英语专业晨读美文-哲理篇 2 Peeling Away Artifice

[00:01.72]Peeling Away Artifice 1 for the Pure Original

[00:05.55]Sarah came running in. "Look what I found.

[00:10.10]"Over the top of the paper I was reading came a crispy,

[00:13.55]crumbling long object that caused me to jump.

[00:17.05]It was a snake skin that had been shed by one of our many garden snakes.

[00:21.10]"Isn't it beautiful?" said my wide-eyed seven-year-old daughter.

[00:26.02]I stared at the organic wrapper and thought to myself that

[00:29.30]it really wasn' t that beautiful,

[00:31.27]but I have learned never to appear nonchalant or jaded 2 with children.

[00:35.65]Everything they see for the first time

[00:37.72]is elementary to their sense of beauty and creativity;

[00:41.22]they see only merit and excellence 3 in the world until educated otherwise.

[00:46.47]"Why does it do this?" Sarah asked.

[00:49.42]Robert, ever the comedian 4, said:

[00:52.27]"We have a naked snake in our garden!"

[00:54.67]I also try to customize every opportunity to teach my children that

[00:59.16]there is almost always something beyond the obvious;

[01:02.11]that there is something else going on besides

[01:04.41]what they see in front of them.

[01:06.16]"Snakes shed their skin because they need to renew themselves.

[01:10.42]"I explained. As is so often the case in my family,

[01:13.60]the original subject leads to another and another,

[01:16.98]until we are discussing something quite different.

[01:20.05]"Why do they need to renew themselves?" Sarah asked.

[01:23.54]Robert quipped:"Because they don't like

[01:26.50]who they are and they want to be someone else."

[01:29.02]Sarah and I politely ignored her brother.

[01:31.86]I suddenly remembered an article on this page many years ago

[01:35.36]where the writer was expressing her concept of renewal 5.

[01:39.08]She used layers of paper over a wall to describe

[01:42.36]how we hide our original selves,

[01:44.88]and said that by peeling away those layers one by one,

[01:48.48]we see the underlying 6 original beneath.

[01:51.77]"We often need to shed our skins,

[01:54.17]those coatings and facades 7 that we cover ourselves with.

[01:57.45]"I said to my now absorbed daughter.

[02:00.19]"We outgrow 8 some things and find other stuff unwanted or unnecessary.

[02:04.99]This snake no longer needs this skin.

[02:08.06]It is probably too stiff and crinkly for him,

[02:11.01]and he probably doesn't think he looks as smart in it as he once did.

[02:14.62]Like buying a new suit."

[02:16.81]Of course, I'm sure this explanation won't sit well

[02:20.20]with bonafide naturalists 9.

[02:21.95]But Sarah was getting the point.

[02:24.03]As we talked, I knew that she began to comprehend, albeit 10 slightly,

[02:28.84]that renewal is part of progress;

[02:31.47]that we need to take a good look at ourselves,

[02:33.76]and our rooms and schoolwork and creativity and spirituality,

[02:38.57]and see what we need to keep and what we need to cast off.

[02:42.40]I was careful to point out that this is a natural process,

[02:45.90]not one to be forced.

[02:47.98]"Snakes don't peel off their skin when they feel like it.

[02:51.80]"I explained.

[02:53.01]"It happens as a natural consequence of their growth."

[02:56.72]"I see, Dad." said Sarah and jumped off my lap,

[03:00.12]grabbed the snakeskin, and ran off.

[03:02.20]I hoped she would remember this.

[03:04.16]That often, in order to find our real selves

[03:06.79]underneath the layers of community and culture with which

[03:10.29]we cloak ourselves year after year,

[03:12.36]we need to start examining these layers.

[03:15.76]We need to gently peel some away,

[03:18.38]as we recognize them to be worthless, unnecessary, or flawed;

[03:22.86]or at best, store the discarded ones

[03:26.37]as mementoes of our promotion 11 to a better vitality 12 or spirit.