二代是吾师(1):打动人心的演讲-- 一只笔的力量


一只笔,既可以犀利洞察世事,又可以卑微扭曲他人;既可以莺声燕语,又可以如雷咆哮。人多接近污浊之语,即使自认免疫力强,也难免被潜移默化。那么听听一个八年级学生的演讲,看看他们是如何用这只笔关注世界,感受自身的。当时听演讲被感动落泪,决心远离污浊之语,接近这样清新的笔调以滋润心灵。耐心看看三分钟视频,我们这一代老中也跟二代学学演讲。

A Speech Delivered by Megan Pan 7/19/2014

http://youtu.be/XtN4-H5_AHU

Good afternoon everyone, and thank you very much for coming. It is an honor to be before you, telling you a little bit more about myself through this brown paper bag. As you can see, it’s a normal paper bag — small, plain, ordinary. Its contents are almost as unassuming as its exterior. There’s only one thing inside this brown paper bag.

             A pen. An ordinary, blue ballpoint pen.

            Now you may be wondering, what’s so special about this little pen? Well you see, I love to write. Ever since I was little, I loved to write. There was a beauty and a magic in words that I adored and that I wanted to be a part of. When I was younger, I wrote about simple things. I wrote about how much I loved my new purple boots. I wrote about how pretty the flowers by the playground were. I wrote about the people I loved, my family — I wrote about my friends. And to this day, I still write about these simple things; I write about the sky, the seasons, flowers and people. The only thing that’s changed is that I’m older now. I’ve experienced more of the magic of words and therefore gained more experience of how to apply them.

            Writing has grown up with me. No matter what time it was, no matter whether the skies were overcast and cloudy or whether the sun beat mercilessly down on the sidewalk, I was there, writing. And as I gained more experience about the world, the world showed up more in my own writing. I wrote about love, of compassion and devotion and longing. I wrote about hatred and violence and sadness and tears. And the things I wrote about became a part of me. It was as if the pen wasn’t scribing the words onto the paper, but tattooing them into my own heart. And when the days were dark, I wrote about myself. Words like stupid, worthless, pathetic — they showed up a lot. But sometimes, just every so often, the word beautiful showed up too. The thing about pens is once you write it down, you can’t take it back. You can cross out the things you don’t want, but the marks will still be there. To some, these marks may seem ugly, like scars. But I don’t mind them at all. These marks transformed what was once an ordinary paper bag into something much more than what it once was, just like they transformed me. It was the beauty of these words that caused me to become the Megan Pan you see before you today, and because of that I am forever grateful.






捷润 (2014-07-30 06:18:46)

彼以剑锋所创,吾以笔锋竞之。--巴尔扎克。

李春燕 (2014-07-30 11:48:15)

有太多我们可以学习的了。

李春燕 (2014-07-31 00:59:08)
From Haipei: "太正确了!我也一直在说要向我们的孩子学习!像比较我们第一代,他们身上太多美好的东西了。我希望无论是在ABC事件,还是SCA5,还是纽约特色高中录取,还是现在的Fox News/BB事件,我们都应该多听听我们孩子们的想法和心声。不要总是以我们自己的价值或以他们的名义去为他们的未来而奋斗。"
李春燕 (2014-07-31 01:08:08)

@薛海培(Haipei Shue) 是,我在您提到的几件事上都问孩子的意思,包括是否太敏感等,孩子们的回答被引用到演讲中。因为经常办父母子女讨论会,从二代那学到很多,他们是我老师。