曾幾何時,在溫馨的大院小巷里,鄰里間像老朋友般打著招呼,互敬互愛;孩子們都結為兒時的玩伴,快樂地一起走過了童年;一家有難,多家幫助,大家像兄弟姐妹一樣相互扶持……然而,時代變了,社會發展了,人際關系變復雜了,忙碌奔波于各種事務的人們已經疲于面對鄰里關系,過去對彼此敞開的大門早已緊閉。那么,現代人何時才能重拾過去的那份純真與真情?“國際好鄰居節”的發起也許是個好的契機!
The neighbourly gift. Imagine a world with a new holiday, one we don’t have yet called “Good Morning Neighbour”. It is already an exchange of gifts when we say that much and hear our neighbour’s “good morning” in response. But now imagine a special day when we could do more. We give our neighbour a gift with some small cash value. It could be a flower, it could be an 1)origami 2)poodle for their children, it could be a sample of your favourite 3)cuisine. Small is beautiful. Small is also 4)ingenious, and knows how to pack a lot of your own 5)personality into a 6)snug space. This will be an international holiday, and in our 7)globalized societies, it will 8)permit neighbours from most cultures to meet one another. The neighbourly gift will not solve headline problems like joblessness or global warming, but if it turns stranger neighbours into friendly neighbours, then it will already have taken our collective 9)civility one step forward.
鄰里間互送禮物。想象世界有一個新的節日,這個我們還沒有的節日叫做“早上好鄰居節”。如果我們經常說“早上好”這句話,鄰居們也回贈我們一句“早上好”,這已經是一種禮物的交換。然而,現在想象一個我們能夠做得更多的特別節日。花一點錢來送禮物給我們的鄰居。可以送花,可以送小狗的折紙給他們的孩子,可以送你最喜歡的一道菜。小事很美好;小事很奇妙,能夠將你許多個性濃縮到一個小的空間里。這將變成一個國際性的節日,在我們全球化的社會,它會讓大部分來自不同文化的鄰居們彼此結識。鄰里間的禮物互贈雖然不能解決熱點問題,如失業或全球變暖,但是如果這能夠使陌生的鄰居變得友好起來,就已經讓我們的集體文明更進一步了。