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Hints:
"Love Thy Neighbor"
"Respect Thy Neighbor"It seems to me that neighbors are going out of style in America. The friend next door from whom you borrowed four eggs or a ladder has moved, and the people in there now are strangers.
Some of the old ideas about neighbors are probably silly, and it may be just as well that our relations with our neighbors are changing. The religious teaching to "Love Thy Neighbor" was probably a poor translation of what must have originally been "Respect Thy Neighbor". Love doesn't exist just because we want it to.
Fewer than half the people in the United States live in the same house they lived in five years ago, so there's no reason to love the people who live next door to you just because they happened to buy a house next door to yours. The only thing neighbors have in common to begin with is being close, and unless something more develops, that isn't reason enough to be best friends. It sometimes happens, but the chances are very small that your neighbors will be your choice as friends. Or that you will be theirs, either.
The best relationship with neighbors is one of friendly distance. You say hello, you sometimes talk if you see them in the yard, you discuss problems and you help each other when help is needed. The bushes or the fence between you is not a cold shoulder, but a clear boundary. We all like clearly defined boundaries for ourselves.1 在我看来，邻居在美国似乎要过时了。那个借给你4个鸡蛋或一架梯子的邻居朋友搬走了，现在住在那儿的是陌生人。
2 有些关于邻居的老观念也许是荒谬的。我们与邻居之间的关系正在发生变化，这也许是该庆幸的事。宗教上教导我们要“热爱你的邻居”，其原文很可能为“尊敬你的邻居”，但没有把它翻译好。爱不会因为我们希望有爱而存在。
3 在美国，目前还住在五年前就住着的房子里的人，不到半数，因而没有什么理由仅仅因为是买了你隔壁的房子住在那儿，你就要去热爱他们。一开始邻居间唯一的共同点是住得近，这并不足以使你们成为最要好的朋友，除非后来有新的进展。选邻居做朋友的可能性很小，尽管这种情况也有。换言之，你的邻居挑选你做朋友的可能性也很小。
4 与邻居的最佳关系是保持友好的距离。你们互相打招呼；在院子里见到时有时会聊一聊，讨论讨论问题，需要帮助时互相帮助。你们（两家）之间的一簇簇灌木丛或者篱笆并不是冷漠无情的隔阂，而是一道界限分明的边界。我们都喜欢有自己明确的分界线。
——译文来自: loyoch2005 |
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发表于 2016-8-2 13:17:17