歷史學家

周末拾起朋友推薦許久的小說"歷史學家"，很久沒有讀到如此引人入勝的原文書，late night page turner, indeed。故事由大使的女兒無意發現了一封神秘的信展開，父親猶如太過憂愁與害怕而無法一次把經歷過的故事說完，於是在一次次的旅程中，他同女兒片片斷斷的講述這個神祕的找尋德古拉的故事。第十章之始，由下面這一段文字展開：

As an adult, I have very often know that peculiar legacy time brings to the traveler: the longing to seek out a place a second time, to find deliberately what we stumbled on once before, to recapture the feeling of discover. Sometimes we search out again even a place that was not remarkable in itself - we look for it simply because we remember it. If we do find it, of course, everything is different. The rough-hewn door is still there, but its much smaller, the day is cloudy instead of brilliant; it's spring instead of autumn; we're alone instead of with three friends. Or worse, with three friends instead of alone.

 -- Historian Chapter 10.

儘管劇情吸引著我繼續閱讀下去，我卻不可自拔的被這段文字深深吸引，一遍遍地反覆閱讀著，並且把她抄錄在筆記本中。一段屬於過去的回憶湧現，我想到高中畢業旅行時，我們如何在那一個熟悉的休息站一夥兒人突地衝下車，為著尋找屬於我們班遊時共同的烤香腸與炸杏鲍菇的回憶，因而搶先占領那個將會是最熱門的攤子。而這段回憶僅屬於二班，那一車執著有著共同記憶的一群夥伴。

不評斷，更開心 No Judging

＂對別人選擇的生活方式與行為感到興趣，不帶任何評斷色彩。＂　 

--這是＜別再為小事抓狂＞的作者Richard Carlson說，當ㄧ個人類學家的定義。

許多人總說在國外的時候看什麼事物都美，我想那是因為我們把那些稀奇與看不習慣的事物都美化當作美景與異國風情來看待。見著留著雅痞長髮的男子覺得有魅力，見著穿著鉚釘皮靴的嬉皮龐克搖滾的外國人覺得帥氣有個性，我們驚呼著！卻多能保持外國人就是不一樣--而不妄加評斷的態度；然倘若在台灣見到，就想說這些人怎麼穿得這樣不淪不類。在國外的時候，我們似乎更能接受別人選擇的生活方式，去參與同性戀歡慶的遊行當作見識，然而回到島內就瞬間封閉的對身邊的朋友或是出櫃的小孩大驚小怪。

我想最大的差異在於ㄧ種無涉的心情，或至少是一種入境問俗的心態。所以在國外看到"看不慣"的事物，我們感到驚奇，頂多唉呦ㄧ聲吃驚ㄧ下也就過去了；回到國內要是發現身邊的人ㄧ直讓你感覺怪怪的，你就好像非得說什麼評論一番，卻忘記儘管生活在鄰近的空間，每一個人都還是獨立的個體，有各自的偏好與想要的生活方式。你不需要覺得被侵犯了(offend)也不需要覺得他們的樣子是對你的挑釁，他就像是一個外國人ㄧ樣，有與你有不同的選擇。

為什麼不能就像看待外國人一樣，因為感到有興趣，所以試著了解；因為尊重，所以不去評斷？

Explore. Dream. Discover.

Twenty years from now, you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did. So threw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.  --Mark Twain

This morning, I came across a blog post from a friend I met 5 to 6 years ago. Despite the limited interaction we had when we were still living in the same city, we share a common interest in travel. I remember vividly his popularity that night, when he told all those amazing stories about all the fun things he encountered during his travel. By then, I had stayed in Netherlands for a year already as an exchange student, but had too little traveling experience as compared to others who also have been in Europe for a year. To me, they travel like crazy, seizing every single long weekend (weekend with either Friday and/or Monday as public holiday) and sometimes even skipped a few lectures to fly with cheap airline during their promotion dates. I was too much of a good student, and had only been to Germany and Czech on Christmas and Easter holiday in the first year.