Take your time

好友从贵州考察回来，印象最深刻的，竟然是这一幕：他看见数十农人耕种，另外有数十农人蹲在田埂上看这数十人耕种，从日出，到日落，日复一日。学者受不了了──难道一批人工作，需要另一批人监督？他跑到田边去问那蹲着的人：“你们为什么看他们耕作？”

蹲着的人仍旧蹲着，抽着烟，眼睛仍旧蒙蒙地看着田里，用浓重的乡音说，“就是看呀。”

“为什么看呢？”

“没事干啊！”

学者明白了。一亩地，那几个人也就够了，其他的人真的没活可干，就到那田埂上，蹲着，可能潜意识里也是一种“同舟共济”的表达吧。

蹲着的人们这回转过头来，奇怪地看着他，然后问他为何发此问。

香港来的学者倒愣住了。他要怎么回答呢？说，因为蹲在田埂上什么也不做，是一种浪费？说，“没事干”是是是──是件不可想像的事，因为在香港或台湾或新加坡或美国，每个人一辈子都在努力干事，“没事干”是件……是件可怕的事。

他要怎么说呢？

于是我想起另一个故事，地点是非洲。一个为红十字工作的欧洲人到了非洲某国，每天起床还是维持他的运动习惯：慢跑。

他一面跑，一面发现，一个当地人跑过来，跟着他跑，十分关切地问他；“出了什么事？”

欧洲人边喘息边说，“没出事。”

非洲人万分惊讶地说，“没出事？没出事为什么要跑？

这个欧洲人愣住了。他要怎么解释？因为他总是坐在开着冷气或暖气的办公室里头一个开着的电脑前面，他的皮肤很少被阳光照到，他的手很嫩、肩膀很僵硬、腰很酸，因为没有身体的劳动，因此他必须依靠“跑步”来强制他的肌肉运动？他是不是要进一步解释，欧洲人和非洲人，因为都市化的程度不同，所以生活形态不同，所以“跑步”这个东西，呃……不是因为“出了事”。

好友在说贵州人蹲一整天没事干，就是抽着烟望向漠漠的田地时，我发现自己的灵魂悠然走神，竟然叹息起来，说，“就是蹲在田埂上看田，唉，真好。”

我知道，我在向往一个境界。

慢的境界。

和华飞走东南亚十五天，出发前就做好了心理调适：慢。

当你到了码头，没有一个办公室贴着时刻表，也没有一个人可以用权威的声音告诉你几点可以到达终点，你就上船，然后就找一条看起来最舒服的板凳坐下来，带着从此在此一生一世的心情。你发现你根本不去想何时抵达，连念头都没有。你看那流动的河，静默却显然又隐藏着巨大的爆发力，你看那沙滩上晒太阳的灰色的水牛，你看孩子们从山坡上奔下来，你看阳光在芦苇白头上刷出一丝一丝的金线，你看一个漩涡的条纹，一条一条地数……

从琅勃拉邦到吴哥窟的飞机，突然说延误三个小时，人们连动都不动一下。因为预期就是这样，于是你闲适地把机场商店从头到尾看一遍，把每一个金属大象，每一盒香料，每一串项链，每一条丝巾，都拿到手上，看它、触它、嗅它、感觉它。反正就是这样，时间怎么流都可以。任何一个时刻，任何一个地方，都是安身立命的好时刻，好地方。

晚明的散文大家张岱，“极爱繁华，好精舍，好美婢，好娈童，好鲜衣，好美食，好骏马，好华灯，好烟火，好梨园，好鼓吹，好古董，好花鸟，兼以茶淫橘虐，书蠹诗魔”。能这样过日子，是因为他把杭州当安身立命之处。明朝覆亡，他脚下的土，也被抽走了。“年至五十，国破家亡，避迹山居。所存者，破床碎几，折鼎病琴，与残书数帙，缺砚一方而已。布衣疏莨，常至断炊。回首二十年前，真如隔世。”

我想有一个家，家前有土，土上可种植丝瓜，丝瓜沿竿而爬，迎光开出巨朵黄花，花谢结果，垒累棚上。我就坐在那土地上，看丝瓜身上一粒粒突起的青色疙瘩。

When his friend returned from a trip to Guizhou, he was most impressed by this scene: he saw dozens of farmers farming, and dozens of other farmers squatting on the ridges of their fields to watch the dozens of people farming, day after day, from sunrise to sunset. Scholars can't take it anymore. Do one group of people work and need another group to supervise? He ran to the edge of the field and asked the squatters, "why do you see them plowing?" The squatters were still squatting, smoking, still looking at the field with Bleary Eyes, and saying in a strong local accent, "just watching."

< p > "why?"

< p > "nothing to do!"

< P > scholars understand. One Mu of land, that a few people are enough, other people really have no work to do, on the ridge, squatting, may also be a subconscious "together" expression of it. The squatters turned round this time, looked at him strangely, and then asked him why. The scholar from Hong Kong was dumbfounded. What's he gonna say? Because squatting on the ridge and doing nothing is a waste? "nothing to do" is, is, is, is, is unthinkable, because in Hong Kong or Taiwan or Singapore or the United States, everyone has worked hard all his life, "nothing to do" is... is a terrible thing. What's he gonna say? And then I remembered another story, and it was in Africa. A European working for the Red Cross went to a country in Africa and got up every day to maintain his exercise habit: jogging. As he ran, he found a local man running after him, asking him with great concern, "What's the matter?" The European gasped, "nothing happened," said the African in great surprise, "nothing happened? Why Run if Nothing's wrong? The European was stupefied. How's he gonna explain that? Because he sits in front of an open computer in an air-conditioned or heated office, his skin is rarely exposed to sunlight, his hands are tender, his shoulders are stiff and his back is sore because he has no physical labor, so he has to rely on "running" to force his muscles to move? Is he going to go further and explain that Europeans and Africans, have different lifestyles because of different levels of urbanization, so this thing called running, well... It's not because something went wrong. When my friend said that people in Guizhou had nothing to do all day, that is, smoking cigarettes and looking at the fields in the desert, I found my soul wandering, even sighing, and said, "just squatting on the ridge to see the fields, alas, really good." I know, I am longing for a realm. The slow state.

< P > and China flew to Southeast Asia for 15 days, before the departure had done psychological adjustment: slow. When you get to the dock, without an office to stick to the schedule or an authoritative voice telling you what time it is to get to the finish line, you get on the boat and sit down on the most comfortable looking bench in the But Always. You find yourself not thinking about when you're going to arrive, not even thinking about it. You look at the Flowing River, silent but clearly hiding great power, you look at the Gray Buffalo Sunning on the beach, you look at the children running down the hillside, you look at the golden thread of the sun brushing the white head of the reeds, you look at the stripes of a whirlpool, counting them one by one... the plane from Luang Prabang to Angkor Wat suddenly said that the delay was three hours, and people did not move a muscle. Because that's the expectation, so you casually go through the airport store, looking at it from top to bottom, taking every metal elephant, every box of spices, every necklace, every scarf, looking at it, touching it, smelling it, feeling it. Well, that's the way it is. Time can flow all you want. Any time, any place, is a good time to settle down, a good place. Zhang Dai, the prose master of the late Ming dynasty, "loved prosperity, fine houses, fine maidservants, good catamites, good fresh clothes, good food, good horses, good lamps, good fireworks, good pear gardens, good preaching, good antiques, good flowers and birds, and the evil spirits of books and poetry". Can live like this, is because he regards Hangzhou as a place to settle down and make a living. With the fall of the Ming dynasty, the earth beneath his feet was drained away. "from the age of fifty, the country was destroyed and the people fled to the mountains. The survivors, broken bed broken a few, folding tripod disease Qin, and residual number of books, a lack of inkstone party only. Cloth clothing and ungodly food are often broken. Looking back 20 years ago, it was like a lifetime ago." I want to have a home, home before the soil, soil can grow loofah, loofah along the pole and climb, the light opened huge yellow flowers, flowers, fruit, piled shed shed shed shed shed shed shed shed shed shed shed shed shed shed shed shed shed shed shed shed shed shed shed shed shed shed shed shed shed shed shed shed shed shed shed shed shed shed shed shed shed shed shed shed shed shed shed shed shed shed shed shed shed shed shed shed shed shed shed shed shed shed shed shed shed shed shed shed shed shed shed shed shed shed shed shed shed shed shed shed shed shed shed sheds. I was sitting on the ground, Loofah body to see a piece of the Blue Bumps.

标题: 慢看
作者: 龙应台
字数: 1389
简介: 好友从贵州考察回来，印象最深刻的，竟然是这一幕：他看见数十农人耕种，另外有数十农人蹲在田埂上看这数十人耕种，从日出，到日落，日复一日。学者受