祸兮?福兮!

刘 鹏、朱一童 译

[导读]“福兮祸所伏，祸兮福所倚。”中国古代圣人老子的这句名言历经千古，仍闪烁着智慧之光。且看一个13岁的美国小女孩如何依靠坚定的信念和乐观的精神演绎出一段祸福相倚的精彩故事。

Halloween in Hawaii is a little complicated. Unlike on the mainland, where people carve their pumpkins a week before the holiday, here it’s so warm and humid, you only get a day or two to display a carved pumpkin before they grow a moldy（发霉的） beard or cave in on themselves in a slimy mess of goo...

That Halloween morning in Kaua’i, Hawaii―a glorious part of the world, where it’s hard to deny the divine― Bethany Hamilton responded to the shark’s stealth attack with the calm of a girl with heaven on her side.

Pushing pain and panic aside, she immediately began to paddle with one arm, focusing on a single thought: “Get to the beach...” Rushed to the hospital, where her father, Tom Hamilton, was about to undergo knee surgery, Bethany found herself taking his spot.

It’s the kind of coincidence that isn’t mere coincidence to the Hamilton family. To them it was a sign heaven had a greater plan than the one they’d been working on themselves―which had been to scrape（积攒） together whatever resources they could to help Bethany rise to the top of her sport. When the first thing Bethany wanted to know after surgery was “When can I surf again?” it became clear that her unfaltering（坚决的） spirit and determination were part of a greater story―a tale of courage and faith that this modest and soft-spoken girl would come to share with the world.

She began her career as a surfer with her first competition at age 11. By age 13, Bethany was an accomplished competitor and well-respected in the surfing world. They say she has saltwater in her veins. How else could one explain the tremendous passion that drives her to surf? How else could one explain that nothing―not even the horrific shark attack―could come between her and the waves?

Bethany had always been a compassionate child, but since that shark attack on Halloween, her compassion has deepened. Four days after the incident, she learned that fishermen on Kaua‘i’s north shore were talking about hunting down the 13-foot, 1,500-pound tiger shark. From her hospital bed, she tearfully insisted the animal not be harmed.

A few days later, her empathy surfaced again, during a stress debriefing session with Kai Swigart, a psychologist who is legally blind. Bethany told him his loss of sight was far worse than her loss of an arm. She offered to donate money being raised to help pay her medical bills to pay for an operation to restore his sight. Swigart added, “She told me that she had visited heaven and then had come back to be with her family. Anyone who touches heaven has a serenity（平静，安详）, a spirit, a presence that transcends normal human experience.”

Bethany has already lived more than a lifetime’s worth of triumph and tragedy. After the shark attack she rose once again to the challenges of competition and dealt with the maelstrom（大漩涡） of media attention. She relied on her faith and innate（先天的, 天生的）positive thinking to embrace changes that would undo most people. When she lost her arm in the fall of 2003, it looked as if the career of one of the country’s topsurfers was over. But just ten weeks later, she returned to competition in her native Hawaii, vowing never to give up the sport she loves. Bethany continues to compete in the most challenging waves in the world and amaze everyone by achieving the unimaginable. She dominated the 2005 National Scholastic Surfing Association Nationals Championships.

She has earned an indelible place in America’s heart in appearances on Good Morning America, The Tonight Show, Entertainment Tonight and a host of other venues. She’s been featured in People magazine and her story has been written up in newspapers in Europe, Asia, South America and Australia. In December, 2003, Bethany touched hearts again when, on a media tour of New York City, she suddenly removed her ski jacket and gave it to a homeless girl sitting on a subway gate in Times Square. Wearing only a tank top, Hamilton then canceled a shopping spree, saying she already had too many things. “Bethany was always very giving, very loving and very kind, but I’ve never seen anything like this,” says her father, Tom. “She’s got more wisdom, I guess.”

Surprisingly, Bethany doesn’t view herself as strong, driven or courageous. She sees the loss of her arm as her destiny, as a blessing in disguise. Her life is richer and fuller―and her surfing career more tangible and lucrative（有利的）―than before the attack. She has chosen to use her experience to become an inspiration and help others to overcome adversity（不幸, 灾祸, 逆境）, no matter how great. “I know I have something important to say. Something that people need to hear―but sometimes they get so caught up in the story part, that they miss the meaning,” says Bethany. As always, she remains undaunted （大无畏的, 勇敢的）and is looking forward to the future. She’s asking herself, “How can I show the world I still have a life, that I enjoy my life and that my life is filled with joy?”

在夏威夷，万圣节前夕的情况有点复杂。在大陆，那里的人们在万圣节前的一个星期就把南瓜雕刻好了。和大陆的情况不同，夏威夷过于温暖潮湿，在南瓜霉变长出“胡须”或是出现黏糊糊的窟窿之前，人们只有一两天时间展示雕刻好的南瓜……

夏威夷的考爱岛是世界上最迷人的地方之一，这里的美丽让人无法抗拒。万圣节前夕的清晨，贝萨妮・汉密尔顿，这个受上天怜爱的小女孩，沉着冷静地应对鲨鱼的偷袭。

顾不上疼痛和恐惧，她立刻开始用另一只胳膊划水，心里只有一个念头：“划到岸边……”上岸后贝萨妮被迅速送往医院，她的爸爸汤姆・汉密尔顿正要在那里接受膝盖手术，贝萨妮后来发现自己竟然占了爸爸的位置。

发生在汉密尔顿家的这种巧合不仅仅是巧合。对他们来说，这预示着上天还有更宏伟的计划等待他们去实现，此前他们一直在为实现自己的计划努力着――把积攒下来的钱都用于帮助贝萨妮登上运动事业的顶峰。手术后，贝萨妮想知道的第一件事就是“我什么时候能够重新开始冲浪？”毋庸置疑，她的专注精神和坚定决心也成了这个伟大故事的一部分――这个谦虚谨慎、温文尔雅的女孩将与世人分享一个关于勇气和信念的传奇。

她11岁那年第一次参加比赛，从此开始了一名冲浪选手的运动生涯。13岁时贝萨妮已经取得辉煌战绩，在冲浪界广受尊重。人们说她的血管里流淌着海水，否则如何解释她投身于冲浪的巨大激情？如何解释任何东西都无法阻挡她对海浪的热爱――甚至令人毛骨悚然的鲨鱼袭击也不能。

贝萨妮一直是个富有同情心的孩子，自从万圣节前夕遭鲨鱼袭击以后，她的同情心更加强烈了。鲨鱼袭击事件之后的第4天，她得知考爱岛北部海岸的渔民正在谈论捕杀一条13英尺长、1500磅重的虎鲨。躺在医院病床上的她含着泪坚持不要伤害动物。

几天后，贝萨妮的同情心又一次展现出来。在如何减轻压力的咨询会上，她遇到了双目失明的心理学家凯・斯威格特。贝萨妮告诉他失去视力要比失去一条胳膊不幸得多，因此她主动把积攒下来的医药费捐赠给斯威格特，用于视力复明手术。斯威格特还说道：“贝萨妮告诉我她曾访问过天堂，后来又回来与家人团聚。任何一个拜访过天堂的人都会有一种超越常人的平静、勇气和风度。”

贝萨妮经历的胜利与悲剧比普通人整个一生经历的还要多。遭遇鲨鱼袭击后，她重新站起来，去面对竞赛的挑战，置身于媒体关注的漩涡之中。她依靠坚定的信念和天生的乐观精神欣然接受人生的变化，这样的变化足以将绝大多数人击垮。2003年秋，当贝萨妮失去胳膊的时候，作为美国最优秀的业余冲浪选手之一，她的职业生涯似乎已经结束。可是仅仅过了10个星期，她就重返家乡夏威夷的赛场，发誓永远不放弃自己热爱的运动。贝萨妮继续参加世界上最具挑战性的冲浪比赛，并令人惊讶地取得了不可思议的成绩。她获得2005年美国冲浪锦标赛冠军。

她在“早安美国”“今夜脱口秀”“欢乐今宵”等各种场合的表现在美国人心中留下了难以磨灭的印象。她荣登《人物》杂志，她的故事写进欧、亚、南美和澳洲等许多国家的报纸。2003年12月，贝萨妮又一次感动了世人，在参观纽约市的途中，她突然脱下滑雪夹克，穿在一个坐在时代广场地铁出口无家可归的小女孩身上。尽管只戴着一顶坦克帽，汉密尔顿却取消了参加购物狂欢的计划，说自己的东西已经够多了。她的父亲汤姆说：“贝萨妮总是乐善好施，充满爱心，心地善良，但是我以前从未见过她放弃购物。我猜她已经获得了更多的智慧。”

令人惊讶的是，贝萨妮并不认为自己强壮、勇敢。在她看来，失去胳膊是命中注定的，她却因祸得福，生活比遭遇袭击之前更加丰富、充实，冲浪生涯也更有益处。她用亲身经历鼓励和帮助别人战胜灾难，无论灾祸有多严重。贝萨妮说：“我知道我有一些重要的东西要讲，应该把这些东西讲给别人听，但是人们往往过多地关注故事本身，而忽视了其中的内涵。”她一如既往的无所畏惧，憧憬着美好的未来。她不断问自己：“我怎样才能向世界证明我还活着，我生活得很愉快，我的生活充满快乐？”

（责编：张楚武）

注释：

1. 原文作者Chelle Thompson系美国心理学家，人际关系学专家。

2. 本文主人公贝萨妮・汉密尔顿是美国残疾人冲浪运动员。在一次冲浪过程中被鲨鱼咬断一条胳膊，经过一系列艰苦的恢复性训练，先后夺得一系列赛事的冠军，其中包括2005年第15届美国冲浪锦标赛冠军。当年，汉密尔顿成为国家冲浪队的队员。汉密尔顿出版了自传《灵魂的冲浪》，这本书登上了《洛杉矶时报》畅销书的名单。