需要也不必要了。這條蛇不再需要這張皮，也許是蛇覺得它太僵硬、太多皺了；也許是它覺得，這張皮穿在身上不再像以前那麽光滑了，蛻下一層皮就像買了一件新衣服一樣。”
當然了，我確定這一解釋不能得到真正的博物學家的認可，但薩拉理解了我的意思。在我們的交談中，我知道薩拉開始領會“更新是進步的一部分”這個道理，即便隻是細微地理解。她領會了：我們需要好好審視自我、房間、功課，注重創造性以及精神追求；明白了我們需要保留什麽，擺脫什麽。我小心地指出：這是自然過程，並非被迫的。
我解釋說：“蛇喜歡自己的皮時，就不會蛻掉它。這是它們成長的自然結果。”
薩拉說：“爸爸，我明白了。”接著便從我腿上跳下去，拿著蛇皮跑開了。
我希望她能記住這個道理，那就是：我們長年累月地把自己層層包圍在人情世故中，為了尋找掩藏在底下的真正自我，我們需要檢驗判斷這些外衣，當認識到有些東西是沒有價值的、不必要的或者是有缺陷的，就把它們剝去；或者，最好把那些剝去的東西保存下來，以提醒激勵我們不斷創新，精神上不斷完善。