It Was a Good Barn
佚名 / Anonymous
Practicing for Better Learning
Think about the questions before you read this article.
1. What are the similarities between the barn and friendship?
2. What can we do to keep our friendship?
An old friendship had grown cold. Where once there had been closeness, there was only strain. Now pride kept me from picking up the phone.
Then one day I dropped in on another old friend who’s had a long career as a minister and counselor. We were seated in his study—surrounded by maybe a thousand books and fell into deep conversation about everything from small computers to the tormented life of Beethoven.
The subject finally turned to friendship and how perishable it seems to be these days. I mentioned my own experience as an example. “Relationships are mysteries,” my friend said, “Some endure. Others fall apart.”
Gazing out his window to the wooded Vermont hills, he pointed toward a neighboring farm, “Used to be a large barn over there.” Next to a red-frame house were the footings of what had been a sizable structure.
“It was solidly built, probably in the 1870s. But like so many of the places around here, it went down because people left for richer lands in the Midwest. No one took care of the barn. Its roof needed patching; rainwater got under the eaves and dripped down inside the posts and beams.”
“One day a high wind came along, and the whole barn began to tremble. You could hear this creaking, first, like old sailing-ship timbers, and then a sharp series of cracks and a tremendous roaring sound. Suddenly it was a heap of scrap lumber.”
“After the storm blew over, I went down and saw these beautiful, old oak timbers, solid as could be. I asked the fellow who owns the place what had happened. He said he figured the rainwater had settled in the pinholes, where wooden dowels held the joints together. Once those pins were rotted, there was nothing to link the giant beams together.”
We both gazed down the hill. Now all that was left of the barn was its cellar hole and its border of lilac shrubs.
My friend said he had turned the incident over and over in his mind, and finally came to recognize some parallels between building a barn and building a friendship: no matter how strong you are, how notable your attainments, you have enduring significance only in your relationship to others.
“To make your life a sound structure that will serve others and fulfill your own potential,” he said, “you have to remember that strength, however massive, can’t endure unless it has the interlocking support of others. Go it alone and you’ll inevitably tumble.”
“Relationships have to be cared for,” he added, “like the roof of a barn.Letters unwritten, thanks unsaid, confidences violated, quarrels unsettled—all this acts like rainwater seeping into the pegs ,weakening the link between the beams.”
My friend shook his head. “It was a good barn. And it would have taken very little to keep it in good repair. Now it will probably never be rebuilt.”
Later that afternoon I got ready to leave. “You wouldn’t like to borrow my phone to make a call, I don’t suppose?” he asked.
“Yes, ” I said, “I think I would. Very much.”
昔日的友情逐渐淡漠，曾经的亲密无间，如今只有剑拔弩张了。现在，强烈的自尊心让我无法拿起电话。
后来，有一天，我去拜访另一位老朋友，他作了多年的外交官和法律顾问，他的书房里堆放着上千本书籍。我们坐在那里无话不谈，从小型计算机聊到了贝多芬历经磨难的一生。
最后，话题又转到友谊上，谈到现在的友情似乎很容易变质，我举例提到了自己的经历。朋友说：“关系是神秘的，有些能耐久，有些却易破裂。”
他凝视着窗外那郁郁葱葱的弗蒙特山丘，指着附近的一个农场说道：“那儿曾是一个大谷仓。”我看到，在一栋红木屋旁，有一个庞大建筑物的地基。
“它是一座坚固的建筑物，大概建于19世纪70年代。因为人们往中西部更富饶的地区迁移，它就像这儿的许多建筑物一样，慢慢地塌陷了。这个谷仓无人照管，仓顶需要维修了，雨水流到屋檐下，渗进柱子和横梁里。”
“有一天，刮起了大风，整个谷仓开始摇晃起来，刚开始，你能听到那种吱吱的响声，就像古老的木制帆船所发出来的声音，然后是一连串刺耳的断裂声，紧接着是巨大的轰鸣声，转眼间，它就成了一堆碎裂的木头了。”
“暴风雨过后，我下山去看，发现这些漂亮的老橡木还是那么结实。我问当时谷仓的主人是怎么回事。他说，估计是雨水渗进了木钉孔里，而正是这些木钉使它们结合在一起的。这些钉子一旦腐烂，巨大的横梁就没法连接了。”
我们向山下望去，昔日的谷仓如今就只剩下一个地窖口和一堆丁香灌木丛了。
我的朋友说，他反复琢磨这件事，终于认识到，建造谷仓和建立友谊之间有些相似之处：不论你是多么强大，不论你的成就多么辉煌，只有在与他人交往的过程中，你才有长久的价值。
“要创造健全的生活，就应该为他人服务，同时发挥自身的潜能。”他说，“必须记住，没有他人的支持，不论你的力量多么强大，也不可能持久。孤身挺进，势必栽跟头。”
“关系就像谷仓顶一样，需要精心维护。”他补充道，“不通信，不表示感谢，就会有损于彼此间的信任，使争执得不到解决。所有这些行为就像雨水渗进钉子眼里，削弱了横梁之间的连接力。”
朋友摇了摇头，说：“这是一座好谷仓，只要好好维护，不需要花多少精力就能保存下来。而现在，也许再也不能重建了。”
黄昏时分，我准备离开了。“你不想借用一下我的电话吗？”他说。
“是的，”我说，“我想，我非常希望。”
Ace in the Hole
Keywords and expressions
1. gaze & gape
gaze
作动词：凝视，注视，指由于好奇、感叹、长时间目不转睛地看。
例：She gazed at her beautiful new diamond ring.
她凝视着自己的这颗美丽崭新的钻戒。
2. gape
作动词：(张着嘴，瞪大眼睛) 呆看，强调一种吃惊的状态。
例：Don’t gape, it’s rude!
别张着嘴傻瞪眼，太不礼貌了！
Chunks in Practice
Translate the following sentences into English or Chinese.
1. 不论你是多么强大，不论你的成就多么辉煌，只有在与他人交往的过程中，你才有长久的价值。
______
2. 要创造健全的生活，就应该为他人服务，同时发挥自身的潜能。
______
3. Then one day I dropped in on another old friend who’s had a long career as a minister and counselor.
______
4. It was a heap of scrap lumber.
______
Now a Try
Is it necessary for us to care for our relationships with others? How?
