3.阅读理解
About
five weeks ago, I noticed the skin of our pet lizard was growing dusty. It
worried me. I reported the strange surface on the skin of the lizard to my
husband and children the next morning. Seconds later, our lizard emerged from
its tank with its old skin flowing behind it.
I
didn't think about it much until a morning last week when I knocked my favorite
teapot off the table. It burst into hundreds of pieces. As I swept up the mess,
I wondered why we had been breaking so many things over the months.
The
destruction started three months ago. It was my husband's birthday. He had just
lost his job. The uncertainty was starting to wear on us, so I wanted to do
something special.
"Let's
make a cake for Dad" I cried.
My
kids screamed with joy. We baked, iced and sprinkled for most of the day.
Candles on the cake! Balloons on the walls! Flowers on the table!
Two
hours before my husband came back home from another job interview, my daughter
climbed up to grab a glass vase from a high shelf. It fell and crashed beside
the cake. Tiny pieces of glass were everywhere. She sobbed loudly as I threw
the cake away. My husband had banana pudding for his birthday.
Three
days ago, the light in our living room suddenly went out. After several
frustrating hours of unsuccessful attempts to fix it, my husband suggested
watching the Michael Jordan documentary series The Last Dance.
The
poignancy of Jordan retiring from his beloved basketball to play baseball and
what had pushed him to make such a tough decision took me by surprise. As I
watched him take off his basketball uniform and replace it with a baseball
uniform, I saw him leaving behind the layer that no longer served him,
just as our lizard had. Neither of them chose the moment that had transformed
them. But they had to live with who they were after everything was different.
Just like us. I realized that we have to learn to leave the past behind.
Humans
do not shed skin as easily as other animals. The beginning of change is
upsetting. The process is tiring. Damage changes us before we are ready. I see
our lizard, raw and nearly new.
Jordan
said that no matter how it ends, it starts with hope. With our tender, hopeful
skin, that is where we begin.