釘子 / Nails

There was a little boy with a bad temper. His father gave him a bag of nails and told him to hammer a nail in the back fence every time he lost his temper. The first day the boy had driven 37 nails into the fence. Then it gradually dwindled down. He discovered it was easier to hold his temper than to drive those nails into the fence. Finally the day came when the boy didn’t lose his temper at all. He told his father about it and the father suggested that the boy now pull out one nail for each day when he was able to hold his temper. The days passed and the young boy was finally able to tell his father that all the nails were gone. The father took his son by the hand and led him to the fence. He said, “You have done well, my son, but look at the holes in the fence. The fence will never be the same. When you say things in anger, they leave a scar just like this one. You can put a knife in a man and draw it out. It won’t matter how many times you say I’m sorry, the wound is still there. A verbal wound is as bad as a physical one.

【日積月累】

◇hammer n. 鐵錘，槌，錘子v. 錘擊，錘打

◇dwindle  vi. 縮小，減少，逐漸變小

【參考譯文】

釘子

有一個壞脾氣的小男孩。他的爸爸給了他一盒釘子并且告訴他，每次他要發脾氣的時候，就在后院的籬笆上釘一根釘子。第一天，男孩在籬笆上訂了37根釘子。后來釘釘子的次數逐漸變少，他發現比起把這些釘子釘進籬笆，控制住情緒更容易些。最后，男孩一整天都沒有發脾氣的這天終于來臨了。他告訴了爸爸這一切，爸爸建議男孩在能夠控制情緒的每一天拔出一根釘子。一天一天過去了，男孩終于能夠告訴他的爸爸，所有的釘子都拔出來了。爸爸牽著男孩來到籬笆邊，說，“做得很好，我的兒子，但是看看籬笆上的這些洞，籬笆再也不是以前那樣了。當你生氣地說出事情的時候，他們就像這個籬笆一樣，留下了一塊傷疤。就像是你把刀子捅進了人身體，又拔了出來。說多少次對不起都是沒有用的，傷口一直在這兒。語言上造成的傷口和身體上的傷口是一樣糟糕的。”

【人生啟迪】

人與人之間常常因為一些彼此無法釋懷的堅持，而造成永遠的傷害。如果我們都能從自己做起，開始寬容地看待他人，相信你一定會收到許多意想不到的結果——幫別人開啟一扇窗，也就是讓自己看到更完整的天空。