OWNED BY PARROT01

“What is a Caucus-race?” asked Alice during her adventure in Wonderland. The Dodo explained.

“什么是会议式赛跑？”爱丽丝在梦游仙境中问到。渡渡鸟解释道。

First you mark out a racecourse, though the shape of it doesn’t really matter.

首先你拟定出一条跑道，形状是什么样的并不重要。

Then you shout out, one, two three, go, and you run around in any direction you like for about half an hour and then the race ends.

然后你喊一、二、三，跑，你沿着任何你喜欢的方向跑大约半小时，然后比赛结束。

But when asked the question, “who has actually won?” the Dodo looked puzzled and pressed his finger to his temple.

但当被问到“谁真正赢了比赛”，渡渡鸟看上去非常困惑，用手指紧贴在他的太阳穴，

Then the answer came to him, “everybody has won, and all must have prizes.” Like thousands of households around the country, the Fraser family,

然后回答道，“每个人都赢了，他们都有奖品。”像弗雷泽家族一样的许多家族，

and in particular my eldest daughter who’s also called Alice, are waiting anxiously for GCSE results that come out this morning.

尤其是我的大女儿也叫做爱丽丝，焦急地等待着今天英国普通初级中学毕业文凭的结果。

Will she pass or will she fail? In a few hours’ time, we will know the judgement of the examiners.

她会及格还是不及格呢？在接下来的几个小时里，我们将会在主考人知道考试结果。

In a much-discussed book that bears the title “All must have prizes” the journalist Melanie Phillips has powerfully argued

在讨论得最多的书，它的标题是“所有公司都必须有奖品：”记者梅拉妮菲利普斯的有力认为，

that the education system in this country was profoundly undermined by the idea that there ought to be no such thing as winners and losers.

在这个国家深刻地破坏了教育系统的想法，不应该有所谓的赢家和输家。

For if everyone is a winner and all must have prizes, then we profoundly undermine any sense of success or achievement.

如果每个人都是赢家，都必须有奖品，然后我们深深地破坏任何意义上的成功或成就。

A culture that rates anything and everything as success is a culture that has given up on the very idea of success.

给任何东西估价的文化，和一切都是成功的文化，后者放弃了关于成功的一个恰当的理念。

It is a system that makes as little sense as the Caucus race. But whilst I see all this, the funny thing is that, as a Dad,

这是一个系统，使得会议式赛跑的意义不大。不过，虽然我明白这一切，有趣的是，作为一个父亲，

I won’t love my daughter any different if she gets the grades she wants or if she doesn’t. Whatever the result, my love for her will remain the same.

我爱我的女儿不会有差别，不论她得到的任何分数，是她想要的还是不想要的。无论结果如何，我对她的爱将保持不变。

For love is not dependent upon success. And the same is true of Christianity. The prodigal son may have blown his inheritance on wine, women and song,

爱是不依赖于成功。同样是真正的基督教。浪子可以将他的祖产花在酒，女人与歌声上。

and his brother may have worked tirelessly on his father’s farm, but both receive the same share of the father’s love.

而他的兄弟可能不辞辛苦地在他父亲的农场，但都得到相同的父爱。

In another parable, some workers toil all day in the sun, and others do only half a day’s work, but all get the same pay.

在另一个比喻，一些工人在太阳下辛劳一天，而别人做的只有半天的工作，但都得到相同的报酬。

It seems totally unfair. Yet from the perspective of a loving father, which is, of course, the most familiar Christian metaphor for God,

这似乎很不公平。但从一个慈爱的父亲的角度来看，当然，最熟悉的基督教隐喻是上帝，

all are offered prizes. And that’s because love is not contingent. It doesn’t depend upon the behaviour of the person being loved.

所有人都得到了赏赐。那是因为爱，不是偶然。这不取决于行为而是爱。

Love is just there. It falls from the sky like rain, upon the just and the unjust. So does that mean that we can do exactly as we like?

爱就在那里。它从天空落下如雨，既落在公正面前和也落在不公正面前。这是否意味着，我们可以这样，只做我们喜欢的事吗？

Is everything permitted in a world without judgment? Well, not quite. For although divine love is indeed offered to all, love has also to be received.

是允许世界上的一切，都没有判决吗？好了，不完全是。虽然神圣的爱确实是给所有人的，爱也被接收到。

And to allow ourselves to be looked and fully seen by a person that genuinely loves us is one of the most searching forms of judgment that there can ever can be.

允许我们自己被人观察，了解我们真心爱上我们，是最有搜索形式的判断之一。

This is far more existentially penetrating. Not the judgment of distant examiners, divine or otherwise,

这是存在性的穿透。不是遥远的考官，神圣的或其他的判断，

but the judgment of facing a truth about ourselves that can only be recognized and spoken by those who love us most, come what may.”

但面临着，只能承认和所说的那些爱我们的人最了解自己的真相的判断，不管发生什么事。