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和大家分享一篇Henry Allen 在 The New Yorker 的一篇文章。老房子之於老一輩的家人而言，是兒時的單純、青壯年時期的莽撞、和年老時期的哀默。老房子出售後，記憶的傳承將由另一個家庭接手，可他們的下一代、下下一代，將不會記得數十年前發生在這房子內的種種瑣碎。就算能守住家傳的老屋，誰又能保證一百年後的兒孫曾孫能仔細記得關於祖先與老屋的輝煌過往？
輝煌的只能是當下，時間久了就只能是歷史的蒼涼了。如同文末作者如是說：
「Now I am the oldest member of the family. I have lived my life in the exile of bohemia and journalism. After claiming some casualties, the family disease is finally in remission—I haven’t had a drink for more than twenty years. There are great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren with newfound energy and delight in life—from a law partner, a school principal, and a ski champion to a four-year-old in a tutu on Halloween. This chronicle may mean little to them; history stops at your grandparents. And when my sister and I die, along with a few cousins, there will be no one to remember our 407, no one to honor its tutelary deities, which is to say that there will be no 407 at all by our lights, just an old house in an exhausted city in New Jersey.」
DECEMBER 30, 2013
AT 407: MY GRANDFATHER’S HOUSE AND A LOST ERA
POSTED BY HENRY ALLEN
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/culture/2013/12/my-grandfathers-house-and-a-vanished-era.html
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