J. B. 普里斯特利(J. B. Priestley)
The art of living is to know when to hold fast and when to let go. For life is a paradox : it enjoins us to cling to its many gifts even while it ordains their eventual relinquishment . The rabbis of old put it this way:“A man comes to this world with his fist clenched, but when he dies, his hand is open.”
Surely we ought to hold fast to life, for it is wondrous , and full of a beauty that breaks through every pore of God's own earth. We know that this is so, but all too often we recognize this truth only in our backward glance when we remember what was and then suddenly realize that it is no more.
We remember a beauty that faded, a love that waned. But we remember with far greater pain that we did not see that beauty when it flowered, that we failed to respond with love when it was tendered.
A recent experience re-taught me this truth. I was hospitalized following a severe heart attack and had been in intensive care for several days. It was not a pleasant place.
One morning, I had to have some additional tests. The required machines were located in a building at the opposite end of the hospital,so I had to be wheeled across the courtyard on a gurney.
As we emerged from our unit, the sunlight hit me. That's all there was to my experience. Just the light of the sun. And yet how beautiful it was — how warming, how sparkling, how brilliant! I looked to see whether anyone else relished the sun's golden glow, but everyone was hurrying to and fro, most with eyes fixed on the ground. Then I remembered how often I, too, had been indifferent to the grandeur of each day, too preoccupied with petty and sometimes even mean concerns to respond from that experience is really as commonplace as was the experience itself: life's gifts are precious — but we are too heedless of them.
Here then is the first pole of life's paradoxical demands on us: Never too busy for the wonder and the awe of life. Be reverent before each dawning day. Embrace each hour. Seize each golden minute.
Hold fast to life ... but not so fast that you cannot let go. This is the second side of life's coin, the opposite pole of its paradox: we must accept our losses, and learn how to let go.
This is not an easy lesson to learn, especially when we are young and think that the world is ours to command, that whatever we desire with the full force of our passionate being can, nay, will, be ours. But then life moves along to confront us with realities, and slowly but surely this truth dawns upon us.
At every stage of life we sustain losses — and grow in the process. We begin our independent lives only when we emerge from the womb and lose its protective shelter. We enter a progression of schools, then we leave our mothers and fathers and our childhood homes. We get married and have children and then have to let them go. We confront the death of our parents and our spouses. We face the gradual or not so gradual waning of our strength. And ultimately, as the parable of the open and closed hand suggests, we must confront the inevitability of our own demise , losing ourselves as it were, all that we were or dreamed to be.
- paradox [ˈpærədɒks] n. 自相矛盾的话(人、物、事)
- enjoin [ɪnˈdʒɔɪn] v. 嘱咐
- ordain [ɔːˈdeɪn] v. 注定
- relinquishment [rɪˈlɪŋkwɪʃmənt] n. 放弃，松开
- rabbi [ˈræbaɪ] n. (犹太人的尊称)先生，老师
- wondrous [ˈwʌndrəs] a. 奇妙的，令人惊奇的
- paradoxical [ˌpærəˈdɒksɪkəl] a. 矛盾的，似是而非的
dawn upon 使明白
- parable [ˈpærəbl] n. 寓言，比喻
- demise [dɪˈmaɪz] n. 死亡
生活的艺术在于知道该抓紧时抓紧，该松手时松手。因为生活是一种矛盾的怪事：它要我们紧紧抓住生活的诸多馈赠，而同时又要我们最终舍弃这些礼物。昔日的拉比们（犹太学者）是这么讲的：“人出世时双手紧攥，人死时两手空空。”
当然，我们要紧紧抓住生活，因为它是美妙的，充满了从上帝的地球的每个毛孔里冒出来的美。我们知道情况如此，但是我们认识到这个事实，往往是在我们蓦然回首的时候，才想到美好的东西，然后突然意识到那已经不复存在了。
我们想起了已经凋谢的花一般的美，想起了已经亏缺的满月般的爱。但是我们更加痛苦地回想起，鲜花盛开时，我们没有看见花的美，爱情降临时，我们没有以爱相报。
最近的一次体验重新使我认识了这个事实。因严重的心脏病发作，我住了院，接受特级护理好几天了。病房不是让人愉快的地方。
有一天早上，我必须做些补充测试。所需要用的医疗设备，安置在医院另一头的一幢大楼里，所以必须用轮床，穿过医院，把我推过去。
当我们离开病房来到外面的时候，阳光照射在我身上。那就是我的全部体验。只有明媚的阳光。多美呀——多么温暖，多么光芒四射，多么灿烂辉煌！我四下瞧瞧，看看是否还有别人也在欣赏金色的阳光，但是人们都行色匆匆，大多数把眼睛盯着地面看。接着我想起，我也曾经对每日的壮观景象毫不在意，专注于琐碎而有时甚至是平庸的事务，而对那种平凡的体验无动于衷。生活的礼物是宝贵的，不过我们对这种礼物过于熟视无睹。
那么，下面是生活矛盾的第一个极向对我们提出的要求：不要过于忙碌而忽略了生活中奇妙的和令人敬畏的东西。对每个黎明开始的日子都要心怀恭敬。拥抱每一小时，抓紧黄金般的每一分钟。
紧紧抓住生活……但是不要紧得你松不开手。这是生活硬币的第二个侧面，生活矛盾的相反的一极：我们必须接受我们的损失，学会怎样松手。
这不是好学的功课，特别是当我们年轻，以为整个世界听凭自己摆布，以为凭着我们激情奔放的全部力量，随便我们想要什么，那东西就可以，不，将会成为我们的时候。但是接下来，日子一天天过去，把现实摆在我们面前，慢慢地却肯定无疑地，我们渐渐明白了真实的生活。
在生活的每一个阶段，我们都蒙受损失——随着这个过程我们在成长。只是当我们从子宫出来，失去了它的保护的时候，我们才开始独立地生活。我们进入了一连串的学校，接着我们离开自己的母亲、父亲和孩提时的家园。我们结了婚，生了孩子，然后只好让他们离我们而去。我们面临父母和配偶的去世。我们面对着身体渐渐的或突然的衰败。最后，正如放开手心和捏紧拳头的比喻所启示的那样，我们必须面对自己死亡的必然性，可以说，失去了我们原来的一切和我们曾经梦想拥有的一切。
J. B. 普利斯特利(1894—1984)，英国小说家、剧作家、文学批评家，主要作品有流浪汉小说《好伙伴》，喜剧《金链花时丛》，文学评论《英国小说》等。
普里斯特利的作品常常反映了对社会问题和人性的深刻思考，他关注社会不公、道德伦理以及人类的命运。他的戏剧作品往往具有强烈的社会批判意识，以及对时间和命运的探讨。
除了文学作品，普里斯特利还是一位独立思想家和政治评论家，他的作品广泛传播并影响了英国社会的文化和政治发展。