英文自修26：诸事宜疏不宜堵

本篇谈论对待生活中不可抗的事物，如洪水，不妨采取非对抗性策略。

 Thought for the Day 20140211
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Speaker: Rev Dr Jane Leach

 

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This morning floods are again bringing misery to many and my heart goes out to those whose houses or businesses or farmland have been flooded or are threatened. I spent the early part of my ministry in the Cambridgeshire Fens, living below sea level, and becoming aware for the first time of the power of the elements and of our reliance in those communities upon artificial pumping systems to get the water away. 

 

Many of our strategies for dealing with floods are defensive – built on the notion of keeping the water out – and of course when flood warnings come the immediate need is for sandbags – and perhaps for rescue. But, longer term, although our first instincts may be that we need better barriers on rivers or higher sea walls there are further strategies that might also serve us, which are essentially non-defensive – opening ourselves up to the reality of just how much water there may be to be contained and adjusting our approach accordingly - deliberately maintaining wetlands, for example, so that the water has somewhere to go – or more experimentally, like the Dutch, building amphibious homes that rest on foundations but under flood conditions rise on pontoons. 

 

This building technique seems to contradict the parable that Jesus told about building on rock rather than on sand, the obvious implication being that rock is safer, for when the rains come the foundations keep things firm. But in the light of modern building techniques we know that rigidity is not always the best way to approach what is overwhelming – buildings that bend in the wind, for example, are much more robust. 

Jesus, of course, was not a building consultant. Rather he was talking about the foundations on which we build our lives. But our attitude to life in general will feed through to our attitude to flooding. If we are constantly shoring up our psychological defences against the things we fear, this takes massive energy and resources but it cannot in the end keep us safe; more robust than constant defence maintenance is a degree of realism about our limitations as human beings, and a rooted flexibility so that life’s overwhelmings when they come do not knock us flat. 

The point is that knowing what matters deep down and being secure in that enables us to deal non-defensively with what life throws at us - so Christians believe that what is at the heart of the universe is resilient love which even many waters cannot drown. 

Survival strategies are essential during emergencies, but the longer term questions are also about how we build our lives and our water systems non-defensively, so that our energy and intelligence are not spent solely on staving off what we fear, but are used to help ourselves and others to live creatively within the limits of the way things actually are.

今晨洪水再次给许多人造成苦难，我也深深同情那些房屋、生意、田产遭淹、受威胁的人们。早年我在剑桥郡低地做牧师，生活在海平线下，首次了解到自然的威力，以及在这些地区我们对人造排水系统的依赖。

我们的很多抗洪策略都是防御性的，按“拒水于外”的思路建造，洪水警告来时第一需要当然就是沙袋，也许还有救援。尽管我们的直觉是需要更好的河道屏障或更高的海防墙，但是长远来说有更进一步的有用策略，基本上是非防御性的——解放思想，认清究竟有多少水要容纳，并相应调整手段，如有意识地保留湿地，以便水有处可去，或者如同荷兰人的实验那样，建设两用房屋，平时陆基，洪水来时随水升高，以浮架支撑。

这种建筑工艺看来与耶稣所说的建房要在岩石上、而非在沙土上这一格言相抵触，其表面意思是岩石更安全，因为当雨水来临，地基能使房子稳固。但在现代建筑工艺的启发下，我们了解到固执不变并非不可抗问题的最好解决办法，如在风中弯折的建筑物，就要强健得多。

当然，耶稣并非建筑顾问。他所谈者，更多指我们生活的基础，而我们对生活的总体态度会贯穿到抗洪的手段中去。如果我们总是加固对所惧怕事物的心理戒备，这需要大量的精力和财力，最终却不见得能保证安全；比持续的防御维护更强健的是在一定程度上认清我们人类自身的局限，并采取一种根本的灵活态度，从而生命中的不可抗事物到来时，我们不会被击倒。

要点是明晰内心深处的要害所在并确保此处安全，这能使我们在应对生活的磨难时采取非防御性姿态——所以基督徒相信宇宙的中心是坚韧不拔的爱，再大的水也不能淹没。

求生策略在紧急情况下至关重要，但长远问题是我们如何以非防御性方式营造生活，建造水系，使我们的力量和智慧不必浪费在对我们所畏惧的事物的抗拒之上，而是用来自助、助人，在世界的真实边界内有创造性地生活。