一座好谷仓It Was a Good Barn（1/2）
佚名/Anonyo
Practicg for Better Learng
Thk about the questions before you read this article.
1. What are the siirities beeen the barn and friendship?
2. Whatwe do to keep our friendship?
An old friendship had grown ld. Where ohere had been closeness, there was only stra. Now pride keptfro pickg up the phone.
Then one day I droppedon another old friend who’s had a long career as a ister and unselor. We were seatedhis study—surrounded by aybe a thoand books ao deep ion about everythg fro sall puters to the tornted life of Beethoven.
The subjee as an exaple.“Retionships are ysteries,”y friend said,“So ehers fall apart.”
Gazg out his dow to the wooded Veront hills, he poted toward a neighb far,“Used to be a rge barhere.”o a red-fra hoe were the footgs of what had been a sizable structure.
“It was solidly built, probablythe 1870s. But like so any of the pces around here, it went down becae people left for richer ndsthe Midwest. No oook care of the barn. Its roof needed patchg; rawater got uhe eaves and dripped down side the posts and beas.”
“One day a high d ca along, and the whole barn began to treble. You uld hear this creakg, first, like old sailg-ship tibers, and then a sharp series of cracks and a trend sound. Suddenly it was a heap of scrap ber.”
“After the stor blew over, I went down and saw these beautiful, old oak tibers, solid as uld be. I asked the fellow who owns the pce what had happened. He said he figured the rawater had settledthe pholes, where wooden dowels held the jots together. Ohose ps were rotted, there was nothg to lk the giaogether.”
We both gazed down the hill. Now all that was left of the barn was its celr hole and its border of lic shrubs.
My friend said he had turhe t over and overhis d, and fally ize so parallels beeen buildg a barn and buildg a friendship: no atter how strong you are, how notable your attants, you have endurg signifilyyour retionship to others.“To ake your life a sound structure that will serve others and fulfill your own potential,”he said,“you have to reber that strength, however assive, ’t endure unless it has the terlockg support of o it alone and you’ll evitably tuble.”
“Retionships have to be cared for,”he added,“like the roof of a barers unwritten, thanks unsaid, nfidences vioted, quarrels uled—all this acts like rawaterseepgtothe pegs ,weakeng the lk beeen the beas.”
My friend shook his head.“It was a good barn. And it would have taken very little to keep itgood repair. Now it will probably never be rebuilt.”
Later that afternoon I got ready to leave.“You wouldn’t like to borrow y phoo ake a call, I don’t suppose?”he asked.
“Yes,”I said,“I thk I would. Very uch.”
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。”
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