書寫你的人生

岳愛琴

Suppose someone gave you a pen—a sealed, solid?鄄colored pen. You couldnt see how much ink it had. It might run dry after the first few tentative words or last just long enough to create a masterpiece (or several) that would last forever and make a difference in the scheme of things. You dont know before you begin. Under the rules of the game,you really never know. You have to take a chance!

Actually,no rule of the game states you must do anything. Instead of picking up and using the pen,you could leave it on a shelf or in a drawer where it will dry up,unused. But if you do decide to use it,what would you do with it?How would you play the game?Would you plan and plan before you ever wrote a word?Would your plans be so extensive that you never even got to the writing?Or would you take the pen in hand,plunge right in and just do it,struggling to keep up with the twists and turns of the torrents of words that take you where they take you?Would you write cautiously and carefully,as if the pen might run dry the next moment,or would you pretend to believe that the pen will write forever and proceed accordingly?

And of what would you write:Of love?Hatred? Fun?Misery?Life?Death?Nothing?Or Everything?Would you write to please just yourself,or others,or yourself by writing for others?Would your strokes be tremblingly timid or brilliantly bold?Fancy with a flourish or plain?Would you even write?Once you have the pen,no rule says you have to write. Would you sketch? Scribble?Doodle or draw?Would you stay in or on the lines, or see no lines at all,even if they were there?Or are they?Theres a lot to think about here,isnt there?

Now,suppose in the same way that if someone gave you a life...

假設有人給你一支筆——一支密封的固體彩色筆，你無從知道它儲存了多少墨水。有可能剛寫了開頭幾個字便耗盡了，也有可能足以讓你完成一部流傳后世，改變世界的巨著（或者幾部）。但這一切在開始之前你一無所知。這個游戲的規則，你并不知曉。你必須碰運氣！

事實上，這個游戲中沒有規則說你必須做些什么。你可以不用這支筆，而是將它放在書架上，或抽屜里，任它干掉，不能使用。但如果你的確決定使用它，那么你將用它做什么？你怎樣玩這個游戲？你在下筆之前會一遍遍的計劃思索嗎？還是計劃太多以至于無從開始下筆？或者你會拿起筆，開始寫作，在曲折或平凡的文字海洋里暢游？你會小心謹慎地使用這支筆好像它馬上就要用盡嗎？還是你會假裝相信它能延續使用到永遠？

你用它寫些什么內容呢？愛？恨？趣味性的？痛苦？生命？死亡？什么都不寫？或者什么都寫？僅僅為了取悅你自己，他人？或者通過寫別人而快樂自己？你的想象力豐富活躍還是平淡無奇？甚至說你會開始寫嗎？一旦你擁有這支筆，沒有規則說你必須用它來寫作。你可用來速寫，胡寫亂畫，涂鴉或畫畫。

你會游離于字里行間還是字外？或者你全然看不到這些文字，即使它們曾經存在過或就在眼前？有許多值得你考慮的事情，對不對？

現在，以相同的思路思考一下，如果有人給你一次生命……